Over The Edge in association with the Cúirt Festival of International Literature presents the twelfth 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 – Rena Garrett, Eileen P Keane, & Una Mannion – and Paul Bregazzi, the winner of the Cúirt NewWriting Poetry Prize 2017. The MC for the event will be regular Over The Edge host Susan Millar DuMars. It takes place on Wednesday, April 26^th, 3pm, at The Town Hall Theatre. Entry is free of charge. All welcome.

 

Rena Garrett

Rena Garrett is a graduate MA in Writing student in NUIG. She has also participated in poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre. Her poetry has been published in The Moth Magazine, and Spontaneity.org and was shortlisted for the Galway Rape Crisis Centre Short Story Competition 2016. Rena was a Featured Reader at the August 2016 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Eileen P Keane

Eileen P Keane is from North Connemara, Co. Galway. She last year completed an MA in Writing at NUI Galway.  Eileen has written and performed for theatre and stage and her CD Spaces was released in 2014. She writes Poetry, Memoir and non-fiction. She is also a Singer/Songwriter and has performed at the: Electric Picnic, Lunasa Festival Sligo, and at the Clifden Arts Festival. Her songs have featured on RTE Radio and Television. Her poems appear in the latest edition of the Galway Review and her Flash Fiction was shortlisted for Allingham Festival 2015. Eileen was a Featured Reader at the March 2016 Over The Edge: Open Reading. 

Una Mannion

Una Mannion teaches Performing Arts in IT Sligo. In March 2016, her poetry was published in the New Irish Writing page in The Irish Times and her fiction was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing Prize. She won the Yeats' Society's Seamus Heaney Prize and came second place in Dromineer Flash Fiction 2015. She has been shortlisted in the Listowel, Bridport, Fish Memoir and other competitions. She recently completed an MA in Writing at NUI Galway. She lives in Sligo with her husband and three children.  Una was a Featured Reader at the May 2016 Over The Edge: Open Reading. Una won the Emerging Poetry Award at this year’s Hennessy Literary Awards and is also the winner of the Fiction section in this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize.

Paul Bregazzi

Paul Bregazzi is a Special Needs Teacher in West Dublin. His poetry has appeared widely and been anthologised on both sides of the Atlantic in Crannóg, The Stony Thursday Book, Skylight 47, Southword, The Stinging Fly, Magma (U.K),  Fields Magazine (Univ of Texas at Austin), The French Literary Review (Fr),  Thema (U.S.), The Ofi Press (Mexico). He has been shortlisted for the Bridport prize, the RSPB/Rialto Nature Poetry Competition and The Haiku Foundation U.S. Touchstone Awards. He won 2nd place in Magma (U.K.) Editors’ Short Poetry Prize and the Oliver Goldsmith International Poetry Competition. He is co-founder of the Dublin poetry group Listeners and was selected for Poetry Ireland’s Introduction Series 2015. Paul is the winner of the poetry section 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. 

August Over The Edge: Open Reading with Rena Garrett, Fergus Deffely, & Sonja Tiernan

The first ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ after the summer break takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 25^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Sonja Tiernan, Fergus Deffely, & Rena Garrett. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. The evening will also see the announcement of the long list for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition which received an increased number of entries this year.

Rena Garrett is an MA in Writing student in NUIG. Her poetry has been published in The Moth Magazine, and Spontaneity.org and was shortlisted for the Galway Rape Crisis Centre Short Story Competition 2016.

Fergus Deffely lives and works in Galway. After serving almost 15 years in the software industry, these days he hacks prose and poetry. He finds inspiration in music, magic, and society's negative spaces. He is currently working on a novella set in a small town in the West of Ireland.Fergus will be reading some of his poetry and a short story about politics. 

Sonja Tiernan is Lecturer in Modern History at Liverpool Hope University. She will be reading from her acclaimed biography Eva Gore-Booth – An Image of Such Politics (Manchester University Press, 2012), the first ever book length biography of the famous suffragist, labour activist, and writer. Sonja also edited The Political Writings of Eva Gore-Booth (Manchester University Press, 2015). 

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome. The evening will also see the announcement of the long list for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, which has again received a very healthy number of entries this year.

The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748. 

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