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Thursday, August 30, 2012

CULTURE NIGHT @ Kenny's, Liosbán Retail Park with Over The Edge


CULTURE NIGHT
Over The Edge Open-Mic
@ Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd,
Liosbán Retail Park, Tuam Rd
FRIDAY, SEPT. 21st
From 6pm onwards

PRIZES Book vouchers
(one €100 & two €50)
for the best readers

PLUS
THE LAUNCH of
a new poetry collection by Máire Holmes

Skylight Poets @ Clifden Arts Week: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st, 2pm

CLIFDEN ARTS WEEK READING BY THE SKYLIGHT POETS
probably the best poetry workshop in the West
Date: Friday, September 21, 2012 2:00 pm

Venue: Clifden Library, Market Street, Clifden, Co Galway, Ireland
For details phone:095 21092

The Skylight Poets are a group of poets who meet with poet and facilitator 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 Street, the attic with skylight windows, hence the name of the group. Participants in the workshop have won a variety of prizes for their work, including the Hennessy Award for Emerging Poetry, The Cúirt New Writing Prize & The Cúirt Poetry Grand Slam. Several have published poetry collections with publishers such as Salmon, Doire Press and Lapwing.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Autumn Creative Writing Classes (Beginners & Intermediate) at Galway Technical Institute


Creative Writing for Beginners with Kevin Higgins takes place one evening per week (Monday) from 7-9pm. (10 weeks) It commences on Monday, September 24th, 2012. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €120. Kevin Higgins will provide writing exercises for, and give gentle critical feedback to, those interested in trying their hand at writing poems, stories or memoir.


Kevin Higgins

Intermediate Creative Writing with Susan Millar DuMars takes place one evening per week (Tuesday) from 7-9pm (10 weeks) It commences on Tuesday, September 25th, 2012. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €120. This class is suitable for those who’ve participated in creative writing classes before or begun to have work published in magazines. Flexible exercises and work-shopping of assignments, together with the study of the works of published writers, will help each class member to find their own writing voice.


Susan Millar DuMars

To book a place in either class contact GTI, Father Griffin Road, Galway Telephone 091-581342, e-mail adultedinfo@cgvec.ie, see http://www.gti.ie  or call to G.T.I. on Monday, September 17th, 6.30-8.30pm when you can pay using credit/debit card or by Postal Order made payable to ‘City of Galway VEC’. 

This Autumn GMIT presents Creative Writing for Beginners with Susan Millar DuMars TAKING BOOKINGS NOW

This Autumn GMIT is offering a course in Creative Writing for Beginners with Susan Millar DuMars. The course takes place at GMIT Dublin Road Campus one evening per week (Wednesday) for 7 weeks from 7–9p.m. It commences on Wednesday, September 26th, 2012. Advance booking is essential. Taking bookings now. The course fee is €95.

During the seven weeks Susan Millar DuMars will give support, instruction and feedback to students who are interested in writing either fiction (short stories, novels) or poetry. The class will work on techniques for forming ideas and getting started; engaging the reader’s senses; using figures of speech effectively; being alert to the importance of the sound of words, the rhythm of writing; how to manage the truth in a fictitious piece; the different forms of poetry; awareness of character and point of view in fiction; editing and polishing work. Whether the student seeks publication, self-expression, a rewarding hobby (or possibly all three), this course is a wonderful place to start.

For further details or to book a place contact GMIT, Dublin Road, Galway. Telephone 091 742145, email lifelonglearning@gmit.ie  or see http://www.gmit.ie/lifelong-learning/lifelong-learning-programmes/humanities/creative-writing-for-beginners.html 

Course Tutor:
Susan Millar DuMars’ debut poetry collection, Big Pink Umbrella, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2008. Her next collection, Dreams for Breakfast, appeared in April 2010. Her work features in Landing Places, Dedalus’ 2010 anthology of immigrant poetry written in Ireland; and also in The Best Of Irish Poetry 2010. A fiction writer as well, she published a collection of short stories, American Girls, with Lapwing in 2007. She published a book of short stories in 2010: Lights in the Distance, published by Doire Press. She has been the recipient of an Arts Council Literature Bursary. Her next collection of poetry, The God Thing, will be published by Salmon Poetry in early 2013. She lives in Galway, where she and her husband have run the Over the Edge readings series since 2003.

Daytime Creative Writing with Susan Millar DuMars at Galway Arts Centre THIS SEPTEMBER

This September, Galway Arts Centre presents a daytime class for all those beginner and continuing creative writing students out there, facilitated by Susan Millar DuMars. Susan Millar DuMars writes both poetry and fiction. A collection of her stories, Lights In The Distance, was published in December 2010 by Doire Press; she has published two collection of poetry, Big Pink Umbrella (2008) and Dreams For Breakfast both with Salmon Poetry. Her next collection of poetry, The God Thing, will be published by Salmon Poetry in early 2013. She is also co-organiser of the Over The Edge reading series which specifically promotes new writers.

The class is suitable for both beginning and continuing creative writing students, working in either poetry or fiction. Students will spend their week responding to writing exercises designed to inspire, rather than inhibit. In class, they will receive gentle feedback on their work from their classmates and from the teacher. The class takes place on Monday afternoons, 2-3.30pm, commencing on Monday, September 24th.

The cost to participants is 110 Euro with a 100 Euro concession price. Booking is essential as places are limited. For booking please contact Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, phone 091 565886 or email info@galwayartscentre.ie

SEPTEMBER Writers At Work: A Course With Susan Millar DuMars at Galway Arts Centre

 Have you got pages in a drawer you’ve been wanting to show someone?
 This course is for writers who are at work on a project. 
This could be a novel, short story, collection of stories, sequence of poems,
 or even a play or film script.

Participants’ only homework each week will be to read two fifteen page extracts from other students’ manuscripts and be prepared for a 20-30 minute discussion on same. Providing generous and specific feedback on others’ work helps us to be inspired risk takers in our own writing. Each participant will experience at least one such session of feedback on their own work. An in-class writing exercise at the start of each class will serve to further shake off mental cobwebs, and perhaps lead us into new writing.
This is an ideal course for the hardworking but isolated writer.

The course is takes place on Tuesdays (2-4pm) starting on Tuesday SEPTEMBER 25th and runs for ten weeks. Places must be booked in advance. The cost to participants is €120 with a concession rate. To register contact Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, Galway. Telephone 091-565886. Email: info@galwayartscentre.ie


Facilitator Susan Millar DuMars’ debut poetry collection, Big Pink Umbrella, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2008. Her next collection, Dreams for Breakfast, appeared in 2010. Her work features in Landing Places, Dedalus’ 2010 anthology of immigrant poetry written in Ireland; and also in The Best Of Irish Poetry 2010. A fiction writer as well, she published a collection of short stories, Lights In The Distance, with Doire Press in 2010. She has been the recipient of an Arts Council Literature Bursary for her stories. Susan teaches creative writing to adults and to groups with special needs. She lives in Galway, where she and her husband have run the Over the Edge readings series since 2003. Susan is currently at work on her third poetry collection, The God Thing, to be published early next year by Salmon.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Salmon Poetry: Thomas Lynch & Michael Heffernan GALWAY LAUNCH

Salmon Poetry invites you
to the launch
of
Thomas Lynch's
The Sin-eater
Thomas Lynch
 &
Michael Heffernan's
The Breaking of the Day

Michael Heffernan

this Saturday, September 8th,

at Charlie Byrne's, Middle Street, Galway 6.30pm.

ALL WELCOME

Seamus Scanlon launches 'As Close As You'll Ever Be'

Seamus Scanlon
Seamus Scanlon's short story collection As Close As You’ll Ever Be, published by Cairn Press, is launched at the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City this evening September 6th at 6pm.

Seamus is originally from Galway City and was the 2010 Over The Edge New Writer Of The Year. We offer Seamus our heartfelt congratulations.

You can buy the book here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0985319712/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me&seller

ABOUT THE BOOK: “Blood and memory reign in a collection of stories concerning the social and political aspects of an Irish killer from the 1970s to the present. Rooted in Ireland's history of internal violence, an inescapable brutality that drags like a shadow for natives and exiles alike, the 'war of Ireland' ensues in Seamus Scanlon's short story collection, As Close As You'll Ever Be. From Dublin to New York, Scanlon's stories cover the vicious exploits of boy soldiers and IRA initiations, a son returning home to help his mother, a man mourning the boyhood loss of a cousin, or a childhood memory of first flight and escape. Operating under different circumstances of violence and crime, the characters are propelled in a ruthless conflagration between the binds of heritage and the burden of remembrance. As Close As You'll Ever Be simultaneously evokes the desolation of crime and memory, with the rapid plot and dark humor of hardboiled noir, while remaining aloft and literary in nature. Readers will cringe when a character laughs, laugh when a character shivers in the darkness, all while taken away by Seamus Scanlon's poetic narrative style.”

Friday, August 24, 2012

2012 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year LONG-LIST ANNOUNCED

There were a record 457 entries for this year's Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition: 199 poetry entries and 258 in the fiction category.

The Long-list is as follows:

John Chambers, Dublin

Jean Tuomey, Mayo

Sandra Harris, Dublin

Stephanie Brennan, Galway

Orla McGuinness, Clare

Ron Carey, Dublin

Marie Altzinger, Dublin

Alyn Fenn, Cork

Evan Costigan, Kildare

Ciarán O’Rourke, Dublin

Christopher Meehan, Galway

J. Roycroft, Dublin

Patrick Hewitt

Kevin Murtagh, Kildare

Marie Dolores, Galway

James O’Toole, Galway

Phil McNulty, Southport, Merseyside

Breege Wardein, Galway

Alma Brayden , Dublin
 
Marie Cadden, Galway

Diarmuid de Faoite, Galway

Fiona Smith, Cork

Rachel Coventry, Galway

Angela Carr, Dublin

Lisa Allen, Galway

Tom Lavelle, Galway

Claire M. Kennedy - Galway

Sighle Meehan , Galway

Liam Duffy, Galway

Liz Quirke, Galway

Erin Fornoff, Dublin

Martin Casey , Mayo

Bernadette Ashe, Galway

Eoin Barton, Galway

Maresa Sheehan, Carlow

Paula Cunningham , Belfast

Barrett Warner, Maryland, USA

Alice Walsh, Dublin

Valerie Sirr, Dublin

Lesley Cassidy, Galway

Colm Reynor, Dublin

Chris Connolly, Dublin

Kiefer Ramberg, Galway

David Meth, Cork

Dearbhaile Houston, Galway

Clodagh O’Brien, Mayo

Fiona Scoble, Galway

Stephanie Flaherty-Klapp, Dublin

Rejini Samuel, Galway

Michael Casey, Dublin

Aidan Hynes, Dublin

Yvonne McEvaddy, Galway

Laura McKenna, Cork

Christopher Rippingale, Mayo

Mary Angland, Cork

Chris Walker, Cork

John Clisham-Sharry, Galway

Simon Fay, Kildare

Micheál Ó’Síocháin, Cork

Marcella O’Connor, Kerry

Margaret Cahill, Limerick

Alex Hijmans, Brazil

Lisa Sedgwick, Galway

Kevin Hora, Roscommon

Alison Wells, Wicklow

Richard Gibney, Dublin

Rich O’Chet, Kilkenny

Alan M. Shine, Galway

Jennifer Davidson, Dublin

Pat McDonnell, Galway

Valerie Ryan, Kildare

Steve Wade, Dublin,

Marie MacSweeney, Louth

David O’Dwyer, Dublin

Sean Kenny, Dublin

Eileen Keane, Kildare

Sheila Armstrong, Sligo

Kathleen Murray, Dublin

Niecy O’Keeffe, Cork

Ruth Quinlan, Galway

Nollaig Rowan, Dublin

Louise Hegarty, Cork

Brian Leeson, Belfast

Gerard O’Brien, Galway

Barbara Leahy, Cork
 Over The Edge would like to thank our competition sponsors:
Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop,
ISupply Quay Street,
Ward’s Hotel,
Senator Lorraine Higgins,
Derek Nolan T.D.,
Trevor Sherlock
& The Creole Restaurant, Dominick Street

 THE SHORTLIST WILL BE ANNOUNCED
@ the August Over The Edge: Open Reading
in Galway City Library,
next Thursday (August 30th) 6.30-8pm

Thursday, August 09, 2012

North Beach Poetry Nights hosts The Connacht Heat of the All-Ireland Poetry Slam

North Beach Poetry Nights hosts

The Connacht Heat of the All-Ireland Poetry Slam

on Monday 10th September in The Crane Bar, Sea Road, Galway

at 6.30 pm 6.30 pm 6.30 pm 6.30 pm 6.30 pm 6.30 pm 6.30 pm

Poets wishing to enter the Slam on the night need 2 max. three minutes poems,
both performed without a script.

So get memorizing now.

There are slots for 16 performers, so get your name in now by email (johnmawalsh@gmail.com) if you want to participate.

Remember: you must be from or resident in Connacht.

The All-Ireland Slam will be at O'Bheal in Cork on Friday 30 November.

Door: 5/3 Euro

Info: john @091/593290

Abandoned Darlings fundraiser reading

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Over The Edge says Free Pussy Riot

Over The Edge has always taken a strong stand in favour of artistic freedom. It is not about the point of view being expressed, but about the right of the artist to express it, which in our view is an absolute right.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT re: 2012 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year competition


The longlist for the 2012 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year competition will be announced at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop on Friday, August 24th at 6.30pm.

On the evening there will be a short poetry reading by Nicola Griffin and John Corless.


Nicola Griffin was the winner in the poetry section of our 2010 competition. Nicola's debut collection of poems will be published next year by Salmon Poetry.


The longlist will be posted here on the Over The Edge website later that same evening.

This year's competition has been a huge success, attracting a record 454 entries. This is a more than 20% increase on last year.

Over The Edge would like to thank our sponsors for this year's New Writer of The Year competion:

Major Sponsor: Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop,

other sponsors:
Derek Nolan T.D.

Senator Lorraine Higgins

Ward's Hotel, Salthill

ISupply, Quay Street,

The Creole Restaurant, Dominick Street

& Trevor Sherlock

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

August 'Over The Edge: Open Reading' with Leeanne Quinn, Pat Finnegan & Adedotun Adekeye


Leeanne Quinn

The first ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ after the summer break takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 30th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Leeanne Quinn, Pat Finnegan & Adedotun Adekeye. The reading is sponsored by Poetry Ireland. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. The evening will also see the announcement of the short list for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, which received a record number of entries.

Adedotun Adekeye is a Nigerian who has been living in Galway for over four years with his family. He is a polyglot and a trained translator. He is currently working on two books: one of collection of poetry, the other a prose work. He has participated in poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre with Kevin Higgins and has also taken the ‘Writers-at-Work’ course, facilitated by Susan Millar DuMars. This is his first major reading of his work.

Pat Finnegan is Professor Emeritus, NUI Galway, and a retired Consultant Physician. His book The case of the Craughwell Prisoners during the Land War in Co. Galway, 1879–85 tells the story of how, at the height of the Land War in 1881, a dispute over land led to the shooting dead of a young man called Peter Doherty near Craughwell, County Galway and resulted in the conviction of two innocent men, Patrick Finnegan (the author’s grandfather) and Michael Muldowney. This beautifully written book features a forensic analysis of the trials that resulted in such a grave miscarriage of justice.

Leeanne Quinn was born in Drogheda in 1978. She studied at University College Dublin, University College Cork, and has a PhD in English Literature from Trinity College Dublin. In 2008 she was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series. In 2010 she was the recipient of an Arts Council Bursary Award. Her poems have been published in a variety of journals and magazines including The Irish Times, The SHOp, Crannóg and The Stinging Fly, and anthologised in The Bee-Loud Glade: a living anthology of Irish Poetry (Dedalus, 2011) and Airborne: Poetry from Ireland (Dedalus, 2012). Before You, her debut collection of poetry, was published by Dedalus Press in February 2012. She lives in Dublin.

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 Kevin Higgins. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of Galway City Council & The Arts Council. We also warmly acknowledge Poetry Ireland’s sponsorship of this reading.