2021 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase takes place on Zoom in association with Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop

The 2021 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase, featuring Aoife Reilly, John D. Kelly, Rita Ann Higgins, Attracta Fahy, Vinny Glynn-Steed, Danielle Holian, Christine Valters Paintner, Mary Turley McGrath, Jessamine O’Connor, John W. Sexton, Marion Kilcoyne, Hilary Wakeman, Denis Mockler, Eileen Sheehan, Peadar O’Donoghue, Kevin Higgins, and the anthologies The Shop: An Anthology of Poetry (Liffey Press, edited by Hilary Wakeman & Hilary Elick) & Galway Then, Galway Now – The Crannóg 2020 Anthology (Wordsonthestreet) will take place on Zoom on Friday, February, 12^th starting at 6.30pm (Galway local time - GMT). The event will be jointly MCed by Kate Ennals and Kevin Higgins.

In this annual retrospective of the most peculiar year just past, poets based in the West of Ireland, who published a new collection of poems during 2020, are invited to read three poems from the collection in question. There will also be readings from the anthologies The Shop: An Anthology of Poetry & Galway Then, Galway Now – The Crannóg 2020 Anthology, to which several Galway-based poets contributed.

 

Over The Edge is inviting you to the 2021 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase Reading on Zoom. Friday, February 12^th, 6.30-8pm.

Join The Over The Edge Zoom Meeting at

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7389013549

Meeting ID: 738 901 3549

 

All welcome. There is no cover charge. For further details phone 087-6431748.

 

All of the poetry books showcased at this event will be available for purchase via Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop https://charliebyrne.ie/product/silver-spoon/

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

Over The Edge in association with the Cúirt Festival of International Literature presents the fourteenth 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 – Daniel McBrearty, Jessamine O’Connor, & John D. Kelly – and Shannon Savvas and Jeremy Haworth,  the winners of the Cúirt New Writing Prize 2019. The MC for the event will be regular Over The Edge host Susan Millar DuMars. It takes place on Wednesday, April 10^th, 11 am, at The Town Hall Theatre. Entry is free of charge. All welcome.

John D. Kelly lives in Co. Fermanagh. Since he began writing creatively in 2011, his work has been commended in many competitions and published in various literary publications. He was Highly Commended in the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award 2016, awarded joint ‘Silver’ in the International Dermot Healy Poetry Competition in both 2015 and 2014, and won first prize in Hungry Hill ‘Poets Meet Painters’ 2014, amongst other awards. John was a Featured Reader at the February 2018 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Jessamine O'Connor

Jessamine O Connor facilitates The Hermit Collective arts troupe, The Wrong Side Of The Tracks Writers, and the Ballaghaderreen branch of Failte Isteach conversational English classes. She won the iYeats, the Francis Ledwidge, and the Poetry Ireland Butlers Café poetry competitions, and was short-listed for the Hennessy, Over The Edge, Cuirt New Writing, Galway Hospital Poems For Patience, Bradshaw Books, Leaf Books and Red Line Book Festival competitions. She is currently promoting her fifth chapbook Pact, and her first full collection of poems is coming out with Salmon in early 2020. Jessamine was a Featured Reader at the May 2018 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Daniel McBrearty

Daniel McBrearty, or Danny to his friends, is a writer of both poetry and prose. The Donegal native's poetry has been published in A New Ulster, and his fiction was chosen as the winner in the Ulster Male category in Hot Press' Write Here Write Now Competition last May. A student of creative writing at NUI Galway, Danny’s writing deals with being young in an irrational world. He has no idea what his writing style is. That’s for other people to decide. Danny was a Featured Reader at the December 2018 Over The Edge: Open Reading and he was a runner-up in this year’s Poems for Patience competition.

Shannon Savvas is a New Zealand writer who divides her life and heart between New Zealand, England and Cyprus. Her flash fiction and short stories have been published online in journals in New Zealand and the United States and in a number of anthologies. Shannon describes herself as a “chronic long and short lister in [writing] competitions.” She won the 2017 Reflex Fiction Winter competition and is the winner of the fiction category in the Cuirt New Writing Prize 2019.

Jeremy Haworth is a novelist and poet. Originally from Bray, Co. Wicklow, he now resides in rural Co. Laois with his wife, Claire, and two children. He divides his time between writing and developing an organic market garden. He is currently working towards the publication of his first book of poetry. Jeremy is the winner of the poetry category in this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize.

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.

February Over The Edge: Open Reading with Eamonn McCann, Ruth Elwood, & John D. Kelly

The February ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, February 22^nd, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Eamonn McCann, John D. Kelly, & Ruth Elwood. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always especially welcome at the open-mic.

Ruth Elwood is a Galway native and is a second year student of creative writing in the NUIG. Her poetry has been featured in the popular blog Poethead, The Rose online magazine and A New Ulster. Her work has also been featured internationally in NY literary magazine. She was also long listed for the Over the Edge new writer of the year poetry prize 2017.

John D. Kelly lives in Co. Fermanagh. Since he began writing creatively in 2011, his work has been commended in many competitions and published in various literary publications. He was Highly Commended in the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award 2016, awarded joint ‘Silver’ in the International Dermot Healy Poetry Competition in both 2015 and 2014, and won first prize in Hungry Hill ‘Poets Meet Painters’ 2014, amongst other awards.

Eamonn McCann

Eamonn McCann has been campaigning for social justice in Derry for more than 40 years.  As a young man he was one of the original organisers of the Derry Housing Action Committee (DHAC), a radical campaign group focusing on access to social housing. DHAC organised, in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA), the second civil rights march in Northern Ireland. This march, which took place on 5 October 1968, is generally seen as the birth date of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement.  He currently writes for the Belfast Telegraph, The Irish Times and the Derry Journal. He has written a column for the Dublin based magazine, Hot Press, and is a frequent commentator on the BBC, RTÉ and other broadcast media. He worked as a journalist for the Sunday World newspaper and contributed to the original In Dublin magazine, among others.  His books include War and an Irish Town (1973), War and Peace in Northern Ireland (1999), and Dear God – The Price of Religion in Ireland (1999); and he has edited Bloody Sunday: What Really Happened (1992) and The Bloody Sunday Inquiry: The Families Speak Out (2005). He was elected a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly for Foyle constituency in 2016.

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.