Over The Edge and Skylight 47 poetry magazine in association with the Cúirt Festival of International Literature present the seventeenth annual New Writing Showcase

 Since its inception in 2006 the New Writing Showcase has grown to become one of the most important platforms for emerging writers in Ireland. This year’s Cúirt Over The Edge New Writing Showcase features three participants from the Over the Edge literary series in Galway – Sadhbh Goodwin, D’or Seifer, & Hannah Ward – and Shane Murphy and Siobhán Flynn, the winners of the Cúirt New Writing Prize 2022. Also reading this year will be Flavia Simas who is chosen as part of the new Skylight 47 Open Window project which will, from now on, be an annual part of Cúirt. The MC for the event will be regular Over The Edge host Susan Millar DuMars. It takes place on Tuesday, April 5^th, 11 am, at The Mick Lally Theatre, Druid Lane. Entry is pay what you can. All welcome. 

Sadhbh Goodwin is a nineteen year old poet from Galway. Their poetry has been published in the Wild Words anthology (four years in a row), in VoxGalvia, and Cinders magazine, and was also featured on Headstuff.org as poem of the week. They write in both Irish and English, and their poem “Oidhreacht” was featured on the #WEARETHEPOETS poetry jukebox in Dublin. They have performed before in the “Over the Edge" open mic, as well as the “In my Orbit" open mic at the Galway Arts centre. They are currently studying English in UCC. Sadhbh was a Featured Reader at the March 2021 Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom.

D'or Seifer lives in Limerick. She contributes to poetry gatherings, such as Filí an Tí Bháin, and On the Nail. D’or co-runs the online poetry series Lime Square Poets. Previous to this, she co-ran the Not the Time to be Silent series. Her work has appeared in Skylight 47, The Galway Advertiser's Vox Galvia page, Spilling Cocoa Over Martin Amis, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and Pendemic. D’or was a Featured Reader at the September 2021 Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom.

Hannah Ward is from Roscommon and grew up in a family ran petrol station which closed in 2018. Hannah is currently a student in NUIG studying creative writing and working towards a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy. Hannah would like to follow in the grand Irish tradition of speaking in great descriptive volumes, with a lot of heart and conviction, and never really making a point. Her poetry has been published in the Vox Galvia creative writing page in The Galway Advertiser. Hannah was a Featured Reader at the May 2021 Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom.

Flávia Simas was born and raised in Goiás, Brazil, where she completed her studies and earned a Master’s Degree in Linguistics. Flávia is interested in literature as a means to express the shared humanity of our daily struggles. Her work has appeared at the rabble.ie, Elephant Journal, and at the special edition of Skylight 47 published in 2019. Flavia is reading as part of the new Skylight 47 Open Window project which will, from now on, be an annual part of Cúirt. 

Shane Murphy is the winner in the fiction category for this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize. Of Shane’s winning story “Welcome to the World”, this year’s fiction judge Lisa McInerney wrote: ‘A character study that’s compassionate and raw, and a reflection on yearning and identity that was moving and surprising. This isn’t the most polished work on the longlist, but to me it was the most promising. I felt the writer was at once curious and distanced enough from their protagonist to convey a memorable story. A sign, I think, of a gift for words and for people’.

Siobhán Flynn is the winner in the poetry category for this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize. Of Siobhán’s winning poem “I’m Trying to Write a Poem About an Angel” this years’ poetry judge Gail McConnell wrote: ‘Often the test of a true poem is the reader’s desire to return to it again and again. I liked this poem when I read it first, but I noticed that I kept re-reading it, and each time I did, I noticed something new. It’s a poem that knows what it’s about – and it’s about a state of unknowing. The poem is asking what it is to be a self and what it is to be a body, and to try to answer its questions it looks beyond the binaries of gender (male and female), and presence (natural and supernatural), hoping ‘to find the right form’. It’s a poem after Analicia Sotelo’s ‘I’m Trying to Write a Poem about a Virgin and It’s Awful’, so it’s playing with imitation in its form as well as in its subject. It sets up a pair of relationships: of the poem with its influence, and of ‘I’ with ‘they’. There’s a lot about it to enjoy – humour, clear diction, good line endings and a self-consciousness about the whole strange endeavour of living and writing – but it’ the ending I marvel at. Wonderful’.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing financial support of The Arts Council, Galway City Council, and Poetry Ireland, and our ongoing partnership with the Cúirt Festival of International Literature. 

 

March Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom with Anne Tannam, John Transier, & Aoife Cunningham

 The March ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place on Zoom on Thursday, March 24^th at the usual Over The Edge time 6.30-8.00pm (local Galway time). The Featured Readers are Aoife Cunningham, John Transier, & Anne Tannam. 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 by messaging 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. 

Aoife Cunningham grew up in a small village on the suburbs of Galway City. A twin in a family of 6 children, Aoife grew up as a middle child. She was raised single handily by her mother Sylvia. Aoife began writing when she was 7, beginning with short stories before progressing on to writing and publishing her poetry. Aoife began her poetry career in 2018 after taking a poetry workshop with Kevin Higgins. From there, Aoife has been published in the Galway Advertiser, Broadsheet.ie, The Crow of Minerva and Spilling Cocoa On Martin Amis. As someone who struggled with their mental health, Aoife found solace through her poetry. From jumping off a bridge in 2018 to ending up on life support in 2020 due to Anorexia, Aoife’s poetry documents the battle of mental illness and her subsequent recovery. Aoife aspires to write a book and become an advocate for mental health.  Her dream is to become an renowned author and to help improve the mental wellness support in Ireland, ensuring that all young people have access to treatment.    

John Transier is a fiction writer based in Portland, Oregon who has been shortlisted in many literary competitions. John is currently working on his first novel. He loves reading history, cooking, writing, long walks and the novels of John Steinbeck, George MacDonald Fraser and Patrick O’Brian. He does not understand why anyone drinks anything other than Aviation gin, which is distilled about ten miles from his house in Portland. On winter evenings he likes to lay on the couch, listen to his wife play guitar and his daughter play piano and reflect on the fact that he has no musical ability whatsoever. 

Anne Tannam is from Dublin and is the author of three poetry collections, ‘Take This Life (Wordonthestreet 2011), ‘Tides Shifting Across My Sitting Room Floor’ (Salmon Poetry 2017) and the latest ‘Twenty-six Letters of a new Alphabet’ published with Salmon in 2021. Anne’s work has been featured on national radio and press and forms part of UCD’s Irish Poetry Reading Archive. Also a spoken word poet, Anne has performed at home and abroad at events such as Electric Picnic, Kosovo International Poetry Festival and Berlin’s Craw Festival. For more on Anne’s poetry visit www.annetannampoetry.ie

Over The Edge is inviting you to the March Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom. Thursday, March 24^th, 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.