Final Over The Edge: Open Reading of 2022 with Bill Heaney, Abby Oliveira, Marc Gregg PLUS open-mic

The December ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, December 15^th, 6.00pm-7.30pm. The Featured Readers are Marc Gregg, Abby Oliveira, & Bill Heaney. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers. New readers are especially welcome. The Over The Edge end of year celebration will take place afterwards. There will, we understand, be mince pies. You are invited to come and mark the end of the strange year that has been 2022 with Over The Edge. There will be a surprise or two. 

Bill Heaney grew up in the heart of Galway. His family had a pub in the dock area of the city. He worked in Dublin and London for many years before returning to Galway. He had a variety of work situations from pubs to prisons to homeless services.  He cites these experiences as inspiration for some of his writing. Bill started  attending writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars and Kevin Higgins about five years ago. He writes both poetry and short stories.  He has had some of his poems published in Vox Galvia. Bill’s poetry is mainly inspired by the injustices in society.

Abby Oliveira is a writer and performer based in Derry.  Her work is often cross-discipline and collaborative; comprising poetry, storytelling, music, prose, playwriting, and/or physical performance.  Her work has been most recently published in The 32: An anthology of Irish Working Class voices (Unbound, 2021), The New Frontier: reflections from the Irish border (New Island Books, 2021), and Empty House: poetry & prose on the climate crisis (Doire Press, 2021).  She has been commissioned as a writer by organisations such as The MAC in Belfast, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Foyle, RTÉ Radio, and more. 

Marc Gregg is a writer and classical vocalist from Lisburn, Northern Ireland. Previously, he was the host and co-producer of a show called Soap Opera on BBC Radio Ulster that examined the stories we tell through the voice. He also founded "Button Mash", Northern Ireland's largest video game tournament series for the Tekken franchise. Currently, he is working as an Assistant Producer with Outburst Arts in Belfast producing their queer literature magazine "Catflap" among other pieces of theatre, opera, gallery shows, concerts and artist development work. His current work focuses around queerness, class and technology and the hazy boundaries between the three. An essay of his recently featured in The 32 – An Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices (edited by Paul McVeigh).

The reading will also be broadcast live via Over The Edge’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070193895521

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

November Over The Edge: Open Reading with Antoinette Lyons, Monica Igoe, & Ryan Dennis

The November ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday,November 17^th, 6pm-7.30pm. The Featured Readers are Ryan Dennis, Monica Igoe, & Antoinette Lyons. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always especially welcome at the open-mic. 

 

The reading will also be broadcast live via Over The Edge’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070193895521  

Antoinette Lyons hails from Ennis, Co. Clare. She has been an avid reader since childhood but only started writing in the last few years. Antoinette has completed poetry and fiction writing classes with Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars. Settling in West Clare,  Loop Head, the sea, and the area’s  soft landscape has found its way into her writing.  Antoinette is surprised to be writing a coming of age book about two young boys. She is still an avid reader.  Her five guests at fantasy dinner would be John Banville , Jack Reacher,  Enid Blyton,  Haruki Murakami and Patti Smith.

Monica Igoe grew up in Wexford, and studied Communications at Dublin City University a long time ago.  She lives in Galway with her husband and three sons. She previously worked as a staff journalist in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and as a freelancer out of Sydney and Galway. She is drawn to the short story format because it allows you inhabit so many different worlds, and just makes life so much more interesting.

Ryan Dennis is the author of the novel The Beasts They Turned Away, published by époque press. In addition to being a Fulbright and PhD in creative writing, he is a former writer-in-residence at Maynooth University and has taught at various institutions. In 2020 he founded The Milk House, an initiative to showcase the work of those writing on rural subjects.

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. Those interested in reading at the open-mic should give their names to one of the Over The Edge volunteers at Galway City Library before the reading starts at 6pm.

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