Ninth Annual Over The Edge Fiction Slam with Karl Parkinson

After the event’s huge success in the past eight years, Over The Edge presents its ninth annual fiction slam with Featured Reader, Karl Parkinson, at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, October 13^th, 8pm.

Karl Parkinson

In 2016, New Binary Press published Karl Parkinson's debut novel, The Blocks, inspired by the author's childhood in a troubled part of inner-city Dublin. Parkinson grew up in O'Devaney Gardens, described as "one of Dublin’s most troubled and dilapidated complexes". The novel received considerable critical acclaim in Ireland. Aiden O'Reilly writes in The Irish Times that "Parkinson has set himself up unashamedly and without irony as a singer of the human soul in its contrary states of degradation and exaltation". Karl Parkinson has also published two collections of poetry, Litany of the City (Wurmpress 2013) and Butterflies of a Bad Summer (Salmon Poetry 2016). He has a regular literary column in the online publication The Dublin Inquirer.

The first twelve fiction writers to make it to The Kitchen @ The Museum on the evening of Friday, October 13^th and register will be guaranteed a place in the slam. If you want to be sure of a place, get there early! All participating writers should bring two pieces of their own fiction, as there are two rounds. The time limit in both rounds is five minutes. Extracts from longer stories are admissible. Stories do not have to be memorised. The Fiction Slam will be judged by a three person jury made up of two audience members and Karl Parkinson. Three writers will go through to the second round and the prize for the winner is a bottle of excellent red wine.

There is no entrance fee. All welcome. For further information contact 087-6431748. 

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

2017 Over The Edge New Writer of Year SHORTLIST

2017 OVER THE EDGE

NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR

SHORTLIST

FICTION

Teresa Sweeney, Galway, ‘Stars’

Una Mannion, Sligo, ‘Dogwood’

Niamh MacCabe, Leitrim, ‘Steer’, ‘Memorise’, ‘Dark’

David O’Dwyer, Dublin ‘The Empty’

Niall Bourke, London ‘The Hands’

Gerard McKeown, London ‘Sisters’

Edna Faye Kiel, Clare, ‘Circles’

Edel Burke, Mayo, ‘One’

Barbara Lovric, Kerry, ‘Commitment’

Kathryn Burke, Dublin, ‘The Depth’, ‘A Legacy’

Micheál Ó’Síocháin, Cork ‘A Day In’

Paula Conway, East Sussex, ‘The Chalk’

P.J. Moore, Galway ‘Thick’

James Finlan, Galway, ‘The Gospel’

Maeve Mulrennan, Galway, ‘End of’

Richard Newton, Hampshire, ‘Loose’

Edna Faye Kiel, Clare, ‘Circles’

Angela Victory, Galway, ‘Aussie’

POETRY

James Anthony, Athlone

Sarah Padden, Galway

Ursula Shields-Huemer, Galway

Alyn Fenn, Cork

Julie Irigaray, France

Anne Walsh Donnelly, Mayo

Roisin Browne, Dublin

Caroline Am Bergris, London

Emily V, North Dakota

Connie Masterson, Galway

Jean Tuomey, Mayo

Colin Dardis, Belfast

Evan Costigan, Kildare

Morag Anderson, Scotland

Stephanie Brennan, Galway

Caroline Bracken, Wicklow

Kathryn Guille, Limerick

Ruth Aylett, Scotland

Christine Valters-Paintner, Galway

Art Ó Súilleabháin, Galway

Jo Burns, Germany

Simon Murphy, Bristol

Chris Jenkins, Belfast

Nollaig Rowan, Dublin

Lauren Garland, London

Flish McCarthy, Galway

Bogusia Wardein, Norway

Audrey Molloy, Australia

Aidan Hynes, Dublin,

Karin Molde, Germany

Patrick Holloway, Brazil

Sighle Meehan, Galway

Steve Fraser, Scotland

We would like to thank our competition sponsors: 

Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Dock No. 1, Ward’s Hotel, 

Clare Daly TD, Kenny’s Bookshop 

& Senator Trevor Ó’Clochartaigh 

We would also like to thank this year's competition judge, Nicki Griffin

 

The longlist can be read here. 

 THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED   @

The October Over The Edge: Open Reading

on Thursday, October 26^th 

Galway City Library, 6.30-8pm

September Over The Edge: Open Reading with Oisín Fagan, Paul Denby, & Dara O'Foghlu

The September ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 28th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Oisín Fagan, Paul Denby, & Dara O Foghlu. The evening will also see the announcement of the shortlist for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of the Year competition, judged by writer, poet, and Skylight 47 editor Nicki Griffin.

A native of Galway, Dara O Foghlu graduated from the Writing MA in NUI Galway in 2008. He has published his fiction in Ropes as well as in three collections of short stories with The Atlantis Collective, which were launched as part of the Cúirt festival. He has been a freelance editor for seven years, and has recently returned from Vietnam where he was editing state propaganda for the Communists. 

Paul Denby  has been in Galway since 2005, having previously lived in England and Germany. He studied Mathematics and Economics, and works as a Software Engineer. Paul participates in poetry workshops at the Galway Arts Centre and was longlisted for the 2016 ‘Over the Edge’ New Writer of the Year Competition.

Oisín Fagan

Oisín Fagan is a fiction writer and activist. He does work with the Irish Housing Network, and spends much of his time outside his job as a language teacher campaigning on social issues.  He stories has previously been published in The Stinging Fly, New Planet Cabaret and Young Irelanders and his work has featured at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Earlier this year he won the inaugural Penny Dreadful Novella Prize for The Hierophants. Hostages, his first collection of short stories, was published in 2016 by New Island.

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.