The
November ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place on Zoom on Thursday, November 18th at
the usual Over The Edge time 6.30-8.00pm (local Galway time). The Featured
Readers are Sacha Hutchinson, Estelle Birdy, & Gioconda Belli. There will, as always at Over The Edge:
Open Readings, be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New
readers are always especially welcome at the open-mic. Anyone interested in
taking part in the open-mic should text Kevin Higgins on 087-6431748 or or register
their interest on the Over The Edge Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Over-The-Edge-Literary-Events-712507866206899
between 6pm and 6.30pm on the evening of
the reading. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars.
Sacha Hutchinson is an eye
doctor working in Galway. She was born in Dublin. She attends a
weekly poetry workshop with Kevin Higgins and many Over The Edge events. Her
poetry has appeared in Ropes 2018,
in the 2018 and 2021 spring editions of Skylight 47, the 2019 autumn edition of The Curlew, Inspired volume 3, Live
Encounters June 2020, Pendemic
May 2021, Drawn to the Light Press
Febuary 2021, Poetry in Lockdown Archive
UCD 2021 and Lothlorien Poetry Journal
2021.She was shortlisted for Poetry for Patience 2018 and 2019. She
was longlisted for Over the Edge New Writer of the Year
2018 and shortlisted in 2019. She received a Bachelor of Arts in art and
design in 2010. She has an interest in exploring the environmental message
through paint and poetry.
Estelle Birdy describes
herself as “Louth and proud” but is a long-time resident of Dublin’s Liberties. She
is a graduate of UCD’s Masters in Creative Writing, with teachers Anne Enright
and Sebastian Barry. Her reviews and nonfiction have appeared in the Sunday
Independent, the Irish Times and others. She has won or been shortlisted
in Dalkey Creates, Penfro Book Festival, Verve Poetry Festival and IWC Novel
Fair competitions. Her debut novel Ravelling,
which has been described as “Fast-paced, funny and eye-popping, descending from
Trainspotting, White Teeth and Milkman in its
portrayal of urban life in the twenty-first century” is forthcoming from
Lilliput Press. Estelle received literature bursaries from the Arts Council in
both 2020 & 2021 for the short-story collection she is currently working
on.
Gioconda Belli is a Nicaraguan poet and novelist.
She’s had an active political life in her country as a feminist and defender of
human rights. Although she was part of the struggle to topple Somoza’s regime
and the Sandinista Revolution (1979), she split from the new sandinismo of
Daniel Ortega in 1993. She writes both poetry and novels. Her poetry has
received many prizes: Mariano Fiallos Gil prize, the Casa de las Americas
Prize, Generacion del 27 Prize, Ciudad de Melilla and in 2020, the Jaime
Gil de Biedma prize in Spain. Her first novel The Inhabited Woman
(1988) became a literary and commercial success and was awarded the Best
Political Novel of the Year and the Anna Seghers award in Germany in 1989.
For her novel Infinity in the Palm of her Hand (2008) she won Seix
Barral’s Biblioteca Breve and the Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz prizes.
In 2010 she was awarded the Latin American prize, “La Otra Orilla” for her
novel El País de las Mujeres, (Womenland). In 2019, she was
a finalist for the III Mario Vargas Llosa Prize for her 2018 novel Las
Fiebres de la Memoria (“Fevers of Memory”). She’s written four
children’s books and a memoir of her guerrilla years: The Country under
my skin. PEN Germany awarded her the Hermann Kesten Prize in 2018 for
her defense of freedom of the press and her role as a women’s advocate. She’s a
member of the Nicaraguan Royal Academy of Letters and Chevalier des les Arts et
Letres of France. Her works have been translated in 20 languages. Web
page: www.giocondabelli.org Twitter: @GiocondaBelliP Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GiocondaBelliP/
Over The Edge is inviting you to the November
Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom. Thursday, November 18th,
6.30-8pm
Join The Over The Edge Zoom Meeting at
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7389013549
Meeting ID: 738 901 3549
As
usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers
are always particularly 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, Poetry Ireland & The
Arts Council.
