Launch of 'Poems for Patience X' & 'This Never Happened 2' with Matthew Sweeney & Kevin Higgins

Launch of Poems for Patience X

- Selected and Introduced by Matthew Sweeney

&

 This Never Happened 2

– Edited and Introduced by Kevin Higgins

Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust invites you to come along to the launch of the tenth series of the very successful Poems for Patience initiative.

Poet Matthew Sweeney will introduce 21 poems he has selected, including works by poets reading at this year’s festival. The poetry is circulated throughout the waiting areas of University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital.

For the duration of the festival, the poems will be on display on the Art Corridor, University Hospital, Galway. This project is organised by Margaret Flannery.

To mark the tenth anniversary of the ‘Poems for Patience’ project, Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust launched a poetry competition in 2013. The Trust was delighted with the incredibly high standard and the huge response from poets. The winning entry is called ‘The River’ by Jane Clarke. Jane will be presented with a copy of her poem in a poster format and will read it at the launch on Friday.
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Creative Writing by patients and staff at University Hospitals Galway will also be launched on the Art Corridor. Writer in Residence Kevin Higgins is the editor of their publication: This Never Happened 2.

Directions: From the main entrance of the University Hospital, go through the foyer and take the second right.

For further information contact Margaret Flannery, Arts Director, Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust at 091 544979 or guhartstrust@hse.ie

Doire Press invites you the launch of 'Accurate Measurements' by Adam White

Salmon Poetry Invites You To The Galway Launch of The God Thing by Susan Millar DuMars

Salmon Poetry invites you

to the Galway launch of The God Thing,

the new collection of poetry by Susan Millar DuMars.

The book will be launched by Reverend Canon Maureen Ryan

at Galway City Museum

on Saturday, March 23rd at 2pm.

 Everyone is welcome.

Maureen Ryan has lived most of her adult life in Galway. She has published two novels and over 400 academic papers, essays, sermons, meditations and reflections. She is a psychologist, a Priest in the Church of Ireland and a Canon in the National Cathedral of St. Patrick’s, Dublin.

In The God Thing, Susan Millar DuMars writes with compassion and clarity about the terminal illness and death of a family member, and her own resulting struggle to keep faith and love alive within herself. The poems question and rage, and find unexpected moments of humour and buoyancy. DuMars looks for God in the stories of the Bible’s women; in the transcendent paintings of Matisse and the soulful images of Hopper; in the transience of cities, the memory of mountains, the freedom of water and the spilt sugar stars in the sky. An excavation of grief which unearths, if not the Divine, then hope – as necessary and fragile as our next breath.

For more about The God Thing http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=286&a=39

March Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering showcases SKYLIGHT 47 possibly Ireland's most interesting poetry publication

Tony Curtis

Kevin Higgins

The March Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering a showcase reading for Skylight 47 probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication with SPECIAL GUESTS TONY CURTIS & (at the invitation of the editors of Skylight 47) KEVIN HIGGINS and many many more. All contributors to the first issue of Skylight 47 are invited to come along and read their poem from the magazine.

The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, March 15th, 8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge. Skylight 47 is generously sponsored by Food 4 Thought & Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop.

Tony Curtis was born in Dublin in 1955, he studied literature at the University of Essex and Trinity College, Dublin. Tony Curtis is an experienced facilitator of poetry and creative writing workshops with both adults and children and is a regular contributor at the Clifden Arts Festival. In 1993, his poem ‘The Dowser and the Child’ won the Poetry Ireland/Friends Provident National Poetry Competition, while ‘These Hills’ won the Book Stop Poetry Prize. He also edited As the Poet Said (1997), a selection of quotations from Dennis O'Driscoll's regular column in Poetry Ireland Review. In 2003 he was awarded the Varuna House Exchange Fellowship to Australia. Tony Curtis is a member of Aosdána and has published numerous collections of poetry, including Folk (Todmorton, Lancs. UK, Arc Publications, UK, 2011); An Elephant Called Rex [Illustrated and designed by Pat Mooney] (Dublin, Black Hills Press, 2011); Sand Works [Photography by Liam Blake] (Real Ireland, 2011); Days Like These [with Theo Dorgan & Paula Meehan] (Brooding Heron Press in Washington State; a fine art edition, editing and design by Sam and Sally Green, 2008); The Well in the Rain (Todmorton, Lancs. UK, Arc Publications, 2006); The Book of Winter Cures (Dublin, Black Hills Press, 2004 [Limited Edition]); What Darkness Covers (Todmorton, Lancs. UK, Arc Publications, 2003); Three Songs of Home (The Dedalus Press, 1998); This Far North (Dublin,The Dedalus Press, 1994); Behind the Green Curtain (Beaver Row Press, 1988) & The Shifting of Stones (Dublin, Beaver Row Press,1986).

Kevin Higgins facilitates poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre; teaches creative writing at Galway Technical Institute and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words programme. He is also Writer-in-Residence at Merlin Park Hospital and the poetry critic of the Galway Advertiser. His first collection of poems The Boy With No Face was published by Salmon in February 2005 and was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award. His second collection, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published in March 2008 by Salmon. One of the poems from Time Gentlemen, Please featured in the Forward Book of Poetry 2009. His work also features in the anthology Identity Parade – New British and Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010). Frightening New Furniture is his third collection of poems and was published in 2010 by Salmon Poetry. Kevin’s fourth collection of poetry, The Ghost In The Lobby, will be published by Salmon Poetry in 2014. Kevin has read his work at most of the major literary festivals in Ireland and at Arts Council and Culture Ireland supported poetry events in Kansas City, USA (2006), Los Angeles, USA (2007), London, UK (2007), New York, USA (2008), Athens, Greece (2008); St. Louis, USA (2008), Chicago, USA (2009), Denver, USA (2010), Washington D.C (2011), Huntington, West Virginia, USA (2011), Geelong, Australia (2011), Canberra, Australia (2011), Amherst, Massachusetts (2013) & Boston, USA (2013). His most recent publication, Mentioning The War: Essays & Reviews (1999-2011) has been described by Clare Daly T.D. as “a really good and provocative read. It will jolt you; it will certainly touch you; make you laugh; maybe make you snarl a little bit as well, depending on where you come from or what your background is.” This is the first major reading Kevin has given in Galway since 2007.

There is no entrance fee. The Kitchen @ The Museum has a wine licence.

For further information contact 087-6431748.

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

Susan Millar DuMars & Kevin Higgins to read in Amherst, Massachusetts birthplace of Emily Dickinson

Poets Susan Millar DuMars & Kevin Higgins will read their poetry at Amherst Books,     8 Main Street, Amherst, MA 01002, USA on Monday, March 11th.

The reading starts at 7pm. ALL WELCOME

For further details contact • 413.256.1547 • 800.503.5865 • books@amherstbooks.com  

• http://www.amherstbooks.com/  

The reading is organised by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and generously supported by Culture Ireland. http://www.cultureireland.ie  

Susan Millar DuMars teaches creative writing at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Galway Arts Centre, Galway Technical Institute and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words creative writing programme for people with disabilities. Her 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. Her first full collection of short stories Lights in the Distance was published by Doire Press in 2010. Susan has read her work at festivals and events all around the country and at Arts Council and Culture Ireland supported poetry events in New York, USA (2008), Athens, Greece (2008); St. Louis, USA (2008), Chicago, USA (2009), Denver, USA (2010), Washington D.C (2011), Huntington, West Virginia, USA (2011), Geelong, Australia (2011) , Canberra, Australia (2011), St. Louis, USA (2013) & Boston, USA (2013). She has also on several occasions read her poetry and participated in workshops in Lorient, Britanny as part of Galway-Lorient twinning events. She has been the recipient of an Arts Council Literature Bursary for her fiction. Her next collection of poetry, The God Thing, is just published by Salmon Poetry.

To buy Susan’s books see http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=286&a=39
and http://www.doirepress.com/HOME.html

Kevin Higgins facilitates poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre; teaches creative writing at Galway Technical Institute and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words creative writing programme for people with disabilities. He is also Writer-in-Residence at Merlin Park Hospital and the poetry critic of the Galway Advertiser. He was a founding co-editor of The Burning Bush literary magazine. His first collection of poems The Boy With No Face was published by Salmon in February 2005 and was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award. His second collection, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published in March 2008 by Salmon. One of the poems from Time Gentlemen, Please, ‘My Militant Tendency’, featured in the Forward Book of Poetry 2009. His work also features in the anthology Identity Parade – New British and Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010). Frightening New Furniture is his third collection of poems and was published in 2010 by Salmon Poetry. Kevin has read his work at most of the major literary festivals in Ireland and at Arts Council and Culture Ireland supported poetry events in Kansas City, USA (2006), Los Angeles, USA (2007), London, UK (2007), New York, USA (2008), Athens, Greece (2008); St. Louis, USA (2008), Chicago, USA (2009), Denver, USA (2010), Washington D.C (2011), Huntington, West Virginia, USA (2011), Geelong, Australia (2011), Canberra, Australia (2011), St. Louis, USA (2013) & Boston, USA (2013). Kevin’s fourth collection of poetry, The Ghost In The Lobby, will be published by Salmon Poetry in early 2014. Kevin is co-organiser of Over The Edge literary events. Mentioning The War, a collection of his essays and reviews was published last April by Salmon.

To buy any of Kevin’s books see http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=255&a=108

Colm Keegan, Yvonne McEvaddy & Pat McDonnell for March Over The Edge: Open Reading

The March ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, March 28th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Colm Keegan, Yvonne McEvaddy & Pat McDonnell. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are especially welcome.

Pat McDonnell writes fiction (which doesn’t pay the bills) as an antidote to his work in mechanical engineering (which does pay the bills). He lives in Galway where he plays flute in pub sessions and aspires to write his one great novel. In 2011, he compiled a collection of short stories into  a book Straight Out of Rehab and Udder Storys. He gave away all seven copies of the first edition during Christmas 2011 and subsequently printed seven copies of the second edition, which he also plans to give away soon. He believes that seven is a lucky number. He was shortlisted for the 2012 Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition.

Yvonne McEvaddy lives in Headford. She is the author of two novels, Passion Killer and Shadows of the Dead. She was long-listed in the 2012 Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition. She took part in the first ever short story compiled by tweets, found at: http://www.eastcoast.co.uk/shortcrimestory. Yvonne is a member of the Java Writers, who, before Christmas, published Infusions, an anthology of their work. She recently collaborated with a group of writers from around the globe to write an ebook called 8 Slices of Cake. She is currently working on her third novel, and a children’s book.

Colm Keegan has read and performed his poetry at various festivals, including the Flat Lakes Festival, Electric Picnic and the Festival of World Cultures. He was the All Ireland Slam Poetry Champion in 2010. He also writes short stories and screenplays and has been shortlisted four times for the Hennessy New Irish Writing Award for both poetry and fiction. In 2008 he was shortlisted for the International Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition. In 2011 he was nominated for the Absolut Fringe’s ‘Little Gem’ Award for the play Three Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About (co-written with Kalle Ryan and Stephen James Smith) which is touring 2012/2013. He is a poetry/arts reviewer and contributing poet for RTE Radio One’s nightly arts show ARENA and co-founder of ‘Nighthawks at the Cobalt’. He is co-founder and facilitator of Inklinks, a young writers club in Clondalkin and teaches creative writing in secondary schools across Ireland. He maintains a popular blog and his poetry performances are widely viewed on YouTube. He is currently finishing his first novel. Colm’s debut collection of poetry, Don’t Go There, was published last year by Salmon Poetry.

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 & The Arts Council.

Galway Rape Crisis Centre's Dead Good Poetry & Music Society: Kevin O'Shea & Susan Millar DuMars

THIS FRIDAY April 5th 7.30pm

Kevin O'Shea &Susan Millar DuMars read for Galway Galway-Rape Crisis-Centre's

Dead Good Poetry & Music Society

ALL WELCOME

@ Galway Rape Crisis Centre,

"The Lodge",

Forster Court,

Galway City.

Business Line: 091-564800

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/events/574859779199502/  

Celebration for New Writing from Galway @ University of Missouri-St. Louis

Irish Studies @ the University of Missouri-St. Louis

presents

A CELEBRATION OF NEW WRITING FROM GALWAY

with Susan Millar DuMars & Kevin Higgins.

Venue: 331 Social Sciences & Business Building,

University of Missouri-St. Louis

TUESDAY, MARCH 5th, 12.30-1.45pm

The reading is generously supported by Culture Ireland http://www.cultureireland.ie  & sponsored by the Smurfit-Stone Endowed Professorship in Irish Studies, International Studies & Programs, University of Missouri-St. Louis. http://www.umsl.edu/services/cis/files/pdfs/galwaywriters.pdf  

Susan Millar DuMars teaches creative writing at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Galway Arts Centre, Galway Technical Institute and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words creative writing programme for people with disabilities. Her 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. Her first full collection of short stories Lights in the Distance was published by Doire Press in 2010. Susan has read her work at festivals and events all around the country and at Arts Council and Culture Ireland supported poetry events in New York, USA (2008), Athens, Greece (2008); St. Louis, USA (2008), Chicago, USA (2009), Denver, USA (2010), Washington D.C (2011), Huntington, West Virginia, USA (2011), Geelong, Australia (2011) , Canberra, Australia (2011), St. Louis, USA (2013) & Boston, USA (2013). She has also on several occasions read her poetry and participated in workshops in Lorient, Britanny as part of Galway-Lorient twinning events. She has been the recipient of an Arts Council Literature Bursary for her fiction. Her next collection of poetry, The God Thing, is just published by Salmon Poetry.

To buy Susan’s books see http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=286&a=39
and http://www.doirepress.com/HOME.html

Kevin Higgins facilitates poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre; teaches creative writing at Galway Technical Institute and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words creative writing programme for people with disabilities. He is also Writer-in-Residence at Merlin Park Hospital and the poetry critic of the Galway Advertiser. He was a founding co-editor of The Burning Bush literary magazine. His first collection of poems The Boy With No Face was published by Salmon in February 2005 and was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award. His second collection, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published in March 2008 by Salmon. One of the poems from Time Gentlemen, Please, ‘My Militant Tendency’, featured in the Forward Book of Poetry 2009. His work also features in the anthology Identity Parade – New British and Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010). Frightening New Furniture is his third collection of poems and was published in 2010 by Salmon Poetry. Kevin has read his work at most of the major literary festivals in Ireland and at Arts Council and Culture Ireland supported poetry events in Kansas City, USA (2006), Los Angeles, USA (2007), London, UK (2007), New York, USA (2008), Athens, Greece (2008); St. Louis, USA (2008), Chicago, USA (2009), Denver, USA (2010), Washington D.C (2011), Huntington, West Virginia, USA (2011), Geelong, Australia (2011), Canberra, Australia (2011), St. Louis, USA (2013) & Boston, USA (2013). Kevin’s fourth collection of poetry, The Ghost In The Lobby, will be published by Salmon Poetry in early 2014. Kevin is co-organiser of Over The Edge literary events. Mentioning The War, a collection of his essays and reviews was published last April by Salmon.

To buy any of Kevin’s books see http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=255&a=108

Skylight 47 is now accepting submissions for its Summer Issue, to be launched in July

Skylight 47 is now accepting submissions for its Summer Issue, to be launched in July.

As we are still celebrating the launch of Issue 1, we are extending our submission closing date to 1 April 2013.

Please send up to four poems, with a short biographical note, to skylightpoets47@gmail.com.

Poems to be no longer than 40 lines.

The editors would be interested to receive ideas for reviews, particularly of recent début poetry collections, and original artwork.

Please send your poems as an attachment (.doc, .docx, .txt or .rtf) and in the body of the email. Work should be unpublished.

Contributors will receive one copy of the magazine.

More information about

Skylight 47

at http://www.skylight47poetry.wordpress.com 

Never Ending Wild Stories - a play by Miceál Kearney at Claremorris Drama Festival

Never Ending Wild Stories

A 15 minute play, by Miceál Kearney about how manufactured terrorism is sold through the news. Starring Lisa Allen, Anthony Daly and Brendan Murphy.

March 10th at 4pm in the Dalton Inn Hotel, Claremorris.

Admission is free.

Written by Galway native Miceál Kearney. This is his first play, having previously published a collection of poetry, Inheritance, with Doire Press. In-between writing and farming he argues with vegans on Facebook.

The play is part of the fringe festival at the Claremorris Drama Festival, March 8th to 18th.

More information http://www.claremorrisdramafestival.com

February Over The Edge: Open Reading with Mia Gallagher, Ruth Quinlan & Dawn Wisniewski PLUS details of 2013 New Writer of The Year Competition

Mia Gallagher

Ruth Quinlan, Dawn Wisniewski & Mia Gallagher for February Over The Edge: Open Reading PLUS announcement of details of 2013 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 28^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Mia Gallagher, Dawn Wisniewski & Ruth Quinlan. 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.

Ruth Quinlan is from Tralee, County Kerry. She worked in IT before taking a break in 2011 to try and scratch the writing itch and graduated from the MA in Writing at NUI Galway in 2012. She was shortlisted for the 2012 Cúirt New Writing fiction prize and longlisted for last year's Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition. Her work has been published by Emerge Literary Journal, Thresholds, SIN, Scissors and Spackle and she is longlisted for the current Irish Independent Hennessy New Irish Writing awards. She recently contributed towards two group anthologies, Abandoned Darlings (fiction) and Wayword Tuesdays (poetry). You can find her blogging occasionally at http://ruthquinlan.wordpress.com.

Despite a lengthy career in the logical world of information technology, Dawn Wisniewski has carved a tunnel into the creative side of her brain, allowing her to formulate everything from poetry to fantasy worlds, and even a little artistry on the side. With the help of Kevin Higgins’ poetry workshops, she has gained not only confidence in her poetic ventures but better skills to craft her prose. Also aided by Susan Millar-Dumars’ classes, Dawn has developed a portfolio of short stories and enhancements to the series of fantasy novels she has written. With the first of the series of novels finally ready for submission, Dawn is actively seeking an agent or publisher. Her blog is http://www.musingsbymd.com

Mia Gallagher is a writer and performer based in Dublin. She has written many short stories and is working on a third novel. Her short fiction won the START Short Fiction award (2005) and was shortlisted for the Fish, Hennessy and William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen Awards. Her debut novel HellFire (Penguin Ireland, 2006) was critically acclaimed and received the Irish Tatler Literature Award. An extract from her second novel Beautiful Pictures of the Lost Homeland appeared last year in Literary Imagination (Oxford University Press). In September 2012, Carpet Theatre produced The Trick and Burning Love, two of her adaptations of plays from the classic if schlocky Grand Guignol Theatre of Horror! In 2012 she appeared as the female lead in TG4 docudrama The Enigma of Frank Ryan, which has shown at film festivals internationally. Mia was writer-in-residence at IADT/dlr Arts Office in 2009-2010.

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 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.

'In Ashes' Having the Conversation About Faith with poet Susan Lindsay

In Ashes

Having the Conversation –

About Faith

Starting, with Susan Lindsay

February 25th, 2013 Cost: € 55

The Harbour Hotel for

Five Monday evenings before Easter.

Faith, by definition, includes doubt. What do you put your faith in now?

What gets you out of bed in the morning?

Using poetry as a starting point, discuss questions of faith and disbelief with an experienced facilitator and former psychotherapist.

Susan Lindsay’s first book of poetry, Whispering the Secrets (Doire Press) was published in 2011. Her book The Love Crucible (Marino 1995) discusses life as a potential journey of transformation from the perspective of humanistic and transpersonal psychology.

Prayer is a poem by self declared atheist and poet laureate of the United Kingdom, Carol Ann Duffy in Theo Dorgan’s anthology of poetry: The Book of Uncommon Prayer (Penguin Ireland, 2007). Poets have expressed faith and darkness in lyrical and all manner of ways over the centuries. Their writings enable us a neutral space, in terms of religion, to open a conversation in a spirit of free enquiry.

You don’t need to know anything about poetry to join in this Socratic conversation and can be of any, or no, religion.

TO BOOK (or enquire about post Easter courses in Creative Living)

Telephone Susan Lindsay at 091-776881. Mob. 086/1671524.

E-mail enquiries to susanharrislindsay@gmail.com

Starting week APRIL 8th: Taking a Word for a Walk ; Designing a Creative Life

North Beach Poetry Nights returns with Special Guest Kimberly Campanello

North Beach Poetry Nights returns on Monday 25th February in The Crane Bar, Sea Road, Galway at the very NEW TIME of 6.30 pm with Special Guest Kimberly Campanello

Kimberly Campanello was born in Elkhart, Indiana. She now lives in Dublin. Her chapbook Spinning Cities was published by Wurm Press in 2011. She was featured poet in the Summer 2010 issue of The Stinging Fly; her poems have appeared in magazines in the US, UK, and Ireland, including Tears in the Fence, nthposition, Burning Bush II, Abridged, The Penny Dreadful, and Irish Left Review. In 2011, she was selected to read as part of the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series. Kimberly's first full collection CONSENT will be available from Doire Press in May 2013.

Poets wishing to enter the Slam on the night need 2 max. three minutes poems. The poem for the 2nd round should be performed without script. The prize for the winner is a bottle of wine and entry to the North Beach Grand Slam in December.

Door: 5/3 euro

Info: John @091/593290

North Beach Poetry Nights wishes to acknowledge the continued support of Galway City Council.