The
October ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, October 25th, 6.30-8.00pm. This
is Over The Edge’s annual non-fiction special, at which all of the Featured
Readers are writers of non-fiction; however poets and fiction writers are still
welcome at the open-mic. The Featured Readers are John Flynn, Grace Dyas, & Michael Clifford. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured
Readers have finished. The evening will
also see the announcement of the winners
in this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, which
received a large number of entries again this year. This year’s competition
judge is Rachel Coventry. The shortlist can be read here.
John Flynn
grew up in Dublin, going to a number of schools before entering UCD and
graduating in Medicine. He taught anatomy in UCD for one year and then trained
as a General Surgeon. He worked for over thirty years as general Surgeon with
special interest in Urology and Paediatric Surgery in Portiuncula Hospital,
Ballinasloe. John published a number of
clinical papers and has continued with Postgraduate Surgical Training in RCSI
since retirement. John enjoys reading, mainly non-fiction now. He was enrolled in a writing course by
daughter Niamh.
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| Grace Dyas |
Grace
Dyas is an acclaimed artist, activist, writer, theatre director and actor
living and working in inner-city Dublin, she makes theatre, film and
large-scale participation projects because she wants to change the world – and
to change the world you must change power. She collaborates through performance
with young people and vulnerable adults. She is a member of THEATREclub. In
2017, she was the first woman to share her experience of abuse of power in the
theatre world in Ireland, contributing to the global #MeToo movement. Her post
to her blog opened the gate for others who followed from the theatre family,
and then from across Irish public life. This became an ongoing campaign, I
Believe You Before You Open Your Mouth, named for the words of Grace’s mentor,
Christine Buckley (director of the Aislinn group for survivors of Industrial Schools.) Grace explored the legacies of these institutions in her
play, We Don’t Know What’s Buried Here. Grace creates durational art campaigns
to coincide with important social moments. For the centenary of 1916, Grace
co-authored Its Not Over with Barry O’Connor, a campaign to posit the reality
that the conflict in the North of Ireland is unresolved. For the abortion
referendum, she toured across Ireland to small towns and cities with Not At
Home – an archive of women’s experiences of travelling for abortion which she
co-authored with Emma Fraser. In 2010, she won the Spirit of The Fringe award
for her play Heroin. Over the past 8 years Heroin has toured all over Europe; she
is currently touring a new version of the play.
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| Michael Clifford |
Michael Clifford
is Special Correspondent for the Irish Examiner. He has been working in
print and broadcast journalism for over twenty years. He is the author of three
non-fiction books, including Bertie Ahern and the Drumcondra Mafia (with
Shane Coleman) and two crime novels. In 2014, TV3's Tonight with Vincent
Browne programme selected him as Journalist of the Year for his coverage of
the Garda whistleblower story. He was named the newspaper industry's Journalist
of the Year in 2016. His most recent book A Force for Justice: The Maurice McCabe Story
was published by Hachette Books Ireland in 2017. Michael Clifford lives in
Dublin. @mickcliff
Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of Galway City Council, Poetry Ireland, & The Arts Council.