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Thursday, May 31, 2012

Clare Daly T.D. to launch 'Mentioning The War' by Kevin Higgins at the Irish Writers' Centre

Clare Daly T.D.

YOU ARE INVITED
to
The Dublin Launch
of
Mentioning the War - Essays and Reviews
(1999 -2011)
by Kevin Higgins
published by Salmon Publishing
The book will be launched by Clare Daly T.D.
@ the Irish Writers’ Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1
on Wednesday, June 6th
LAUNCH STARTS: 7pm
ALL WELCOME


CLARE DALY is a Socialist Party & United Left Alliance TD for Dublin North. Formerly a Councillor for the Swords Local Electoral Area, Clare was first elected to Fingal County Council in 1999, and was subsequently re-elected in 2004 and 2009 decisively topping the poll each time before being elected to the Dáil in February 2011. Clare is to the forefront of the campaign against the Household Tax. In conjunction with Deputies Mick Wallace and Joan Collins she has recently brought before the Dáil the Medical Treatment (Termination Of Pregnancy In Case Of Risk To Life Of Pregnant Woman) Bill 2012 in order to provide a legislative basis for the legal termination of a pregnancy in the very limited circumstances where such treatment is deemed necessary to prevent a woman’s death, including the threat of suicide. This was the outcome of the Supreme Court judement in Attorney General v. X in 1992.


Best known for his dark, satirical poems; KEVIN HIGGINS published his first book review in The Galway Advertiser in June 1999. Reading Mentioning the War, it becomes obvious that Higgins is not like other critics. An enthusiastic advocate for the work of the new generation of poets who have emerged from Ireland’s thriving live poetry scene; he is also a merciless opponent of hypocrisy and pretentiousness wherever he finds it. His writing is overtly political in a way that draws comparison with George Orwell – the subject of two extended essays here. It would be impossible to agree with everything in this book; it is a book which often disagrees with itself. But on subjects as diverse as socialist poetry and neoconservatism, funding for the arts and the anti-war movement, Higgins informs, infuriates and entertains, as any good critic should.

“The importance of Higgins, in particular, in spearheading a whole new poetry reading/performance movement in Ireland over the last decade cannot be overstated…he is important not just to readers who might agree with his political or ideological critiques but also to practitioners and students of poetry itself regardless of their ideological inclinations.” Philip Coleman

“There’s an arresting phrase, a new angle on a writer or a political position you thought you already knew about, in just about every piece here…The insights range from the literary to the existential to the seriously amusing…one of the things Mentioning the War offers, almost incidentally, is an insider’s account of how to learn to write.” John Goodby

KEVIN HIGGINS facilitates poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre; teaches creative writing at Galway Technical Institute and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words programme. He is also Writer-in-Residence at Merlin Park Hospital and the poetry critic of the Galway Advertiser. He was a founding co-editor of The Burning Bush literary magazine. His first collection of poems The Boy With No Face was published by Salmon in February 2005 and was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award. His second collection, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published in March 2008 by Salmon. One of the poems from Time Gentlemen, Please, ‘My Militant Tendency’, featured in the Forward Book of Poetry 2009. His work also features in the anthology Identity Parade – New British and Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010). Frightening New Furniture is his third collection of poems and was published in 2010 by Salmon Poetry. Kevin has read his work at most of the major literary festivals in Ireland and at Arts Council and Culture Ireland supported poetry events in Kansas City, USA (2006), Los Angeles, USA (2007), London, UK (2007), New York, USA (2008), Athens, Greece (2008); St. Louis, USA (2008), Chicago, USA (2009), Denver, USA (2010), Washington D.C (2011), Huntington, West Virginia, USA (2011), Geelong, Australia (2011) & Canberra, Australia (2011). As part of his Culture Ireland supported trip to Chicago in February 2009 he participated in and took first place in a specially arranged poetry slam at the Chicago’s Green Mill Bar and Lounge, the birthplace of slam poetry. Kevin’s fourth collection of poetry, The Ghost In The Lobby, will be published by Salmon Poetry in 2013. Kevin is co-organiser of Over The Edge literary events.

For further information about the Dublin launch
Tel: +353 1 8721302

Sunday, May 27, 2012

North Beach Poetry Nights with Afric McGlinchey & Paul Casey

Afric McGlinchey

North Beach Poetry Nights with Salmon poets Afric McGlinchey and Paul Casey. Monday 18th June in The Crane Bar, Sea Road, Galway at the very
NEW TIME NEW TIME NEW TIME NEW TIME
6.30 pm 6.30 pm 6.30 pm 6.30 pm 6.30 pm 6.30 pm 6.30 pm

Afric McGlinchey’s début collection is The Lucky Star of Hidden Things, published by Salmon Poetry in May 2012. Afric was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has been commended in several poetry prizes, including the Magma poetry award (2012) and the Dromineer poetry award (2011). She won the Hennessy Emerging Poetry Award in 2011. Afric lives in West Cork.

Cork poet Paul Casey has lived over thirty years abroad, working in multimedia, teaching and film. He taught screenwriting at the Nelson Mandela University, and convened the greater Port Elizabeth Poetry Competition in three languages. His poems are published widely in journals and anthologies. His chapbook It’s Not all Bad (Heaventree) was published in 2009.  In October 2010 his poetry-film The Lammas Hireling, after the poem by Ian Duhig, premiered in Berlin. His debut collection Home More or Less was published by Salmon Poetry in May 2012. He is the founder and organiser of the Ó Bhéal reading series in Cork city.

Poets wishing to enter the Slam on the night need 2 max. three minutes poems.

The prize for the winner is a bottle of wine and entry to the North Beach Grand Slam in December.


Door: 5/3 Euro

Info: 091/593290

North Beach Poetry Nights is happy to acknowledge the continuing support of
Galway City Council.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Launch of 'What's Not Said', short-story collection by James Martyn Joyce

 You are invited to a showcase reading by

James Martyn Joyce
WHAT’S NOT SAID

Colette Nic Aodha
IN CASTLEWOOD : AN GHAOTH ADUAIDH

Eileen Casey
SNOW SHOES

IMAGE ABOVE: ‘Wearing Memoirs’ by Dagmar Drabent (http://www.dagmardrabent.com/)

Saturday 9 June @ 3 pm

 bar EIGHT and restaurant,
Dock Road,
Galway

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

New Writer of The Year Eimear Ryan for May Over The Edge: Open Reading

Eimear Ryan is 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 
and also the winner of a Hennessy Award in 2009 for her fiction



The May ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 31st, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Eimear Ryan, Adam White & Bernie Ashe. Eimear Ryan was the over-all winner of the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year and this reading is part of her prize. This is the final Over The Edge: Open Reading before the summer break.

Bernie Ashe was born in Galway city and, apart from some years in the UK and America, has lived her life there. She took a couple of creative writing classes with Celeste Augé and Susan Millar DuMars some years ago, but it wasn’t until she attended poetry classes with Kevin Higgins over the past couple of years that her interest in writing poetry arose. Since then she has contributed to Open Mic readings at Over The Edge readings in Galway City Library and was short-listed in the Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition in 2011. Her poetry draws on themes of relationships and nature.

Adam White is from Youghal in east Cork. He began reading and writing poetry in earnest three years ago, having taken part in the North Beach Nights poetry slam in Galway. Teaching English at present, he has worked in a variety of jobs at home and abroad, including six years as a carpenter/joiner. It is mainly the experiences and love of doing a job well that inspire his poems. He was among the prize winners at the 2011 Cúirt Festival Poetry Grand Slam and has read his poems at The Electric Picnic.  Adam’s debut collection of poems is forthcoming from Doire Press.

Eimear Ryan’s fiction has appeared in The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, New Irish Writing, Necessary Fiction and Horizon Review. She was the winner of the Sean Dunne Young Writers' Award 2011 and the Hennessy Award for First Fiction 2009. She is currently studying creative writing at Trinity College and is writing a novel. She is the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year.

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of Galway City Council & The Arts Council.

Congratulations to Cristina Galvin: winner of the Powers Short Story Competition

Cristina Galvin is the winner of the €10,000 prize for first place in the Powers Short Story Competition. For more and to hear Cristina reading her winning story, Aprés-Match, see here http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2012/0526/1224316639540.html

Cristina was a Featured Reader at the May 2009 Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library and was also chosen to read at the 2010 Cúirt Festival / Over The Edge Showcase reading.
She is a graduate of the MA in Writing at NUI Galway, having previously taken creative writing classes at Galway Technical Institute with Susan Millar DuMars.

CRISTINA WILL BE READING HER WINNING STORY, APRÉS-MATCH, AT THE OPEN-MIC AT THE MAY OVER THE EDGE: OPEN READING IN GALWAY CITY LIBRARY THIS THURSDAY, MAY 31ST (6.30-8pm). 

Sunday, May 06, 2012

Esther Murbach & Kevin Higgins read and take questions at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop

Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop invite you to join them on Friday the 1st of June at 6pm for an evening with Esther Murbach and Kevin Higgins. Esther & Kevin will read from their recently published books The Turtle Woman and Mentioning The War: Essays & Reviews (1999-2011). After the reading they will take questions from members of the audience.

After a long career as a journalist and translator, Esther Murbach decided to do what she had always wanted, to become a novelist. Since 2009 she has published three books in German. The Turtle Woman is her first book written in English.

ABOUT The Turtle Woman: Emily is a Swiss woman with a unique disfigurement: a shell covers her body. Successful as a writer but privately resigned to a life without love, she undertakes a trip to Ireland to explore her partly Irish roots. This proves to be a turning point in her life. She discovers a spiritual bond with the Emerald Isle and meets a man who is her counterpart. Niall, an Irish patriot, guesses what her condition is and where it comes from, because he had once experienced it himself. He offers her his understanding and help. They open up to each other, disclosing their dark secrets. In a difficult and painful process Emily overcomes her physical and emotional boundaries with Niall's assistance. Together they start on an emotional and spiritual journey as soul mates. Niall takes Emily to the Aran Island of Inishmore, where she meets her Irish grandmother for the first time. A few obstacles have to be overcome before Emily and Niall finally understand where their happiness lies.

Best known for his dark, satirical poems, Kevin Higgins published his first book review in The Galway Advertiser in June 1999. Reading Mentioning the War, it becomes obvious that Higgins is not like other critics. An enthusiastic advocate for the work of the new generation of poets who have emerged from Ireland’s thriving live poetry scene; he is also a merciless opponent of hypocrisy and pretentiousness wherever he finds it. His writing is overtly political in a way that draws comparison with George Orwell – the subject of two extended essays here. It would be impossible to agree with everything in this book; it is a book which often disagrees with itself. But on subjects as diverse as socialist poetry and neoconservatism, funding for the arts and the anti-war movement, Higgins informs, infuriates and entertains, as any good critic should. http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=255&a=108

Saturday, May 05, 2012

NEW GALWAY POETRY MAGAZINE SEEKS SUBMISSIONS

Skylight Poets are a group of poets who meet with poet and facilitatior Kevin Higgins to workshop their writing in Galway Arts Centre on Thursday afternoons. The room they use is at the top of no. 47 Dominick St., the attic with skylight windows, hence the name of the group.

Skylight Poets are seeking submissions for a new poetry magazine to be launched on January 24 2013 at the 10th Anniversary Over The Edge: Open Reading at Galway City Library.  Please send no more than six poems, along with a short biographical note to skylightpoets47@gmail.com

Poems are to be sent as an attachment (.doc, .docx, .txt or .rft) AND in the body of the email. Work should be unpublished. Closing date for submissions is September 1st 2012.

The editors would also be interested to receive ideas for reviews, particularly of recent debut poetry collections. Contributors will recieve one copy of the magazine, plus an invitation at a special Over the Edge reading in Galway City.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

NEWS FLASH! from North Beach Poetry Nights

MONDAY, MAY 21ST at 6.30pm in the Crane Bar, Sea Road, Galway - North Beach Poetry Nights with music from MY FELLOW SPONGES and TWO Galway shortlisted authors for the Powers Short Story Competition CRISTINA GALVIN and JIM MULLARKEY there to read their 500 word stories. Now where would you get an evening like that? And the SLAM! If you miss it, you have only yourself to blame.