Over The Edge-the first ten years anthology SEATTLE LAUNCH

Over the Edge - the first ten years anthology U.S. launch next Friday at the 2014 AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Conference in Seattle.  

Launch of 2014 Cúirt Festival Programme ALL WELCOME

Tuesday, March 5^th, 6pm @ The House Hotel 

- the 2014 Cúirt Festival programme 

will be launched by Patrick Lonergan.

Dublin launch of poetry collections by Susan Lindsay & Kevin Higgins PEARSE STREET LIBRARY April 29th

February Over The Edge: Open Reading with Alvy Carragher, Kate Ennals & Michael Farry PLUS announcement of details of 2014 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition

The February ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, February 27^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Michael Farry, Kate Ennals & Alvy Carragher. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are especially welcome. The evening will also see the announcement of details of this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, which will then be made available here on our website.   

Alvy Carragher is currently a student on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway. Her poetry has been commended in the Gregory O’Donoghue Award, highly commended in the 2013 Over the Edge New Writer of The year competition and she came third in the 2013 Doire Press Poetry Competition. Alvy is the current Connaught Slam Poetry Champion. Her blog “with all the finesse of a badger” won best humour blog in the Irish Blog Awards and is a finalist for blog of the year in the Samsung Digital Media Awards 2014. 

Kate Ennals completed the MA in Writing in NUI Galway last year. She writes both poetry and fiction. She currently facilitates both poetry and writing workshops in Cavan. Her writing has been published in Crannog, Skylight 47 and the Galway Review. She has had stories and poems in the anthology, From Ballyjamesduff to Belleek, which was published by the International Fund for Ireland. And Kate features in the new anthology, The Adventure Hat, published by the Black Fort Writers. She won third Prize in the Dead Good Poetry Competition, run by the Galway Rape Crisis Centre in May 2013. Kate’s writing will also to be published in the next edition of Burning Bush 2 and Ropes 2014.

Michael Farry is a retired primary school teacher who writes both poetry and non-fiction. His poetry collection, Asking for Directions, was published by Doghouse in 2012 and his book Sligo: The Irish Revolution 1912-23, was published by Four Courts Press in the same year. He is founder and for many years was editor of Boyne Berries magazine published by Boyne Writers Group.

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 EVENING WILL ALSO SEE THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF DETAILS OF THIS YEAR’S OVER THE EDGE NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION. The MC for the evening will be Kevin Higgins. For further details phone 087-6431748.

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

2014 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase at Nuns Island Theatre

The 2014 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase featuring Stephen Murray, Terry McDonagh, Elaine Feeney, Adam White, Michelle O’Sullivan, the New Planet Cabaret anthology, Nicki Griffin, Noel Duffy, the Adventure Hat anthology, Patrick Stack, Jean Folan, the Artistic Atlas of Galway, Emily Cullen, Susan Lindsay & the anthology  Watching My Hands At Work: A Festschrift For Adrian Frazier, will take place at Galway Arts Centre’s Nuns’ Island Theatre on Friday, February, 7^th at 8pm. 

In this annual retrospective of the year just past, Galway-based poets, who published a new collection of poems during 2013, are invited to read three poems from the collection in question. There will also be short readings from the anthologies Adventure Hat (NUI Galway MA in Writing class of 2013), the Artistic Atlas of Galway (Edited by Liam Duffy), Watching My Hands At Work: A Festschrift For Adrian Frazier (Edited by Megan Buckley, Eva Bourke &; Louis de Paor, published by Salmon) & New Planet Cabaret (Edited by Dave Lordan, published by New Island).

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

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

Over The Edge Celebrates Eleventh Birthday with Readings by Breege Bogusia Wardein, Breda Wall Ryan, & Mary O’Donnell @ LAUNCH of issue three of Skylight 47 (possibly Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication)

Over The Edge Celebrates Eleventh Birthday with Readings by Breege Bogusia Wardein, Breda Wall Ryan, & Mary O’Donnell who will Launch issue three of Skylight 47 (possibly Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication)

Over The Edge  presents the first ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ of 2014 at Galway City Library on Thursday, January 23^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Mary O’Donnell, 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year Breda Wall Ryan & Breege Bogusia Wardein. The centre piece of the evening will be the launch of issue number three 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 on the evening by Mary O’Donnell. 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. This new issue includes new poems by established and emerging poets, an interview with Kay Ryan U.S. Poet Laureate 2008-10 & winner of the Pulitzer Prize; reviews of Richard Halperin by Pat McMahon, Susan Miller DuMars by Maurice Devitt & Kimberly Campanello by Breda Spaight; an article about the Garden Room Writers, Donegal; a poetry masterclass with Drucilla Wall; & comment by Kevin Higgins on the sometimes vexed question of corporate sponsorship of literary events.

For details on how to take out a subscription to Skylight 47 see here http://www.overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2012/11/skylight-47-possibly-irelands-most.html

Breege Bogusia Wardein better known in Ireland as Breege was born in Poland, but her heart belongs to Galway where she has spent her formative months. Her poetry has been published in a variety of magazines in Ireland, UK and US including Revival, Crannóg, THE SHOp, Orbis, The Journal, Poetry Wales, Emerging Literary Journal. It was also anthologised in Embers of Words - An Irish Anthology of Migrant Poetry and Wayword Tuesdays by the Galway based Tuesday Knights poetry group. Five of her poems have most recently appeared in the Indian magazine Kavya Bharati. In 2013 she was nominated for the Forward Prize. She is currently longlisted in a poetry competition with a long list poem what makes her feel like a World Cup winner. For more information about her and her poetry visit http://www.bogusiawardein.com When she lived in Galway, Breege Bogusia was a participant in a variety of poetry workshops facilitated by Kevin Higgins.

Breda Wall Ryan grew up in rural Co. Waterford. She began writing in 2003 under the mentorship of the late Dorothy Molloy. Her fiction has been published in New Irish Writing, The Stinging Fly and in several anthologies, including The Faber Book of Best New Irish Short Stories and The New Hennessy Book of New Irish Short Fiction. She turned to writing poetry in 2008 and has since been published in anthologies, and in print and on-line journals in Ireland, Britain, the USA and Mexico, and has been shortlisted or placed in many contests. 2013 was a very auspicious year for her: her unpublished collection was awarded Joint 3rd place in the Patrick Kavanagh Awards and individual poems were shortlisted in the Desmond O’Grady Competition, were nominated for a Pushcart Prize and won the iYeats, Poets Meet Painters and Dromineer Literary Festival. She has an M Phil in Creative Writing from Trinity College Dublin, has completed a Faber Becoming a Poet Course and is a founder member of Hibernian Poetry. She lives with her family near the sea in Bray, Co Wicklow. Breda Wall Ryan is 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year. 

 Mary O'Donnell

Mary O’Donnell’s first three poetry collections were published by Salmon Poetry. Other collections include September Elegies (Lapwing Press, Belfast 2003) and her selected poems, The Place of Miracles (New Island, 2006). The Ark Builders, appeared from Arc Publications UK in 2009, followed by an anthology of Galician poetry in translation – To the Winds Our Sails: Irish Poets Translate Galician Poetry – which she co-edited with Dr. Manuela Palacios, from Salmon Poetry. Her Selected Poems were published in Hungarian in 2011 and she was recently the co-winner of the Irodälmi Jelen translation prize. She has also written three novels and two collections of short fiction, and her new novel Where They Lie, an engrossing tale of a family’s attempt to recover the bodies of their murdered sons, will be published next April by New Island.  She has judged the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the Hennessy Literary Award, the Strokestown International Poetry Competition and most recently the Irish Times/Mountains to Sea Poetry Prize. A member of Aosdána, she teaches creative writing at NUI Maynooth. As well as reading her own work, Mary O’Donnell will launch the new issue of Skylight 47.

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. Contributors to the new issue of Skylight 47 are particularly welcome to read their Skylight 47 poems at the open-mic; those wishing to take part should get to Galway City Library by 6.20pm, at the latest, and give their names to Kevin Higgins, who 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 & The Arts Council. We are delighted that Over The Edge will continue to receive the same level of funding in 2014, from both Galway City Council & the Arts Council, as we did in 2013. In the circumstances, this is a spectacular result and a tribute to our work.  

IMPORTANT Salmon Poetry recently published Over The Edge – The First Ten Years – An Anthology of Fiction & Poetry (Edited by Susan Millar DuMars). The book will be on sale at all Over The Edge during 2014 and can also be purchased here http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=317&a=39

STARTING IN NEW YEAR GMIT presents Creative Writing for Beginners with Susan Millar DuMars

In the New Year GMIT is offering a course in Creative Writing for Beginners with Susan Millar DuMars. The course takes place at GMIT Dublin Road Campus one evening per week (Wednesday) for 7 weeks from 7–9p.m. It commences on Wednesday, February 5th, 2014. Advance booking is essential. The course fee is €95.

During the seven weeks Susan Millar DuMars will give support, instruction and feedback to students who are interested in writing either fiction (short stories, novels) or poetry. The class will work on techniques for forming ideas and getting started; engaging the reader’s senses; using figures of speech effectively; being alert to the importance of the sound of words, the rhythm of writing; how to manage the truth in a fictitious piece; the different forms of poetry; awareness of character and point of view in fiction; editing and polishing work. Whether the student seeks publication, self-expression, a rewarding hobby (or possibly all three), this course is a wonderful place to start.

For further details or to book a place contact GMIT, Dublin Road, Galway. Telephone 091 742145, email lifelonglearning@gmit.ie or see the website http://www.gmit.ie/lifelong-learning-galway/creative-writing 

Course Tutor:

Susan Millar DuMars’ debut poetry collection, Big Pink Umbrella, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2008.  Her next collection, Dreams for Breakfast, appeared in April 2010.  Her work features in Landing Places, Dedalus’ 2010 anthology of immigrant poetry written in Ireland; and also in The Best Of Irish Poetry 2010.  A fiction writer as well, she published a collection of short stories, American Girls, with Lapwing in 2007.  She published a book of short stories in 2010: Lights in the Distance, published by Doire Press. She has been the recipient of an Arts Council Literature Bursary. Susan's third collection of poetry, The God Thing, was published by Salmon Poetry last March. She lives in Galway, where she and her husband have run the Over the Edge readings series since 2003. Susan recently edited the anthology Over the Edge – The First Ten years, published by Salmon, which includes work by forty seven writers who have published a first book since they did a reading at an Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library.