Evening of Polish Poetry at Sheridan's Wine Bar

Friday April 11 is the date for an evening of Polish poetry organized by Over the Edge at Sheridan’s Wine Bar, opposite St. Nicholas’s Church, with the help of Galway-based Polish journalist Magalena Szulc. The evening is being supported by the Polish Embassy in Ireland. The reading will start at 8pm.

There will be readings from the work of the great Polish poets Halina Poswiatowska, Wislawa Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert and Czeslaw Milosz. Verses will be read by volunteers in both Polish, and English. On top of that, some of Galway’s Polish residents will present their own poems to the audience. Kevin Higgins will MC the evening.

For more details, suggestions or to volunteer taking part, contact Kevin Higgins on 087-6431748 or Magdalena Szulc on 087-6944162.

Over The Edge acknowledges the support of the Arts Council, Galway City Council and The Embassy of the Republic of Poland http://www.dublin.polemb.net/index.php?document=255

POSTSCRIPT: THE EVENING WAS A HUGE SUCCESS. Thanks to all those who participated. It was, we think, the best attended Over The Edge event ever to take place at Sheridan's Wine Bar and we estimate that the audience was in or around 50% Polish. Among those who attended was the Polish Ambassador. You can see photos of the event on http://www.galway.net.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=67&Itemid=40

American Novelist Michael Strelow at March Over The Edge: Open Reading

The March Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, March 27th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Michael Strelow, Hedy Gibbons Lynott & John Corless

Michael Strelow is a professor of literature and chair of the American Studies program at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon USA. His novel, The Greening of Ben Brown, was a finalist for the Ken Kesey Oregon Book Award in 2005. He has published poetry, short stories and prose in many literary magazines and anthologies. He has just finished a new novel, The Moby-Dick Blues.

Hedy Gibbons Lynott has contributed numerous pieces of non-fiction to Lyric FM’s Quiet Quarter & RTE’s Sunday Miscellany. Her poetry has won the Writelink and Lyric Breakfast awards, and been published by Arlen House in Divas! A Sense of Place. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies Sunday Miscellany 2003-2004, ed. Marie Heaney and in County Lines, (2006) ed. Dermot Bolger. In 2007 she completed an MA in writing at NUIG. She is a member of the Talking Stick Writers Group and Java’s Writers.

John Corless writes short stories, poetry and drama. He is a founder member of the Mayo Writers’ Block, a group of creative writers who meet regularly in Claremorris and recently won the 2008 National Writers Group Festival Writers Group of the Year award. He is currently facilitating a course in Creative Writing for beginners at GMIT – Castlebar. His poetry and short fiction has appeared in a number of publications in Ireland, the UK and USA. In 2007 John’s work featured in Window’s Author’s & Artists.

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details contact 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of Galway City Council and The Arts Council

Paul Perry at North Beach Poetry Nights

North Beach Poetry Nights

presents

Paul Perry

Upstairs at Richardsons. Nr 1 on the Square.
Thursday March 20th at 9. 15 pm

Paul Perry was born in Dublin in 1972. He has won the Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year Award and The Listowel Prize for Poetry and has been a James Michener Fellow of Creative Writing at The University of Miami, and a Cambor Fellow of Poetry at The University of Houston. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Poetry Ireland Review, Cyphers, TLS, Granta and The Best American Poetry 2000. He has been a Writer in Residence for Co. Longford, the University of Ulster, and Rathlin Island. His first book The Drowning of the Saints was published by Salmon Poetry in 2003 to critical acclaim.

and

The North Beach Poetry Nights' 2 Round Slam.

The winner of this month's Slam goes forward to
the 2008 North Beach Poetry Nights' Grand Slam in December.
The prize for the Grand Slam winner is publication of a collection of her/his work.

Next month's guest poet: Conor Aylward (Manchester)

We look forward to seeing you upstairs at Richardsons!
Admission 5 Euro.

North Beach Poetry Nights gratefully acknowledges the support
of the Arts Council and Galway City Council Arts Office.

info: John Walsh @ 593290

Spring Literary Extravaganza at Sheridan's Wine Bar

Over The Edge presents readings by Damian Smyth, Susan Lindsay, Frank Golden, Alan McMonagle & Tom Morgan at Sheridan’s Wine Bar, 14-16 Church Yard Street, Galway on Friday, March 14th, 8pm.

Damian Smyth was born in Downpatrick, County Down in 1962. His first collection of poems Downpatrick Races (Lagan Press) appeared in 2000. His stage play, Soldiers of the Queen, played the Belfast Festival at Queen’s in 2002, followed by his acclaimed second collection of poems The Down Recorder (Lagan Press) in 2004. His work appears in The Ulster Anthology (2006) and The Blackbird’s Nest (2007).

Susan Lindsay was born in Dublin but now lives in Galway. She has attended poetry classes at Galway Arts Centre, and read her poems at the Over the Edge: Open Readings, the Baffle Festival, the Cuirt Poetry Slam and North Beach Poetry Nights. In December 2005 Susan won the RTE Carol of Our Times competition, and her work was put to music by the RTE Concert Orchestra. She was recently shortlisted for the Valentines Day Sonnet Competition sponsored by Tig Neactains’.

Frank Golden was born in Dublin and has been living in the Burren, County Clare, for almost twenty years. He has published four collections of poetry. In recent years he has worked on TV andand his novel The Two Women Of Aganatz, film projects and has had a number of solo exhibitions of his paintings. Frank’s most recent collection of poems, In Daily Accord, is just out from Salmon.

Alan McMonagle is originally from Longford but now lives in Galway City. He writes both fiction and poetry. His work has appeared in Southword, The Cúirt Annual, west47online and Crannóg. He took second place in the 2006 Sean O'Faolain short story competition and was also short-listed for the Fish Short Story award. He recently completed an MA in Writing at NUI Galway. His fiction was selected for inclusion in last year’s Windows anthology for emerging writers.

Tom Morgan was born in Belfast in 1943. He has published four books of poetry to date: The Rat-Diviner by Beaver Row Press, Nan of the Falls Road Curfew by Beaver Row Press, In Queen Mary’s Gardens by Salmon Publishing and Ballintrillick in the Light of Ben Whiskin by Lagan Press. Nan was nominated for The Irish Times/Aer Lingus literary awards. He lives in Belfast and Ballintrillick, Co Sligo.

There is no entrance fee. All are welcome. For further information contact 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council.

'Boarding Cards, Homeland Security & the Gay Capital of England' by Miceal Kearney

Boarding Cards, Homeland Security and the Gay Capital of England

By Micéal Kearney (pictured far right)

Having won the 2007 Cúirt Poetry Grand Slam last April, with my poem Day Tripping in Amsterdam, I was all set, five months later, for Slovenia. I shared a seat on a bus, from the airport, with the American poet, Carolyn Forché. She told me she attended the second Cúirt Festival, when I was only seven and poetry not in my vocabulary.

Poets, writers, playwrights, translators and a partridge in a pear tree...every time we sat for breakfast, dinner or met for a cigarette outside, it was an observational poets’ wet dream: people from France, Italy & Switzerland talking German. Other nationalities waving the flag of broken English as they discussed dead Russian poets, living Swedish novelists, translation and comparative programmes run by Polish universities. Then, there was me: Michael Schmidt’s interloping grey squirrel with feck all coupla focal. It was an eye-opening experience to attend this festival for me. I met other Irish poets there such as Denis O’Driscoll, Cathal Ó Searcaigh, Celia de Fréine and Gabriel Rosenstock.

In December I flew to the other side of the globe: Chicago. Having filled out my Homeland Security form declaring I was not a terrorist, I landed in O’Hare. Snow everywhere; I’d never seen as much. A joy to me– but a pain in the arse I was told by everyone. One of my readings was in the Green Mill, birthplace of Slam Poetry, but once a famous speakeasy from back when Al Capone wrote the poetry. I also read at the Irish American Heritage Centre where I had a poem taken to appear in the Irish American News.

The previous year I had won the Cuisle Poetry Slam in Limerick and in October 2007, travelled with the Whitehouse Poets’ from Limerick to read at the Pulse Festival in sunny Brighton –an enriching experience and I made some good contact there.

Poetry has brought me around the world, but home is where it started: a Sunday in Autumn I wrote my first poem and haven’t stopped since. A sparkly diamond was once a dirty lump of coal. I kept chipping away for about four years until I had amassed a masterpiece manuscript and every one of them 24 carat. Every editor told me, each in his or her polite enough way, that it was toilet-paper.

A friend suggested I should take a creative writing class; where I learnt of the Over The Edge readings in the library and at Sheridan’s wine-bar – run by Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars. I attended my first poetry slam in November ’05, North Beach Poetry Nights organised by John Walsh. A month later I went to my first Galway Arts Centre poetry slam. It’s scary. At first you don’t know anybody; but that changes.

For all those poets just starting off: my only advice is, in no particular order– Read. Write. Workshop. Slam. And submit. Sure, rejections a bitch; but without the sour the sweet just isn’t sweet.

Micéal Kearney lives in Balindereen, County Galway. Since he took a creative writing class at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in September 2005 his work has appeared in The Shop, Orbis and elsewhere. He won the 2006 Cuisle Poetry Slam in Limerick, the 2008 BAFFLE competition; the 2008 Cúirt International Festival of Literature Poetry Grand Slam & The 2008 North Beach Poetry Nights Grand Slam. He was also shortlisted for the 2007 Cinnamon Press Poetry Prize. His first collection of poems will be published soon.

Springtime Creative Writing Classes at GTI

Creative Writing for Beginners with Kevin Higgins takes place one evening per week (Monday) from 7.00-9.30pm. (8 weeks) It commences on Monday, 7th April, 2008. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €110. Kevin Higgins will provide writing exercises for, and give gentle critical feedback to, those interested in trying their hand at writing poems, stories or memoir.

Intermediate Creative Writing with Susan Millar DuMars takes place one evening per week (Tuesday) from 7.00-9.30pm. (8 weeks) It commences on Tuesday, 8th April, 2008. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €110. This class is suitable for those who’ve participated in creative writing classes before or begun to have work published in magazines. Flexible exercises and work-shopping of assignments, together with the study of the works of published writers, will help each class member to find their own writing voice.

To book a place in either class contact GTI, Father Griffin Road, Galway. Telephone 091-581342 or go to http://www.gti.ie/

Launch of 2008 Cúirt Festival Programme: Tuesday March 11th, 5pm in The King's Head

Dave Lordan shortlisted for 'The Irish Times' Poetry Now prize

Dave Lordan's debut collection of poems, The Boy in the Ring, published by Salmon Poetry, is one of five books shortlisted for the prestigious Irish Times-Poetry Now prize for best collection of poetry published by an Irish poet during the past year.

Dave was a Featured Reader at Over The Edge in February 2006 and he was shortlisted for the 2007 Cúirt Festival/Over The Edge showcase reading. We were also delighted to host a Galway launch of The Boy in the Ring in Charlie Byrne's Bookshop last October.

Also shortlisted this year are Out of Breath by Eamonn Grennan (Gallery Press); Secular Eden: Paris Notebooks 1994-2004 by Harry Clifton (Wake Forest University Press); Reality Check by Dennis O'Driscoll (Anvil Press) & Black Moon by Matthew Sweeney (Cape Poetry).

The winner of the €5,000 prize will be announced at the Poetry Now Festival, which takes place in Dún Laoighaire from April 3rd-6th/

Last year's winner was Seamus Heaney's District and Circle (Faber & Faber).

Michelle O'Sullivan to read with NUI Galway MA In Writing Poets

Michelle O' Sullivan
The next Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, February 28th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Michelle O’Sullivan, and five students from this year’s MA in Writing at NUI Galway: Patricia Byrne, Aideen Henry, Cian Macken, Paul McMahon & Moya Roddy

Michelle O’Sullivan lives in County Mayo. She has an MA in Literature. Her poetry has appeared in a glittering variety of prestigious publications such as The Shop, Poetry Ireland Review, The Sunday Tribune & Agenda. She has work forthcoming in PN Review & The Southern Indiana Review. She is currently working on a collection of poetry as well as a collection of short fiction.

Patricia Byrne lives in Limerick. Her work has been published in The Stony Thursday Book, Southword, Revival, West 47 & The Cúirt Annual. She is currently a student on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway.

Aideen Henry lives and works in Galway. Her poems have been published in West 47, Crannóg, The Shop & The Stony Thursday Book. She is currently a student on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway.

Cian Macken lives in Galway City. His poems have appeared in the collection Full Colour Sound. He is currently a student on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway.

Paul McMahon has had his plays workshopped by Tinderbox and Fishamble Theatre companies. His play The Blueprint was given a rehearsed reading at this year’s Dublin Fringe Theatre Festival. He is currently a student on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway.

Moya Roddy is a well established Irish writer. The Irish Times described her novel The Long Way Home as “simply brilliant”. Her stories have been published by Penguin, Serpents Tail & Arlen House, among others. Moya recently started writing poetry. She is currently a student on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway.

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details contact 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of Galway City Council and The Arts Council

Performance Poetry Workshop with Mags Treanor at Galway Arts Centre

Both teenagers and adults are invited to polish up on their performance skills in the lead up to this year’s Cúirt Festival of Literature’s Grand Slam and Youth Speak. Mags Treanor will cover all aspects of performance poetry, such as intonation and expression, breathing exercises, dealing with nerves and connecting with your audience as well as writing and feedback sessions.

The workshops commence on Wednesday 27th February and run weekly until Wednesday March 26th – teenagers’ workshop from 5.30-7pm and adult class from 7.15-8.45pm. Early booking is advised.

For more info or to book a place contact Victoria at Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, phone 091-565886 or email victoria@galwayartscentre.ie


Course Outline

90 minutes per workshop

Workshop One
Welcome & Introductions
What is performance poetry?
Slam Competitions – How they work
Writing Exercise one

Workshop Two
Writing exercise two
Concrete vs. Abstract language
Individual pieces and feedback

Workshop Three
Working on performance
Intonation and expression
Breathing Exercises
Preparation

Workshop Four
Stagefright
Dealing with Nerves
Connecting with the audience
Involving the audience

Workshop Five
Performance as an Art Form
Body language and mood
Start and Finish with Flair

Workshop Six
Recap
Group Slam
Open Points
Putting it all together

Poetry Book Showcase Reading on Youtube

Paul Casey, organiser of the successful Ó'Bhéal reading series in Cork City, was there with his video camera at the 2008 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase Reading at Sheridan's Wine Bar, Galway on Friday, February 8th. He has posted the resulting footage of the poets reading on YouTube. To view them go to http://www.obheal.ie/blog/?page_id=43

Galway Poet Gerry Hanberry reads at City Museum

Galway Poet Gerry Hanberry reads at Galway City Museum on coming Saturday 1st March at 3 pm. Admission 5 Euro.

Rough Night, Gerard Hanberry’s first collection of poetry was published in May 2002 by Stonebridge Publications, Ebbw Vale, Wales. A second collection Something Like Lovers was published in October 2005 also by Stonebridge. Publications.

In summer 2004 Gerard won the Brendan Kennelly/ Sunday Tribune Poetry Award. He has been shortlisted for many of Ireland’s top poetry prizes including a Sunday Tribune/Hennessy Award in 2000, Strokestown 2003 and RTE’s Rattlebag Poetry Slam 2003. He was runner-up in the Firewords City Poetry Award (Galway) 2005 and in 2000 Gerard won the Originals Short Story prize in Listowel Writers Week.

His poetry has been published widely in literary journals and newspapers in Ireland and the UK including Orbis, Envoi, Poetry Ireland Review, The Shop, Cuirt Annual, ROPES, The Stinging Fly, The Stony Thursday Book as well as The Irish Times, The Sunday Tribune and The Galway Advertiser as well as http://www.laurahird.com/ and other on-line poetry sites. A sonnet has been accepted for publication in Measure 2008, a US publication for formal poetry associated with the University of Evansville Some of his work featured on ‘Poetry on the Dart’ (Dublin’s version of Poems on the Underground) during the summer of 2007. Gerard has a First Class Honours MA in Writing from NUI, Galway and is currently a teacher of English at Saint Enda’s College, Salthill, Galway, Ireland. He is a member of the advisory panel to the Cuirt Festival of Literature, Galway.

Upcoming Poetry Readings at Galway City Museum

April 5th Alan Jude Moore (Dublin)

May 3rd Michael D. Higgins (Galway)

June 7th Michael O'Loughlin (Galway City Writer-in-Residence)


Presented by North Beach Poetry
Info: John Walsh at 593290


North Beach Poetry gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council

Quincy Lehr wins Galway’s Tig Neactains’ Valentines Day Sonnet Competition

Congratulations to Quincy Lehr who won hotly contested English language section of the Valentine's Day sonnet competition sponsored by Tig Neactains’ pub in Galway.




Quincy will be reading for Over The Edge at Sheridan's Wine Bar on Friday, May 16th 8pm alongside fellow poets Emily Cullen, Billy Mills and Catherine Walsh.

Quincy Lehr was born in Oklahoma City in 1975. He was educated in the Oklahoma public schools, as well as at the University of Texas at Austin and Columbia University. A life-long reader of poetry, he began seriously writing it (aside from the inevitable dreadful verse one produces in adolescence) in 2003. Influences include W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Thomas Hardy, E. A. Robinson, Ezra Pound, Gerard Manley Hopkins, T. S. Eliot, Philip Larkin, and W. B. Yeats. At present, he teaches history at NUI Galway. His first collection is forthcoming from Seven Towers.

Eva Bourke at North Beach Poetry Nights

North Beach Poetry Nights

presents

EVA BOURKE

Upstairs at Richardson's. Nr 1 on Eyre Square.

Thursday February 14th at 9.15 pm

Eva Bourke is a poet and translator. The most recent of her five collections of poetry, are Travels with Gandolpho (Dedalus Press 2000) and The Latitude of Naples (Dedalus Press 2005). Eva was editor of Writing in the West for six years and she has taught on the creative writing programs at the William Joiner Centre for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, as well as at NUI Galway for many years. Her work has been translated into most European languages and she has been invited to give readings at festivals and universities in the US, Europe and Central America as well as Argentina.At the moment she is working on the sixth collection The Snow Gatherers as well as a comprehensive volume of contemporary German poetry in English translation for the Poetry Europe Series of the Dedalus Press. She has received numerous awards and bursaries and is a member of Aosdána.

PLUS

The North Beach Poetry Nights' 2 Round Slam

The winner of this month's Slam goes forward to the 2008 North Beach Poetry Nights' Grand Slam in December. The prize for the Grand Slam winner is publication of a collection of her/his work.

Next month's guest poet: Paul Perry (Dublin)

We look forward to seeing you upstairs at Richardsons!

Admission 5 Euro.

North Beach Poetry Nights gratefully acknowledges the support
of the Arts Council and Galway City Council Arts Office.

info: John Walsh @ 091-593290

2008 Poetry Book Showcase reading at Sheridan's Wine Bar

Moya Cannon

The 2008 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase featuring Moya Cannon, Jarlath Fahy, John Walsh, Sheila Phelan, Elaine Feeney, Mags Treanor, Knute Skinner, Stephen Murray & Neil McCarthy will take place at Sheridan's Wine Bar, 14-16 Church Yard Street, Galway on Friday, February, 8th at 8pm.

In this annual retrospective of the year just past, Galway-based poets who published a new collection of poems during 2007 will each read three poems from his or her collection.

In both 2006 & 2007 the Poetry Book Showcase was a big success and has now become an annual event in the Galway poetry calendar.

All welcome. For further details phone 087-6431748

Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of The Arts Council and Galway City Council

Over The Edge features on Harvard University website

"When my friend Annie (Let's Go Ireland 2008) arrived in Galway for the last stretch of her research-writing route, we met up to attend a poetry reading at Sheridan's Wine Bar. The reading was presented by a local literary group, Over The Edge, and included poets from Limerick and Galway. My first-ever poetry reading! The second of the three poets especially struck a chord with me – he was an older man, new to writing from his biography, and recited all his poetry from memory." Julia Lam
http://HarvardUniversitywebsite.htm

New issue of West 47 online

The latest issue of West 47, Galway Arts Centre's online literary quarterly, which includes new work by Mike McCormack, Kerry Hardie Alan McMonagle, Clare Ryan, Tom Sheehan, Jackie Morrissey, Andrew Caldicott, James Martyn & Sheila Phelan is now available at
http://www.galwayartscentre.ie/west47/index.html

Gordon Hewitt at first Galway Arts Centre Poetry Slam of 2008

GALWAY ARTS CENTRE’S POETRY SLAM!
TUESDAY 29th January 2008 7-8 pm,
the Ruby Room,
The King’s Head

Galway Arts Centre’s first poetry Slam for the New Year takes place Tuesday 29th January at 7pm in The Ruby Room. What’s a Poetry Slam? It’s poetry with attitude: eight performers have three minutes each to wow the audience with their own original poetic creation. All subjects, styles and struts welcome. The overall winner goes forward to Cúirt Festival Grand Slam (April 2008).

Shake of those January Blues and come along and listen to the eight performers strut their poetic stuff; you may even be picked as one of our audience judges! Resident MC Pete Mullineaux sets the pace and the guest performer is Gordon Hewitt, winner of the December Slam. Admission is free and all are welcome.

For further information, please contact Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, Galway 091-565886 or info@galwayartscentre.ie

INK National Writers Group Festival

The second National Writers Group Festival will take place in Longford from 15th to 17th February 2008.

This year sees an expanded programme with a greater choice of workshops which will begin on Friday afternoon, and continue right through Saturday. These will include historical and commercial fiction, memoir, the short story, and poetry at both intermediate and advanced levels. Facilitators include Sarah Webb, Martina Devlin, Leo Cullen, Brian Leyden, Pat Boran, Noel Monahan and Jean O’Brien. There will also be a seminar on the running of the writers group with Kevin Higgins and Sally Sweeney.

We have also significantly increased the social dimension of the festival with a number of receptions, launches, readings, a literary table quiz, an open-mic session, and a designated literature lounge. One of the celebratory highlights will be the presentation of the Writers Group of the Year Award to be made on Saturday evening, with the launch of “Petals on a Bough”, the anthology of winning entries in the competition.During the festival, we will be operating a “marriage bureau” at which writers groups from around the country can establish contact which can then be maintained through Longford’s literary website, http://www.virtualwriter.net/

For further details, contact Anne Collins, Longford Creative Writing Development Officer on 043 34906 or email acollins@longfordcoco.ie

Over The Edge Celebrates Fifth Birthday With Reading By Pat Boran

Pat Boran

The first ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ of 2008 takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, January 24th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Peter Guy, Jenny McCudden & Pat Boran. The reading is sponsored by Poetry Ireland. This is a very special occasion as it is now exactly five years since Over The Edge was born in Galway City Library in January 2003.

Peter Guy is a senior researcher and fellow of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies based in ITT Dublin. He has been published in a number of Irish and international periodicals, including The Cúirt Annual, Iota, Poetry Nottingham, Comstock Review, Quarterly West, Indiana Review and others. He happily divides his time between west Dublin, east Limerick and his native Connemara.

Jenny McCudden is originally from Naas in county Kildare. She now lives in Galway and works as Western Correspondent for TV3 News. Jenny began her career as a journalist working for the Sunday World and the Westmeath Offaly Independent. She spent five years in the UK, working for the BBC, before returning to take up her current position with TV3. She has always enjoyed writing fiction and poetry.

Pat Boran was born in Portlaoise in 1963 and currently lives in Dublin, where he is Director of Dedalus Press. Prior to taking over the press in 2005, he published four collections of poetry with Dedalus: The Unwound Clock (1990), which won the Patrick Kavanagh Award, Familiar Things (1993), The Shape of Water (1996) and As the Hand, the Glove (2001). His New and Selected Poems (first published by Salt Publishing in 2005) was reissued recently, with minor revisions, by Dedalus. A regular reviewer of new poetry and fiction titles in a number of Irish national newspapers and journals, he also presents The Poetry Programme on RTÉ Radio 1.

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 generous financial support of Galway City Council, Poetry Ireland & The Arts Council