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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

May Over The Edge Writers' Gathering: Jean Folan, Dave Lordan, Fiona Smith, Kevin Doyle & Jo Hemmant

May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering

at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop

presents

readings by Fiona Smith & Kevin Doyle,

the LAUNCH of

Jean Folan’s debut poetry collection Between Time

plus The Galway Launches

of The Light Knows Tricks by Jo Hemmant

& The First Book Of Frags by Dave Lordan

The May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents readings by Fiona Smith and Kevin Doyle and the Galway launch of Between Time by Jean Folan, The Light Knows Tricks by Jo Hemmant & The First Book of Frags by Dave Lordan. The The event will take place at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Middle Street, Galway on Friday, May 17th, 6.30pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Fiona Smith is a freelance journalist and translator. She has published a wide range of journalistic work in both Irish and international publications. She currently writes on Irish topics for the German Press Agency dpa and translates from Scandinavian languages into English. She has published poetry in Southword and in the Hennessy New Irish Writing page in the Irish Independent. She won the poetry section of the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition in 2012 with the poem 'At Letterfrack'. She is currently working on a first collection.

Kevin Doyle is from Cork. His short stories have been published in Cork Literary Review, Stinging Fly, Southwords, Burning Bush, Cúirt Journal, Duality, Liblit and Sunday Tribune. His work has also been included in anthologies such as Irish Writers Against War (Dublin, 2003), Pulse Fiction (London, 1998) and Snapshots (London, 1999) as well as Cork millennium collection, An Gob Saor. He has been shortlisted for many prizes (including Over The Edge, 2010) and has won top placings in the Ian St James Short Story Award, Kilkenny Prize, Tipperary Short Story Weekend Prize and the Highlands and Islands Short Story Award. His work was described by the late Patrick Galvin as ‘terse and original’. He blogs regularly at on Irish and radical politics from an anarchist perspective (http://kfdoyle.wordpress.com).

Jean Folan was born in Galway in 1951. She lives in Inishcrone, Co Sligo and is enrolled on the MA in Writing in NUI Galway. Between Time is her first collection of poems and is published by Lapwing. Jean Folan was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing Prize 2007, and the Over the Edge Showcase 2008, and was a featured reader at Over the Edge 2007. She was the winner of the Impromptu Haiku, Culture Night 2010, Ballina Arts Centre, Co. Mayo and runner-up at Culture Night 2012, Kenny’s Bookshop, Galway.

Jo Hemmant was born in Manchester in 1967, and this was to be the first of many places she has lived, including Sicily, Holland and Hong Kong. She has always worked with words—after brief stints teaching English as a foreign language and writing PR puffs, she moved into journalism and editing. This experience in publishing prompted her to set up Pindrop, a boutique poetry press, in 2010, which has published twelve titles to date. She now lives in the Kent countryside with her husband and two sons and is involved in local poetry, acting as Secretary of The Kent and Sussex Poetry Society and running creative writing workshops. Her poems have been published in various magazines and anthologies, such as Magma, Iota, Dream Catcher, Jericho (Cinnamon Press, 2012) and nothing left to burn (Ragged Raven Press, 2011) and she has won prizes in several competitions, including first prize in The New Writer Poetry and Prose Competition 2011(collection category), second prize in the Torriano Poetry Competition in 2011 and runner-up in the Cardiff International Poetry Competition 2012. Her poetry collection, The Light Knows Tricks, is just published by Doire Press.

Dave Lordan is the first writer to win Ireland’s three national prizes for young poets. He is the current holder of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award and previous winner of both the Patrick Kavanagh and Strong Awards for poetry. He has won wide acclaim for his writing and is a renowned performer of his own work, with the Irish Times calling him ‘as brilliant on the page as he is in performance’. He has read his work by invitation at festivals and venues across Europe and North America. His collections are The Boy in The Ring (2007) & Invitation to a Sacrifice (2010), both published by Salmon Poetry. His poems are regularly broadcast on Irish national radio and he reviews for the flagship Arts show Arena, as well as many publications including Ireland’s leading literary magazine, The Stinging Fly, of which he was a guest editor for summer 2012. He teaches contemporary critical theory and poetic practice on the MA in poetry studies in Dublin City University and he teaches creative writing at primary, secondary, third, and adult education levels. Dave’s debut collection of short stories First Books of Frags is just published by Wurm Press.

There is no entrance fee.

For further information contact 087-6431748.

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

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading: Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunniffe & Eimear Ryan PLUS Hugo Kelly Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize Winner


Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading:Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunniffe, Eimear Ryan PLUS Hugo Kelly Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize Winner

Dearbhaile Houston

Damian Cunniffe

Eimear Ryan

Caolinn Hughes
Hugo Kelly 
  
2013 Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading

Thursday, April 25th, 4:30pm

Town Hall Theatre

All welcome

There is no cover charge

The 2013 Cúirt Over The Edge showcase reading takes place as part of this year's Cúirt International Festival of Literature at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway on Thursday, April 25th, 4:30pm. The writers showcased this year are Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunniffe & Eimear Ryan. The reading will be introduced by regular Over The Edge host, Susan Millar DuMars.

This event has grown since its inception in 2006 to become one of Ireland's premier platforms for showcasing new poets and fiction writers. Participating writers have previously been Featured Readers at Ireland's most successful reading series, the Over The Edge: Open Readings in Galway City Library. Hugo Kelly, the winner in the fiction section of the Cúirt New Writing Prize will read with the Over The Edge writers. We also congratulate Caoilinn Hughes, the winner in the poetry section, who is now living in New Zealand and will be unable to make it to read at Cúirt. The Cúirt New Writing Prize is kindly sponsored by Tigh Neactain in memory of Lena Maguire. http://www.cuirt.ie/Site-Content/cuirt-new-writing-prize-submissions-2013.html

Dearbhaile Houston grew up in Co. Galway. She is in her second year of New Media and English at the University of Limerick, learning the art of procrastination and strong coffee. She began attending Creative Writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars in Spring 2011 and won the Seán Uí Riordáin prize for poetry in the Oireachtas na Gaeilge Literary Competition 2011. Dearbhaile was a Featured Reader at the January 2012 Over The Edge: Open Reading. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2011/12/over-edge-celebrates-ninth-birthday.html

Damian Cunniffe is from Abbeyknockmoy in North County Galway. In 2011 he was longlisted for the Fish Publishing International Short Story Prize, the Ink Tears Prize and was joint winner of the Lonely Voices Short Story Introductions competition run by the Irish Writers Centre. He was runner-up in the fiction section of the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer Of The Year competition. His work has been published in Crannóg and the Cúirt Journal. He is currently working on a play and a collection of short stories. Damian was a Featured Reader at the January 2012 Over The Edge: Open Reading. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2011/12/over-edge-celebrates-ninth-birthday.html

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. Eimear was the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year and was a Featured Reader at the May 2012 Over The Edge: Open Reading. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2012/05/new-writer-of-year-eimear-ryan-for-may.html
 
Caoilinn Hughes is a Galway-born poet and novelist, currently completing a Ph.D. in Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies in Ireland, the U.K. and New Zealand, including: Poetry Ireland, PN Review, The Irish Times, Southword, The Yellow Nib, New Zealand Books, NZ Listener, Landfall, The Cuirt Annual and elsewhere. Her first collection of poetry, Gathering Evidence, won the 2012 Patrick Kavanagh Award and will be published by Carcanet Press in 2014. Caolinn was a Featured Reader at the first ever Open Reading in Galway City Library in January 2003.

Hugo Kelly has won many writing awards for his short fiction including the Brian Moore Short Story Competition and the Start Chapbook Award amongst others. He has twice being shortlisted for the Hennessy Award in Emerging Fiction and the Fish International Short Story Competition. His work has appeared in various publications including the Sunday Tribune, Verbal Magazine, the Stinging Fly and the Cúirt Annual. BBC Radio 4 and RTE Radio 1 have broadcast his short stories and in 2007 he was shortlisted for the Francis MacManus Award. He also writes for younger readers and won the inaugural Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Award in the UK. Hugo works as a librarian in NUI Galway. He was a Featured Reader at the September 2005 Over The Edge: Open Reading.
 
Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing support of Galway City Library, Galway City Council, The Arts Council and The Cúírt Festival of International Literature.

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

DAYTIME CREATIVE WRITING AT GALWAY ARTS CENTRE WITH SUSAN MILLAR DUMARS STARTING IN MAY


In May, 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 three collections of poetry, Big Pink Umbrella (2008), Dreams For Breakfast and, most recently, The God Thing (March 2013), all with Salmon Poetry. 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, May 13th and runs for eight weeks.

The cost to participants is 90 Euro with a 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