July Over The Edge Writers' Gathering with Alvy Carragher, Justin Conboy, Diane Fahey, & Leabhar na hAthghabhála

July Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering

at Galway City Library

presents readings by

Justin Conboy, & Diane Fahey,

a Showcase reading from the anthology

Leabhar na hAthghabhála

Poems of Repossession

(published by Bloodaxe

edited by Louis de Paor),

& the GALWAY LAUNCH

of Alvy Carragher’s debut poetry collection

Falling in love with broken things

(published by Salmon)

on Thursday, July 14^th,6.30pm

The July Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents readings by fiction writers, poets, and translators Justin Conboy, Diane Fahey, Micheál Ó Cuaig, Colbert Kearney, & the Galway launch of Alvy Carragher’s debut poetry collection Falling in love with broken things (published by Salmon). The event will take place at Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street on Thursday, July 14th, 6.30pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Justin Conboy hails from Salthill, Galway. Ireland. He graduated in 2015 as an Engineer from NUI Galway where computers and mathematics were his first love. Justin soon extended his love to writing and hence combined these attributes into writing his first novel, Code Thief, which was published in May.

Diane Fahey is an Australian poet and lives in a bayside town on the Bellarine Peninsula. She is the author of twelve poetry collections, most recently A House by the River (Puncher & Wattmann, 2016). The Wing Collection: New & Selected Poems (2011) and The Stone Garden: Poems from Clare (2013) were both shortlisted for major book awards. Sea Wall and River Light, a collection of poems set in Barwon Heads, received the ACT government's Judith Wright Poetry Award in 2007. Among her awards for individual poems are the Newcastle Poetry Prize and the Wesley Michel Wright Award. Diane has received literary grants from the Victorian and South Australian Governments, and from the Australia Council, including a grant in 2014 to support the writing of a book on the West of Ireland. She took part in Australian Poetry's 2013 International Poetry Tour of Ireland. Past writing residencies have taken her to Venice, the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, Hawthornden Castle International Writers' Retreat in Scotland, and to Varuna, the National Writers House, and Bundanon, both in N.S.W. She has been writer in residence at Ormond College, Melbourne, and the University of Adelaide. Her website: <dianefaheypoet.com>          

Louis de Paor is Director of the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway and one of the leading Irish language poets. He is editor of the anthology Leabhar na hAthghabhála -Poems of Repossession (published recently by Bloodaxe). He will introduce the readings from Leabhar na hAthghabhála on the evening. 

A native of Cill Chiaráin, Micheál Ó Cuaig is a sean nós singer and  the author of highly regarded collections of Irish poetry, such as Uchtóga (1985) and Clocha Reatha (1986) which critics have applauded for their emotional delicacy and scrupulous use of language. His poems feature in Leabhar na hAthghabhála.

Colbert Kearney was born in Dublin, went to school in Garbally Park and attended University College Dublin and Cambridge University.  He is emeritus professor of English at University College Cork and has published studies of Brendan Behan and Sean O’Casey.  He has also published a novel, The Consequence, and has recently completed a memoir of his parents.  A major influence on his life was his Finglas National School teacher, Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, whose ‘Aifreann na Marbh’ he translated for Leabhar na hAthghabhála.

Alvy Carragher's first collection of poems Falling in Love with Broken Things has been published by Salmon Poetry this year. She is an award-winning poet and blogger. Her work has appeared in The Irish Times, The Galway Review, Poet Head, Skylight 47 and many others. She was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series 2016 and represented the group at a reading in New York.

There is no entrance fee.

For further information contact 087-6431748.

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

June Over The Edge Writer's Gathering with William Wall, Niamh Boyce, Paul Duffy, Michaeil J. Whelan, Susan Millar DuMars...

The June Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents by fiction writers and poets, Niamh Boyce, Paul Duffy, William Wall,  Michael J. Whelan, & Susan Millar DuMars. Paul Duffy is 2015 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year  and will read his winning story.  Niamh Boyce is the judge for 2016 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year.  

The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway  on Thursday, June 30th, 8pm.  All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Niamh Boyce

Niamh Boyce won the overall Hennessy XO New Writer of The Year and the Emerging Poet Category for her poem 'Kitty'. Her poetry has also been highly commended in The Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award. Her first novel, The Herbalist (Penguin Ireland) won Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards 2013, and was long listed for the IMPAC Award. Her stories have been adapted for stage, broadcast, published in literary magazines and anthologized, most recently in 'The Long Gaze Back - Irish Women Writers' and 'The Hennessy Book of Irish Fiction.' Niamh was shortlisted for the Francis McManus Short Story Competition 2011, the Hennessy Literary Awards 2010, the Molly Keane Award 2010 and the WOW Award 2010, her stories can be found in magazines such as The Moth, Crannóg, Revival, Boyne Berries, Poetry Bus, The Stony Thursday Book and New Irish Writing Magazine. Originally from Athy, Co Kildare Niamh now lives with her family in Ballylinan, Co Laois. Niamh is the judge for 2016 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year, the deadline for which is August 3^rd  http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2014/10/2015-over-edge-new-writer-of-year-to-be.html .

Paul Duffy is a former Galway City resident now living in Wicklow. Paul is currently working on a collection of short stories. He is 2015 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year and will be reading his winning story ‘Redolence’.

Salmon Poetry recently published Susan Millar DuMars’ fourth collection of poems Bone Fire.

William Wall

William Wall is the author of four novels, including This is the Country (Sceptre), longlisted for the Man Booker Prize; three collections of poetry; and one volume of short stories. He has won the Virginia Faulkner Award, The Sean O’Faoláin Prize, several Writer’s Week prizes and The Patrick Kavanagh Award. He was shortlisted for the Young Minds Book Award, the Irish Book Awards, the Raymond Carver Award, the Hennessy Award and numerous others. His work has been translated into many languages, including Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Latvian, Serbian and Catalan. In 2014 William was part of the Italo-Irish Literature Exchange, organised through The Irish Writers’ Centre, which toured Italy with readings in Italian and English. In March 2010 he was Writer in Residence at The Princess Grace Irish Library, Monaco. He was a 2009 Fellow of The Liguria Centre for the Arts & Humanities. He lives in Cork. His short story collection Hearing Voices, Seeing Things was published this year by Doire Press.

Michael J. Whelan

Michael J. Whelan joined the Irish Defence Forces in 1990, serving on tours of duty as a United Nations Peacekeeper. He has received the General Officer Commanding Irish Air Corps Award, the Paul Tissandier Diploma and the Tallaght Person of the Year Award (Arts & Culture section). Michael’s poetry has been widely published, including in The Hundred Years’ War: Anthology of Modern War Poems (Bloodaxe) and his work was the subject of a centenary of the Great War exhibition entitled Landscapes Of War & Peace 1914-2014: War Poetry & Peacekeeping. He won 2nd Place in the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Awards, 3rd Place in the Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Awards and a commendation in the Carousel Creates Creative Writing Awards, as well as having received an Arts Bursary from South Dublin Arts Office. In 2012 he was selected to read at the Poetry Ireland Introductions series. Michael’s debut poetry collection Peacekeeper is recently published by Doire Press.

There is no entrance fee.

For further information contact 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support ofthe Arts Council, Poetry Ireland, 

and Galway City Council. 

May Over The Edge Open Reading with Paul McVeigh, Una Mannion, & Sandra Coffey

Paul McVeigh

The May ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 26^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Paul McVeigh, Una Mannion, & Sandra Coffey. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are especially welcome. 

Sandra Coffey is a writer from Athenry, county Galway. She has been published in Crannóg, Honest Ulsterman, Incubator Journal, Silver Apples, Lampeter Review, Galway Review, ROPES and ‘Around the Farm Gate’ a collection of rural stories published by Ballpoint Press, RTE and the Farmer’s Journal. She was longlisted for the 2015 writing.ie Bord Gais Energy Irish Short Story of the Year. She works as a journalist for the Galway Independent. She tweets at @SandraCoffey 

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 is currently completing an MA in Writing at NUI Galway. She lives in Sligo with her husband and three children.  

Born in Belfast, Paul McVeigh is an award-winning writer whose work has been performed on stage and radio, published in print and been translated into French, German, Polish, Russian and Spanish. He began his career as a playwright before moving to London where he wrote comedy shows, which were performed at the Edinburgh Festival and in London’s West End. His short stories have been published in literary journals and anthologies, read on BBC Radio 5 and commissioned by BBC Radio 4. He is the Co-Founder of London Short Story Festival, of which, he was the Director and Curator for 2014 & ’15. He is Associate Director at Word Factory, the UK’s premier short story salon. The Good Son is his first novel and was shortlisted for The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, nominated for The People’s Book Prize, and shortlisted for The Guardian’s ‘Not The Booker’ Prize 2015. It was published in France in April 2016 and is a major German release for Autumn 2016. Paul received The McCrea Literary Award in 2015.

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 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.