Over The Edge presents the Zoom launch by Grace Wells of issue 14 of Skylight 47 Thursday May 13th

 

On Thursday May 13^th, 6.30pm Over The Edge presents the Zoom launch of issue 14 of Skylight 47 “possibly Ireland's most interesting poetry publication”, edited by Bernie Crawford, Nicki Griffin, & Ruth Quinlan. The issue includes a wide range of poems, reviews of poetry collections, and a poetry master class in which an established poet makes detailed editing suggestions for a poem submitted to them anonymously. The launch will include readings by contributors of their poems and the issue will be launched by award-winning poet Grace Wells who will also read some of her own poems. 

Grace Wells was born in London in 1968, and moved to rural Tipperary in 1991. Nature, spirit of place and ecological concern have been large themes in her writing ever since the publication of her debut children’s novel Gyrfalcon (O’Brien Press, 2002), which won the Eilís Dillon Best Newcomer Award and was an International White Ravens Choice. Her debut poetry collection When God has been Called Away to Greater Things (Dedalus Press, 2010), won the Rupert and Eithne Strong Best First Collection Award, and was shortlisted for the London Festival Fringe New Poetry Award. With her second poetry collection Fur (Dedalus Press, 2015), Wells moved more deeply into eco-poetics and ecofeminism. Fur was lauded in Poetry Ireland Review as ‘a book that enlarges the possibilities of poetry’, and her poem Otter was Highly Commended by the Forward Prize. She has reviewed Irish poetry for a wide range of journals, and has taught and mentored emerging writers on behalf of Poetry Ireland, Words Ireland, and for many County Council Arts Offices. In 2018 Grace Wells moved to County Clare, which has informed her new work with a coastal, marine light. She is currently working on her third collection, Home, a meditation on belonging within culture, body, self and nature in our era of ecological crisis. The poems are accompanied by a sequence of eco-poetry-films, Wells’ Home Movies. 

 Join the Over The Edge Zoom meeting at

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

Meeting ID: 738 901 3549

 6.30pm, Thurs, May 13^th

ALL WELCOME!

Make sure you have your copy of Skylight 47 for the launch by buying a copy in advance here https://skylight47poetry.wordpress.com/buy-skylight-47/

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.

January Over The Edge: Open Reading Tim Cumming, Jonathan Harper, & Sarah Padden PLUS launch of issue 11 of Skylight 47

The January ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, January 24^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Sarah Padden, Jonathan Harper, & Tim Cumming. The evening will also see the launch, by Tim Cumming, of issue eleven of perhaps Ireland’s most exciting, informative, and accessible poetry magazine Skylight 47. There will be readings by contributors. All welcome. This reading marks the sixteenth anniversary of the first Over The Edge reading in Galway City Library. 

Sarah Padden is of Irish descent and was raised in West Yorkshire. She returned to live in her dad’s county of Mayo over a decade ago and moved to Galway, to attend NUIG. Since living in Galway, she has attended Kevin Higgins’s poetry workshop and many Over The Edge events. Her poetry has been published in the 2017 anthology Washing Windows? Irish Women Write Poetry (Arlen House). She has also had poems published in Skylight 47, ROPES, A New Ulster, & Freehand. She won the June 2017 Galway Poetry Slam and was shortlisted for both the Over The Edge New Writer of the Year 2017 competition and the Poems for Patience Competition 2018.

Jonathan Harper has participated in creative writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars at Galway Technical Institute and is currently a participant in Susan’s Advanced Fiction Writing class. He arrived in Galway from the UK via a short stay of a few years in Australia. Having held many jobs since leaving school he is currently an engineer. Writing influences are varied, from J.K Rowling (non Harry Potter) to Jim Crace. He aims to finish his first novel this year.

Tim Cumming

Tim Cumming’s first collection, The Miniature Estate was published in 1991, and subsequent books include Apocalypso (1992, 1999, 2004), Contact Print (2002), The Rumour (2004), The Rapture (2011), Etruscan Miniatures (2012) and Rebel Angels in the Mind Shop (2015). He has made a series of acclaimed film poems and exhibited poems and paintings at Sladers Yard gallery in Dorset, and wrote and narrated the acclaimed Hawkwind: Do Not Panic BBC documentary. His work has appeared in three editions of The Forward Book of Poetry, its 2004 Best of the Decade anthology, and Bloodaxe Books’ 2010 anthology, Identity Parade. He lives in London.

There will be a limited open-mic after the Featured Readers and Skylight 47 contributors have finished. New readers are always especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748. Afterwards we will celebrate Over The Edge’s sixteenth birthday.

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

September Over The Edge: Open Reading Caitriona O’Reilly, Colin Dardis, James Anthony & Skylight 47 launch

Caitríona Ó'Reilly

The September ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 29th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Caitriona O’Reilly, Colin Dardis, & James Anthony. The centre piece of the evening will be the launch of issue seven of Skylight 47, the exciting bi-annual poetry paper from the Skylight Poets, which will be on sale on the evening. The publication will be launched by Caitriona O’Reilly. Skylight 47 is based in Galway and publishes poems by poets from all around the globe; all poets are welcome to submit poems for consideration for future issues. For details on how to take out a subscription to Skylight 47 see https://skylight47poetry.wordpress.com/buy-skylight-47/. The evening will also see the announcement of the shortlist for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of the Year competition, judged by fiction writer and poet Niamh Boyce. 

James Anthony is a native of Athlone. He has worked in catering for most of his life and has always enjoyed writing in his spare time. In January 2015, he took the train to Galway to attend Kevin Higgins's creative writing class at G.T.I. and has been a regular participant in Kevin’s poetry workshops ever since. This year he has published work in Skylight47, the Athlone Advertiser and a poetry anthology, Open Your Eyes edited by Kevin Watts.

Colin Dardis is a poet, editor, freelance arts facilitator, creative writing tutor and mental health advocate, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His work has been published widely throughout Ireland, the UK and USA. He is one of Eyewear Publishing’s Best New British and Irish Poets 2016, and is currently an ACES (Artists Career Enhancement Scheme) 2015-16 recipient from Arts Council Northern Ireland. Colin is also online editor for Lagan Press.

Catríona O'Reilly was born Dublin in 1973, grew up in Wicklow and Dublin, and now lives in Lincoln. She studied archaeology and English at Trinity College Dublin, where she wrote a doctoral thesis on American literature; she has also held the Harper-Wood Studentship from St John's College, Cambridge. Her first collection The Nowhere Birds was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2001, and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2002 (given to the best new book by any Irish writer). Her second collection, The Sea Cabinet (Bloodaxe Books, 2006), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award in 2007. Her third collection, Geis (Bloodaxe Books, UK; Wake Forest University Press, USA, 2015), won the Irish Times Poetry Now Award 2016 and was also a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She is a freelance writer and critic, has written for BBC Radio 4, translated from the Galician of María do Cebreiro, and published some fiction. She has collaborated with artist Isabel Nolan, edited several issues of Poetry Ireland Review, and was a contributing editor of the Irish poetry journal Metre.

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.