Poets Jenny Lambert, Deirdre Daly, & Graham Allen for March Over The Edge: Open Reading plus LAUNCH of Skylight 47 Latest Issue

The March Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, March 30th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Graham Allen, Deirdre Daly, & Jenny Lambert. The centre piece of the evening will be the launch of issue eight of Skylight 47, the exciting bi-annual poetry paper from the Skylight Poets, which will be on sale on the evening. The publication will be launched by Graham Allen. Skylight 47 is based in Galway and publishes poems by poets from all around the globe; all poets are welcome to submit poems for consideration for future issues. For details on how to take out a subscription to Skylight 47 see https://skylight47poetry.wordpress.com/buy-skylight-47/. 

Jenny Lambert is a holistic health professional based in Clare and Galway. She has worked in services for children and adults in Ireland and South Asia. Her writing is inspired by a reverence for land and sea, the body, and the cycles of death and life. She attends poetry workshops in Galway Arts Centre. She was longlisted for Over the Edge New Writer of the Year 2016, was a prize winner at Culture Night poetry reading in Kenny's, Galway 2016 and has new work published in the latest edition of Skylight 47 (March 2017).

Deirdre Daly

Deirdre Daly was poetry winner of the 2016 Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition. Her poetry has been published in Crannóg and the Irish Times and her fiction has appeared in various anthologies. She lives in Dublin and is a participant in Kevin Higgins’ online poetry workshop. Deirdre is shortlisted in the Emerging Poetry category in the 2017 Hennessy Awards for New Irish Writing.

Graham Allen

Graham Allen’s debut poetry collection The One That Got Away was published in 2014 by New Binary Press and was nominated for the Crashaw Prize. Professor of English at University College Cork, Graham Allen’s poetry has appeared Southword, Other Poetry, The Stinging Fly, The Rialto, Poetry Ireland Review, Revival, La Questione Romantica, The SHOp, Theory and Event, Cultural Politics and Cyphers. His texts for stage have been performed by Gatekrash Theatre Company at the Stack Theatre, Cork School of Music, at the Comedy Club, Cork, and at the Cork Midsummer Festival in 2008. Graham Allen’s critical works include Harold Bloom: Towards a Poetics of Conflict (1994), Intertextuality (2000 and 2011), Roland Barthes (2003), The Salt Companion to Harold Bloom, co-edited with Roy Sellars (2007), Mary Shelley (2008) and The Reader’s Guide to Frankenstein (2008). His work has been translated into Japanese, Korean and Persian.

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, Poetry Ireland, & The Arts Council.

May Daytime Creative Writing with Susan Millar DuMars at Galway Arts Centre

Starting 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 four collections of poetry, Big Pink Umbrella (2008), Dreams For Breakfast (2010), The God Thing (2013), & Bone Fire (2016) all with Salmon Poetry. Susan was the Featured Fiction writer in a recent issue of the American online magazine The Atticus Review. She is also co-organiser of the Over The Edge reading series which specifically promotes new writers. Susan edited the anthology Over the Edge – the first ten years, published by Salmon, which includes work by forty seven writers who have published a first book since they did a reading at an Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library.

The class is suitable for both beginning and continuing creative writing students, working in either poetry or fiction. Students will spend their weeks 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, 2.30-4pm, commencing on Monday, May 8^th. It runs for 8 weeks.

The cost to participants is 90 Euro with a 80 Euro concession price. Booking is essential as places are limited. There are no refunds once the class has started. For booking please contact Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, phone 091 565886, email info@galwayartscentre.ie, or go to Galway Arts Centre.ie

MAY POETRY WORKSHOPS AT GALWAY ARTS CENTRE

Starting in early May, Galway Arts Centre is offering aspiring poets a choice of three poetry workshops, all facilitated by poet Kevin Higgins, whose best-selling first collection, The Boy With No Face, published by Salmon Poetry, was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish poet. Kevin’s second collection of poems, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published in 2008 by Salmon Poetry and his poetry is discussed in The Cambridge Introduction to Modern Irish Poetry. His third collection Frightening New Furniture was published in 2010 by Salmon. His work also appears in the generation defining anthology Identity Parade –New British and Irish Poets (Ed. Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010) and The Hundred Years’ War: modern war poems (Ed Neil Astley, Bloodaxe April 2014).  A collection of Kevin’s essays and book reviews, Mentioning The War, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2012. Kevin’s poetry has been translated into Greek, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Japanese & Portuguese. His fourth collection of poetry, The Ghost in the Lobby, was published in 2014 by Salmon. Kevin's poetry was the subject of a paper 'The Case of Kevin Higgins, or, The Present State of Irish Poetic Satire' presented by David Wheatley at a Symposium on Satire at the University of Aberdeen. Kevin was satirist-in-residence with the alternative literature website The Bogman’s Cannon 2015-16 and is Writer-in-Residence at University Hospitals Galway. 2016 – The Selected Satires of Kevin Higgins was published by NuaScéalta earlier this year; a pamphlet of Kevin’s recent political poems The Minister For Poetry Has Decreed is published in December by the new Culture Matters imprint of U.K. based Manifesto Press. Song of Songs 2:0 – New & Selected Poems is published by Salmon (Spring 2017) and launched at this year’s Cúirt Festival. The Stinging Fly magazine recently described Kevin as “likely the most widely read living poet in Ireland”. 
 
Each week Kevin will give participants a poetry writing exercise for the following week and will offer each participant constructive suggestions as to how her or his poem can become the best possible poem it can be.

Kevin is an experienced workshop facilitator and several of his students have gone on to achieve publication success. One of his workshop participants at Galway Arts Centre won the prestigious Hennessy Award for New Irish Poetry, two have won the Cúirt New Writing Prize, and yet another the Cúirt Poetry Grand Slam, while several have published collections of their poems; two being shortlisted for the Shine-Strong Award for Best First Collection of poems. In 2013 a group of his students set up the poetry newspaper Skylight 47, which publishes new poems, reviews of poetry books and opinion pieces about poetry related matters. Kevin teaches poetry on the NUIG BA Creative Writing Connect programme and is Creative Writing Director for the NUI Galway Summer School. Kevin is also co-organiser of the successful Over The Edge reading series which specialises in promoting new writers.

Each workshop will run for eight weeks, commencing the week of Monday May 8^th.  They will take place on Tuesday evenings, 7-8.30pm (first class May 9th); on Thursday afternoons, 2-4pm (first class May 11^th) and on Friday afternoons, 2-3.30pm (first class May 12^th).

The Tuesday evening and Friday afternoon workshops are open to both complete beginners as well as those who’ve been writing for some time. The Thursday afternoon workshop is an Advanced Poetry Workshop, suitable for those who’ve participated in poetry workshops before or had poems published in magazines. The cost to participants is €90, with an €80 concession rate.

Places must be paid for in advance. To reserve a place contact reception at Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, phone 091 565886, email info@galwayartscentre.ie, or go to GalwayArtsCentre.ie

SPRING Beginners & Intermediate Creative Writing Classes at Galway Technical Institute BOOK NOW!

Susan Millar DuMars & Kevin Higgins

Creative Writing for Beginners with Kevin Higgins takes place one evening per week (Monday) from 7-10pm (7 weeks). It commences on Monday, April 3rd, 2017. 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 stories, poems, or memoir.

To book a place, go to http://www.gti.ie/parttime/course/detail/t/76/c/201704-004894

 

Intermediate Creative Writing with Susan Millar DuMars takes place one evening per week (Tuesday) from 7-9.30pm (8 weeks). It commences on Tuesday, April 4th, 2017. 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.

To book a place, go to http://www.gti.ie/parttime/course/detail/t/76/c/201704-004959

YOU CAN ALSO BOOK in person at Galway Technical Institute, Monday-Friday, (10am-4.30pm).

For further information contact Galway Technical Institute, Father Griffin Road, Galway, phone 091-581342 or email gtiadulted@gretb.ie or see http://www.gti.ie  

March Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering launches poetry collections by Katherine Noone & Jean Folan

MC for evening Kevin Higgins

The March Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents an exciting variety of poetry, including the Galway launch of new poetry collections by Katherine Noone and Jean Folan.  There will also be readings by prominent British performance poet and literary activist Steve Pottinger and renowned Mayo poet and short story writer Ger Reidy. The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, March 10^th, 8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Katherine Noon pictured centre

Katherine Noone’s poems  have  appeared  in  Boyne  Berries, Crannóg, The  Galway Review, Linnets Wings, Orbis , Skylight 47. She was shortlisted  for the Vallum (Canada) poetry competition in 2012 and Poem  for  Patience 2015. She attends Kevin Higgins advanced poetry workshop in Galway. Katherine’s debut poetry collection, Keeping Watch, is just published by Lapwing Publications and will be launched on the evening. 

Jean Folan was born in Galway in 1951. She lives in Inishcrone, Co Sligo and is a graduate of the MA in Writing at NUI Galway.  Her first collection of poems Between Time was published by Lapwing in 2013. Jean Folan was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing Prize 2007, and the Over the Edge Cúirt Showcase 2008, and was a featured reader at Over the Edge in 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. Confluence of Wakes, Jean’s second collection of poetry, was recently published by Lapwing Publications and will have its Galway launch on the evening.

Steve Pottinger is a British performance poet and author based in Wolverhampton. He has gigged all over the UK in pubs, clubs, and at festivals. He wrote a letter to Cafè Nero about their tax avoidance which went viral, and has co-written the autobiographies of two punk legends. His volume of poems 'more bees, bigger bonnets' was chosen by campaigning economist Richard Murphy as one of his books of the year in the TES. He’s currently collaborating with two other West Midlands poets on some exciting projects, plotting his fifth volume of poetry, working on another punk biography, and being inspired by the imagination, resilience, and determination of people in the face of greed and injustice.

Ger Reidy was born near Westport, Co. Mayo. He has won several national poetry competitions and has been the recipient of a number of bursaries and residencies sponsored by the Arts Council and Mayo County Council. Dedalus Press published his debut collection, Pictures from a Reservation, in 1998 and his second collection, Drifting Under the Moon, in 2010. His third collection, Before Rain, was published by Arlen House in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Pigott Poetry Prize at Listowel Writers' Week. His poetry has been published in many literary journals, both at home and abroad and he has read at numerous literary festivals. Since 2012 Ger has judged the Westport Arts Festival poetry competition. His debut short fiction collection. Jobs for a Wet Day, was published in 2015 and was long listed for the Edge Hill Prize 2016.

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

Poetry Ireland, and Galway City Council.