May Over The Edge: Open Reading with Luke Kennard, Ruth Quinlan, Mari Maxwell plus the LAUNCH of issue 5 of Skylight 47

Mari Maxwell & Ruth Quinlan to read with acclaimed British poet Luke Kennard at May Over The Edge: Open Reading and LAUNCH of issue 5 of Skylight 47 poetry newspaper.  

The May ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 28^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Luke Kennard, Ruth Quinlan & Mari Maxwell. Ruth Quinlan is the 2014 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year and this reading is part of her prize for winning the competition. Over The Edge is currently taking entries for 2015 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year; this year the competition is judged by poet, fiction writer, and literary activist Dave Lordan, who edits The Bogman’s Cannon, by far the liveliest online literary publication in Ireland. For full details of the 2015 competition see here.

The evening will also see the launch by British poet Luke Kennard of the latest issue (no. 5) of Skylight 47 poetry newspaper, probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication; this issue includes poems, reviews, an interview with a leading Irish poet, and a poetry workshop with a leading British poet.  

Mari Maxwell lives in County Galway and writes fiction and poetry. She has work forthcoming in The Brasilia Review, The Ogham Stone, Macabre Maine, and Veils, Halos and Shackles International Poetry Journal on the Abuse and Oppression of Women. Her writing was highly commended in The Francis Ledwidge 2014 Poetry Award, shortlisted in the 2014 Walking on Thin Ice Short Story Contest and longlisted in the 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year. She has been published in Indian Kukai, A New Ulster, Flash Flood Journal, Crannóg, and Boyne Berries. One of her stories has been shortlisted in the Cork County Library and Arts Service Short Story Competition 'From The Well.'

Ruth Quinlan is from Tralee, Co. Kerry and holds an MA in Writing from NUI Galway. She is the 2014 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year and this reading is part of her prize. Ruth also won the Hennessy First Fiction Award in 2013 and was shortlisted for the 2014 and 2012 Cúirt New Writing fiction prize.  Her work has been published by the Irish Independent, Crannóg, ROPES,  Skylight47, Emerge Literary Journal, Thresholds, SIN, and Scissors and Spackle. She has also contributed to three anthologies, Watching my Hands at Work: A Festschrift for Adrian Frazier (fiction), Abandoned Darlings (fiction) and Wayword Tuesdays (poetry). Recently, Ruth joined the editing team for Skylight47.

Luke Kennard

Luke Kennard is the author of numerous works of poetry and short fiction. His first collection of poems, The Solex Brothers, was published in 2005, and won him one of that year's Eric Gregory Awards. His second collection, The Harbour Beyond the Movie, made him the youngest writer to be nominated for the Forward Prize for Best Collection. He has since published two further full collections, and two pamphlets, one of which, The Necropolis Boat, was the Poetry Book Society's Pamphlet Choice in 2012. In addition to poetry, he writes criticism, short fiction, and is currently working on his first novel. He teaches English and Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. Luke Kennard's poetry has been described as “witty, extravagant and provocatively genre-bending”, and features in the anthology Identity Parade: New British & Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe 2010).

After the Featured Readers have finished some contributors to Skylight 47 will read their poems from the new issue. COPIES OF THE NEW ISSUE OF SKYLIGHT 47 WILL BE ON SALE BEFORE, AFTER AND DURING THE READING. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. All welcome. There is no cover charge. For further details phone 087-6431748.

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