The May Over
The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents
an exciting variety of poetry and fiction, including the Galway launch of new
poetry collections by Stephanie Conn,
Robyn Rowland and Kate Ennals; the launch of Belfast
writer Rosemary Jenkinson’s
acclaimed new short story collection; and a reading from her work by Ruth Quinlan, the winner of the 2018 Poems For
Patience competition.
The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway
on Friday, May 18th, 8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover
charge.
 |
| Stephanie Conn |
Stephanie
Conn, from County Antrim, is a graduate of the
Creative Writing M.A. Programme at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s
University Belfast. She is the winner of the 2015 Funeral Services NI Poetry
Prize, the 2015 Yeovil Poetry Prize, the inaugural Seamus Heaney Award for New
Writing and the 2016 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition, which culminated in
the publication of Copeland’s Daughter. Stephanie has also been
shortlisted for many awards, including the 2012 Patrick Kavanagh Award and is
the recipient of an ACES award. Her debut collection, The Woman from the
Other Side, which we published in 2016, was shortlisted for the 2016
Shine/Strong Award. Stephanie’s follow-up collection entitled Island is
published in May, 2018 by Doire Press.
 |
| Rosemary Jenkinson |
Rosemary
Jenkinson
was born in Belfast and is an award-winning playwright and short story writer.
Her plays include The Bonefire
(winner of Stewart Parker BBC Radio Award 2006), The Winners, Johnny Meister +
the Stitch, Basra Boy, White Star of the North, Planet Belfast and Meeting Miss Ireland. She won the 2001 Black Hill Magazine Short
Story Competition, third prize in the Brian Moore Short Story Awards and was
shortlisted for the 2002 Hennessy Award for New Writing. Her first collection
of short stories, Contemporary Problems Nos.
53 & 54, was published in 2004 by Lapwing Press. Her second short story
collection, Aphrodite’s Kiss &
Further Stories, was published by Whittrick Press in 2016. She’s won many
General Artist’s Awards from the ACNI and this year she has been awarded Artist-in-Residence
at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Rosemary’s new short-story collection entitled
Catholic Boys is published in May,
2018 by Doire Press.
 |
| Robyn Rowland |
Robyn Rowland is an
Irish-Australian citizen living in both countries. She regularly works in Turkey.
She has written 13 books, 10 of poetry. Her latest books are Mosaics from the Map (Doire Press,
Galway, 2018), which will have its Galway launch on the evening, and her
bi-lingual This Intimate War
Gallipoli/Çanakkale 1915 – İçli Dışlı Bir Savaş: Gelibolu/Çanakkale 1915 (republished, Spinifex
Press, Australia, 2018). Turkish trans. Mehmet Ali Çelikel. Robyn’s poetry
appears in national and international journals and in over forty
anthologies, including eight editions of Best Australian Poems. Her
work is on film at the National Irish Poetry Archives, James Joyce Library,
UCD. Dublin.
 |
| Kate Ennals |
Kate Ennals is a poet and writer and has published poems and short
stories in a range of literary and on line journals (Crannog, Skylight 47, Honest Ulsterman, Anomaly, The International
Lakeview Journal, Boyne Berries, North West Words, The Blue Nib, Dodging the
Rain plus many more). In 2017, she won the Westport Arts Festival
Poetry Competition. Her first collection of poetry At The Edge was
published in 2015. Her second collection, Threads, was published in
April 2018 and will have its Galway launch on the evening. She has lived in
Ireland for 25 years and currently runs poetry and writing workshops in County
Cavan. Kate runs At The Edge, Cavan, a
literary reading evening, funded by the Cavan Arts Office. Before doing an MA
in Writing at NUI Galway in 2012, Kate worked in UK local government and the Irish
community sector for thirty years, supporting local groups to engage in local
projects and initiatives. Her blog can be found at http://kateennals.com
 |
| Ruth Quinlan |
This year Ruth
Quinlan’s poem ‘Small Acts of Anticipation’ was the winning entry in Galway
University Hospital’s Arts Trust’s hotly contested annual Poems for Patience competition. The poem will now be included in the Arts
Trust’s Poems for Patience permanent poetry collection, on display in Galway
University Hospitals. Ruth Quinlan won the 2014 Over the Edge New Writer of the
Year Award and the 2012 Hennessy Literary Award for First Fiction. She has been
shortlisted or runner-up for other competitions like Cúirt New Writing, the
Francis Ledwidge Poetry Awards, and Doolin Writers’ Weekend.
Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing
financial support of the Arts Council,
Poetry Ireland, and Galway City Council.