March Over The Edge: Open Reading with Alice Kinsella, Geraldine O’Kane, & Simon Lewis

The March ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, March 29^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Simon Lewis, Geraldine O’Kane, & Alice Kinsella. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always especially welcome at the open-mic. 

Alice Kinsella was born in Dublin in 1993, and raised in County Mayo. She holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Philosophy from Trinity College Dublin and is currently a student on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway. Her poetry appeared in a number of publications, including Headspace magazine, The Fem literary magazine, Poetry NI Holocaust Memorial Anthology, Poethead, Icarus, Headstuff, The Sunday Independent, Skylight47, Boyne Berries, A New Ulster, Live Encounters magazine, and The Ofi Press. She is included in Poethead’s ‘Contemporary Irish Women Poets’. Her work has been shortlisted for several competitions, including Creative Writing Ink January 2016, the Annual Bangor Poetry Competition 2016, Hungry Hills Wild Atlantic Words Poetry Competition 2016 and the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Competition 2016. She was commended in the Jonathan Swift Awards 2016. Her debut play ‘The Passing’ was staged as a part of ‘What’s the Story’ at the Liberties Festival 2016 and went on to be performed at Cruthú Arts Festival and Temple Bar Culture and Arts Festival in the same year. A short collection of Alice’s poems, Flower Press, was published last month by the U.K. based Onslaught Press and will be on sale on the evening. 

Geraldine O’Kane, originally from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, is a poet, creative writing facilitator, arts administrator, curator and mental health advocate. She recently received an Artist's Career Enhancement Scheme (ACES) award from Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Her pamphlet "Quick Succession" is available to purchase from Pen Points Press. She is working towards her first full collection of poems.  Geraldine is co-host and regular reader at the Purely Poetry open mic nights in Belfast. She has read her work  in numerous literary festivals and events both North and South. Her poetry is mostly inspired by observation, addresses the issues society would prefer not to talk about, and is firmly seeded in the oral tradition of storytelling. Her work has been published in anthologies from Community Arts Partnership, The Galway Review, Poethead, Poetry Super Highway, The Incubator, The Lake Poetry Journal, Boston Poetry Magazine and elsewhere.

Simon Lewis was the winner of the Hennessy Prize for Emerging Poetry and the runner up in the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award in 2015. He also featured in Poetry Ireland’s Introductions Series the same year. He has been shortlisted for the Shine/Strong Award, Listowel Poetry Prize, Strokestown International Poetry Prize and Bridport Prize and received commendations in the Gregory O’Donoghue prize and Dromineer Literary Prize. He has also been published in many literary journals and magazines including The Stony Thursday, Boyne Berries, Literary Orphans, The Stinging Fly, Bare Hands, and Irish Literary Review. His first collection of poems, Jewtown, was published in 2016 by Doire Press to wide critical acclaim. Simon lives in Carlow with his wife, Rozz, and their son, Emrys. Simon works in Carlow Town as the principal of the local Educate Together primary school.

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