2013 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year THE WINNERS

Winner in the poetry category: 

Breda Wall Ryan of Wicklow for her poem ‘Inheritors’

Runner – Up in the poetry category: Anita Ouellette, Massachusetts, USA for her poem 'Almost Afraid To Talk To God While Others Are Listening'

Third Place— Christopher Meehan, Co. Galway for his poems 'The Ever Changing Definition of Youth in Revolt'  & ‘Bannagher’

Commended in the poetry category:

Alvy Carragher, Galway for 'Broken Symmetry' and other poems

Erin Fornoff, Dublin for 'On Planes' & other poems

Marie Cadden, Co. Galway for 'Up To Scratch'

Jennifer Matthews, Cork for 'Planning Permission'

Winner in the fiction category:  

Anna McCarthy, New York for her story 'An Inventory of Slights'

Runner – Up in the fiction category: Aidan Hynes, Dublin for his story 'Hair'

Third Place: Fiona Scoble, Galway for her story 'What have you brought for us?'

Commended in the fiction category:

Micheál Ó’Síocháin, Cork for his story 'The Last Days of The Pavilion'

Rupert Jenkins, Scotland for his story 'Tender To The Shore'

Brian Kirk, Dublin for his story 'The Creaseless Society'

Ekaterina Tikhoniouk, Laois for her story 'Katie'

The overall winner 

& 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year

is Breda Wall Ryan for her poem ‘Inheritors' 

The shortlist can be viewed here &the longlist here.

We would like to thank our judge Sarah Clancy and our sponsors: Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, ISupply Flood Street, Ward’s Hotel Lower Salthill, Derek Nolan T.D. & Kenny’s Bookshop & Gallery.

LUX AETERNA St Nicholas Singers in concert with poetry from Susan Millar DuMars & Kevin Higgins, 17th November at 5pm

A Requiem for modern times

In its first outing in November 2012, St Nicholas Singers performed one of the great nineteenth century Requiem settings, that of Gabriel Faure; this year it gives Galway audiences the chance to hear a thoroughly modern take on this ancient form.

Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna was written in 1997 and is a work of 25 minutes’ duration in five movements, setting various Latin liturgical texts, some of them from the Requiem Mass and all of them suffused with the notion of light. The composer himself says “I composed Lux Aeterna in response to my Mother’s final illness and found great personal comfort and solace in setting to music these timeless and wondrous words about Light, a universal symbol of illumination at all levels—spiritual, artistic, and intellectual.”

This is a poignant, quietly serene Requiem for modern times. There is no gloom or grim foreboding, no Day of Judgement lurking, but rather a generous radiance captured in the lush harmonies and haunting melodies.  It is a work that is as uplifting for listeners as it is to sing, and in the glorious acoustic of Galway’s medieval collegiate church promises to be a very special experience.

Interspersed with the movements of the Lauridsen work will be readings from acclaimed Galway-based poets Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars. Susan will read excerpts from her recent publication The God Thing, in which she writes with compassion and clarity about the terminal illness and death of a family member and her own resulting struggle to keep faith and love alive within herself.

St Nicholas Singers is an all-comers group of 40-60 voices which prepares its performances over two weekends of intensive rehearsals. It is open to all regardless of age or experience, and new members are always welcome.

The choir is conducted by Mark Duley and accompanied by organist Ronan De Burca.

The concert takes place in St Nicholas Collegiate Church on Sunday 17th November at 5:00pm.  Tickets are 10 Euro (with concessions) and are available at the door.

Further information available from info@scholacantorumgalway.ie

Padraic McCormack, Audrey Dinneen & Niamh Boyce for November Over The Edge: Open Reading

Niamh Boyce 

The November ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, November 21^st, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Niamh Boyce, Audrey Dinneen & Padraic McCormack. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. 

Audrey Dinneen’s initial foray into the world of creative writing was through a Diploma in Childrens’ Literature while resident in the USA. She continued to attend creative writing classes in England and does so now in Galway. She is an avid reader and a member of two book clubs. She was thrilled to be invited by Susan Millar DuMars to participate in her first public reading at Over the Edge.

Padraic McCormack is a retired politician having represented Galway West from 1989 - 2011. He was twice chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party and a former Mayor of Galway City. He has recently published his memoir The Rocky Road To The Dáil - politics from the inside. Since he retired from the Dáil, Padraic has taken part in creative writing classes at both GMIT and Galway Technical Institute. He is planning to publish a book of short stories, some of which he will read at Over The Edge. 

From Athy, Co Kildare, Niamh Boyce's debut novel The Herbalist was published by Penguin in June 2013. She won the Hennessy XO New Irish Writer of the Year in 2012 for her poem 'Kitty'. Her short fiction has been nominated for The Francis Mac Manus Competition, The Molly Keane Creative Writing Award and the 2009 New Irish Writing Award. Her work can be found in magazines such as The Moth, The Stony Thursday Book, Crannóg, Boyne Berries, The Poetry Bus, and New Irish Writing Today Magazine. She blogs at http://niamhboyce.blogspot.ie/

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. 

Sarah O’Toole, Margaret Brady & Frank Dullaghan for October Over The Edge: Open Reading PLUS the announcement of the winners of the 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year

Frank Dullaghan

The October ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, October 31^st, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Sarah O’Toole, Margaret Brady & Frank Dullaghan. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. The evening will also see the announcement of the winners in this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, which received a large number of entries again this year. This year’s competition judge is Sarah Clancy. 

Sarah O'Toole hails from the West of Ireland and works as a theatre practitioner and lecturer. She was the winner of the Aran Islands/Hillstead poetry competition in 1997 and travelled to Connecticut to read at the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival with other emerging poets from both sides of the Atlantic. Since returning to her passion for poetry she has been published in Emerge Literary Journal, Crannóg and The Irish Left Review. She has also written two plays which have been performed in Ireland - an adaptation of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" and an original piece "The Heroism Hotline" co-written with Donnacha Bushe.

Margaret Brady grew up in 1960s Dublin. An only child, she filled the long, lonely winter evenings curled up by the fire with good books. Over the years she remained a voracious reader of virtually every genre of book with a particular soft spot for science fiction. She moved to Galway from Dublin as a trailing spouse nearly 20 years ago. It was only meant to be for one year, but Galway seemed to be the perfect place to raise children. She hasn't returned to Dublin yet. She shares her home with her two college going children, an energetic dog and four and a half cats. She has recently been a participant in creative writing classes at Galway Technical Institute.

Frank Dullaghan is an Irish writer living and working in Dubai since 2006. He holds an MA with Distinction in Writing from the University of South Wales (previously Glamorgan). His poetry has been widely published in UK and Irish journals. Prior to living in Dubai, Frank lived in the UK where he was a co-founder of the Essex Poetry Festival and chaired the judging panel for The Young Essex Poet of the Year competition. He was also editor of Seam Poetry Magazine for many years. In Dubai, he has run workshops in poetry and short story writing in schools, university and for various literary and writing groups. He is a member of the spoken word platform Poeticians as well as the Dubai Writers Group and the Emirates Literary Group. Frank has two collections of poetry - On the Back of the Wind, 2008 and Enough Light to See the Dark, 2012 from Cinnamon Press - and two collections of haiku published in the UK. His third poetry collection, A Slow Implosion of the Heart, is due out from Cinnamon Press in September 2014.

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.