May Over The Edge: Open Reading with Luke Kennard, Ruth Quinlan, Mari Maxwell plus the LAUNCH of issue 5 of Skylight 47

Mari Maxwell & Ruth Quinlan to read with acclaimed British poet Luke Kennard at May Over The Edge: Open Reading and LAUNCH of issue 5 of Skylight 47 poetry newspaper.  

The May ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 28^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Luke Kennard, Ruth Quinlan & Mari Maxwell. Ruth Quinlan is the 2014 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year and this reading is part of her prize for winning the competition. Over The Edge is currently taking entries for 2015 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year; this year the competition is judged by poet, fiction writer, and literary activist Dave Lordan, who edits The Bogman’s Cannon, by far the liveliest online literary publication in Ireland. For full details of the 2015 competition see here.

The evening will also see the launch by British poet Luke Kennard of the latest issue (no. 5) of Skylight 47 poetry newspaper, probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication; this issue includes poems, reviews, an interview with a leading Irish poet, and a poetry workshop with a leading British poet.  

Mari Maxwell lives in County Galway and writes fiction and poetry. She has work forthcoming in The Brasilia Review, The Ogham Stone, Macabre Maine, and Veils, Halos and Shackles International Poetry Journal on the Abuse and Oppression of Women. Her writing was highly commended in The Francis Ledwidge 2014 Poetry Award, shortlisted in the 2014 Walking on Thin Ice Short Story Contest and longlisted in the 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year. She has been published in Indian Kukai, A New Ulster, Flash Flood Journal, Crannóg, and Boyne Berries. One of her stories has been shortlisted in the Cork County Library and Arts Service Short Story Competition 'From The Well.'

Ruth Quinlan is from Tralee, Co. Kerry and holds an MA in Writing from NUI Galway. She is the 2014 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year and this reading is part of her prize. Ruth also won the Hennessy First Fiction Award in 2013 and was shortlisted for the 2014 and 2012 Cúirt New Writing fiction prize.  Her work has been published by the Irish Independent, Crannóg, ROPES,  Skylight47, Emerge Literary Journal, Thresholds, SIN, and Scissors and Spackle. She has also contributed to three anthologies, Watching my Hands at Work: A Festschrift for Adrian Frazier (fiction), Abandoned Darlings (fiction) and Wayword Tuesdays (poetry). Recently, Ruth joined the editing team for Skylight47.

Luke Kennard

Luke Kennard is the author of numerous works of poetry and short fiction. His first collection of poems, The Solex Brothers, was published in 2005, and won him one of that year's Eric Gregory Awards. His second collection, The Harbour Beyond the Movie, made him the youngest writer to be nominated for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. He has since published two further full collections, and two pamphlets, one of which, The Necropolis Boat, was the Poetry Book Society's Pamphlet Choice in 2012. In addition to poetry, he writes criticism, short fiction, and is currently working on his first novel. He teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. Luke Kennard's poetry has been described as “witty, extravagant and provocatively genre-bending”, and features in the anthology Identity Parade: New British & Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe 2010).

After the Featured Readers have finished some contributors to Skylight 47 will read their poems from the new issue. COPIES OF THE NEW ISSUE OF SKYLIGHT 47 WILL BE ON SALE BEFORE, AFTER AND DURING THE READING. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. All welcome. There is no cover charge. For further details phone 087-6431748.

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

May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering at The Kitchen @ The Museum

The May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents readings by Irish poets and fiction writers Paul Perry, Anne Irwin, Rachael Hegarty, James O’Toole, and visiting Australian poet Ross Donlon. Rachael Hegarty was the winner of the fiction section in the 2014 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, judged by Eleanor Hooker, and will read her winning story. Over The Edge is currently taking entries for 2015 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year; this year the competition is judged by poet, fiction writer, and literary activist Dave Lordan, who edits The Bogman’s Cannon, by far the liveliest online literary publication in Ireland. For full details of the 2015 competition see here. 

The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, May 15^th, 8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Rachael Hegarty is a fiction writer and poet from Finglas, Dublin. She is the seventh child of a seventh child and a Ph.D. candidate at the Seamus Heaney Centre, QUB. Widely published in anthologies, journals and newspapers, she performs at festivals, rock concerts and for radio broadcasts. This summer she plans to teach her kids bareback riding on Travellers’ ponies while her husband ain’t looking. Rachael won the fiction prize in the 2014 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition and will read her winning story, ‘Betty’.

Paul Perry is the author of five collections of poetry, including Gunpowder Valentine: New and Selected Poems (The Dedalus Press). Among his honours are The Hennessy New Irish Writer of The Year Award, The Listowel Prize for Poetry and The Katherine and Patrick Kavanagh Fellowship which he was awarded this year. As Karen Perry, he has co-written the International Bestseller The Boy That Never Was. A second Karen Perry Novel appears in June entitled ONLY WE KNOW. He lives in Dublin.

Paul Perry

Anne Irwin lives in Galway. Her poetry has been published in many magazines including Skylight 47, ROPEs, Emerge, Irish Left Review, RNLI’s anthology The Sea and  shortlisted in the 2013 Over the Edge New Writer of The Year competition, & Galway University  Hospital Arts Trust’s 2015 Poems for Patience competition, and long listed for W.O.W 2013. competitions. She is a member of The Tuesday Knights whose anthology of poetry “Wayword Tuesday” was shortlisted for the Writers’ Circle Anthology Award 2013.

James O’Toole is a native Galwegian. His poetry has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Skylight 47, and also in literary magazines in the United States. James is currently a participant in the advanced poetry workshop at Galway Arts Centre and his work features in the group’s anthologies. He was highly commended in 2010 ‘Over the Edge’ New Writer of the Year competition and has been long listed four times. James O’Toole’s first collection of poems, The Street, which will be published in the autumn and launched at Charlie Byrne’s bookshop.  

Australian poet Ross Donlon thinks there might be family in the audience tonight, since Donlons seem to hail from Galway. Ross is a winner of a couple of international poetry prizes and spoken word events and has had a sequence of poems produced for national radio in Australia. He is widely published at home but has also had poems published in The Poetry Ireland Review, Crannóg, The (sadly missed) SHOp  and Skylight 47. He has read at festivals across Australia and in Ireland and England. A frequent visitor  to Europe, his most recent book of poems, Sjovegen (The Sea Road) was launched in Norway this year and, as well as this reading in Galway, Ross will be reading from it in Romania and England before going home in August.

For further information contact 087-6431748.

All Welcome. No Cover charge.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing financial support of the Arts Council,

Poetry Ireland, and Galway City Council.