Congratulations Nicki Griffin!

Congratulations to Nicki Griffin whose debut poetry collection, Unbelonging, has been shortlisted for the very prestigious 2014 Shine/Strong Award for best first collection. 

Nicki Griffin grew up in Cheshire in the north west of England but has lived in East Clare since 1997. She completed an MA in Writing at NUI Galway in 2009. She won the 2010 Over the Edge New Poet of the Year prize and in 2012 was awarded a Literature Bursary by the Arts Council. She writes for Inland Waterways News and co-edits poetry magazine Skylight 47. Her first work of non-fiction, The Skipper and Her Mate, was published by New Island in 2013. Unbelonging, her debut poetry collection, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2013.  Her second collection, due in 2016, will also be published by Salmon.

Nicki won the poetry section in the Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition in 2010. Part of her prize was that Salmon Poetry  would read, without prior commitment to publish, a manuscript of her poems. The collection, eventually titled Unbelonging, was published last year by Salmon and was in the opinion of the Shine/Strong Award judges one of the best five first collections published in Ireland during the past year. 

If you are a poet who has yet to publish a full collection of your poems, perhaps you should enter this year's Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition? Salmon Poetry will, similarly, read, without prior commitment to publish, a manuscript of poems submitted to them by the winner in the poetry section.  

Nicki Griffin is also a regular participant in the Advanced Poetry Workshop at Galway Arts Centre, facilitated by Kevin Higgins. If you are a poet interested in taking your poetry to the next level, perhaps you might want to join one of the poetry workshops, which all start up again in September. For details, see here.  

February Over The Edge: Open Reading with Alvy Carragher, Kate Ennals & Michael Farry PLUS announcement of details of 2014 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition

The February ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, February 27^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Michael Farry, Kate Ennals & Alvy Carragher. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are especially welcome. The evening will also see the announcement of details of this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, which will then be made available here on our website.   

Alvy Carragher is currently a student on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway. Her poetry has been commended in the Gregory O’Donoghue Award, highly commended in the 2013 Over the Edge New Writer of The year competition and she came third in the 2013 Doire Press Poetry Competition. Alvy is the current Connaught Slam Poetry Champion. Her blog “with all the finesse of a badger” won best humour blog in the Irish Blog Awards and is a finalist for blog of the year in the Samsung Digital Media Awards 2014. 

Kate Ennals completed the MA in Writing in NUI Galway last year. She writes both poetry and fiction. She currently facilitates both poetry and writing workshops in Cavan. Her writing has been published in Crannog, Skylight 47 and the Galway Review. She has had stories and poems in the anthology, From Ballyjamesduff to Belleek, which was published by the International Fund for Ireland. And Kate features in the new anthology, The Adventure Hat, published by the Black Fort Writers. She won third Prize in the Dead Good Poetry Competition, run by the Galway Rape Crisis Centre in May 2013. Kate’s writing will also to be published in the next edition of Burning Bush 2 and Ropes 2014.

Michael Farry is a retired primary school teacher who writes both poetry and non-fiction. His poetry collection, Asking for Directions, was published by Doghouse in 2012 and his book Sligo: The Irish Revolution 1912-23, was published by Four Courts Press in the same year. He is founder and for many years was editor of Boyne Berries magazine published by Boyne Writers Group.

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome at the open-mic. THE EVENING WILL ALSO SEE THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF DETAILS OF THIS YEAR’S OVER THE EDGE NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION. The MC for the evening will be Kevin Higgins. For further details phone 087-6431748.

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