You are invited to the launch of Over
the Edge: the first ten years - An anthology of fiction and poetry edited
by Susan Millar DuMars & Unbelonging,
the debut collection of poetry by Nicki
Griffin, winner of the 2010 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year award for
poetry. Both books are published by Salmon.
The launch takes place at Charlie Byrne’s
bookshop on Saturday, November 30th,
6pm.
You can buy the book here.
Over the Edge: the first
ten years is edited by Susan Millar DuMars and includes
poetry & fiction by forty seven writers who have published a first book
since being Featured Readers at an Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City
Library. Over The Edge has, during the past decade, been an important platform
for emerging writers in Ireland and beyond. This book celebrates the writers
who have emerged via Over The Edge thus far. The book will be launched by Pat McMahon, retired Galway County
Librarian, who has always been an enthusiastic supporter of Over The Edge.
Nicki Griffin was the
2010 Over the Edge New Poet of the Year. Her debut collection, Unbelonging,
which will be launched by Professor
Adrian Frazier of the MA in Writing at NUI Galway, has two main themes,
both of which examine a sense of displacement. The first is personal, a
consideration of dislocation of self in place, both her own and of those who
struggle in new countries or within their own communities. The other theme is
public and looks at the relationship between those with power and those
without, how this affects our lives in modern western society, our civil
liberties, the tensions between human needs and environmental degradation. In
the collection she explores the connection between these two aspects of the human
condition, how we interact with the world and how, by considering ourselves as
separate from and in control of this world we threaten our future existence. Nicki
grew up in Cheshire in the north west of England but has lived in East Clare
since 1997. She completed an MA in Writing at NUI Galway in 2009. In 2012 she was awarded a
Literature Bursary by the Arts Council. She writes for Inland Waterways News
and co-edits poetry magazine Skylight 47. Her first work of non-fiction, The Skipper and Her Mate, was published
by New Island in 2013.
All are welcome to attend the launch.