The first ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ after the summer
break takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 27th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers
are Jessica Traynor, Matt Flesk & Aoife Reilly. There will as usual be
an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. The evening will also see
the announcement of the long list for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of
The Year competition which received a very healthy number of entries again this
year.
Aoife Reilly
is originally from Laois, but has been living in
Galway since 2012. She works as a psychotherapist and teacher and has been
attending Kevin Higgins’s poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre since Autumn
2013. Aoife’s poetry has been published in Crannóg, Skylight 47, on the
Poethead website, and in a wide variety of other poetry magazines recently.
Matt Flesk is originally
from Tuam, and now lives just outside Galway City. He is a retired school teacher and has completed a number of creative
writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars, including her
Advanced Fiction Writing Class. Matt was short-listed for 2014 Over The Edge
New Writer of The Year.
Jessica Traynor was born in Dublin
in 1984. Literary Reader at the Abbey Theatre and a creative writing
teacher, she has published poems in a variety of magazines and journals and her
work is included in a number of anthologies including If Ever You Go: A
Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song (Dublin’s One City One Book, 2014)
and The New Planet Cabaret Anthology. She won the 2011 Listowel
Poetry Prize and the Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year Award in 2013. She
was awarded the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary in 2014. Liffey Swim,
Jessica’s debut collection of poems, was published last year by Dedalus Press
and shortlisted for the Shine/Strong Award for best first collection by an
Irish poet. She has recently been commissioned to write a poem as part of the
Poet’s Rising project, sponsored by the Arts Council, to mark the 1916 Rising.
As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured
Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome. The evening will
also see the announcement of the long list for this year’s Over The Edge New
Writer of The Year competition, which received a very healthy number of
entries again this year.
Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing financial support of Galway City Council, Poetry Ireland, & The Arts Council.
