Sunday, May 19, 2019

May Over The Edge: Open Readig with Orla McAlinden, Rory Duffy, & Mona Jakob


Mona Jakob, Rory Duffy, & Orla McAlinden for final Over The Edge: Open Reading before the summer break 
Orla McAlinden
The May ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 30th 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Orla McAlinden, Rory Duffy, &.Mona Jakob. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always especially welcome at the open-mic. This is the final Over The Edge: Open Reading before the summer break. The evening will also see the announcement of the details of this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition.

Mona Jakob has been an on-and-off-participant in Susan Millar DuMars’ classes for creative writing over the last couple of years and is currently enrolled in her Advanced Fiction Writing Class. Her only publication so far has been in the academic field of Old/Medieval Irish (for the curious: A study of the Green Man in the story of ‘Buile Shuibhne’), but she hopes to finish her first novel in the not too distant future – working in a bookshop (Dubray’s) certainly is a good incentive. Enjoying discussions on what constitutes literary fiction, she draws inspiration from the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, Becky Chambers, John Connolly and Robin Hobb.

Rory Duffy lives in Athlone. His fiction has been published in several journals including Crannóg, The Stony Thursday Book, Southword, and Penduline Press. He was highly commended in the Over the Edge New Writer of The Year competition in 2015 and won the 2016 Over The Edge Annual Fiction Slam. Also in 2016 Rory was placed 3rd in the PJ O'Connor Awards and was also short listed for the Frances MacManus Award. In 2017 he was nominated for a ZeBBie Award by the Irish Writers Guild for his radio play Paulo in the Underworld. Rory was also highly commended in the Seán Ó'Faoláin Award in 2017. Currently his favourite bird is the common swift (Apus Apus) but this may change.
Orla McAlinden is a multi-award-winning author, vet, farmer, teacher and mother, originally from Armagh, living in Kildare. Her short-story collections and novels, The Accidental Wife, The Flight of the Wren (Red Stag/Mentor Books, Sept 2018) and Full of Grace (Red Stag /Mentor Books, May 2019) have featured in the Sunday Times (Ireland) magazine, The Irish Times, Irish News, on RTE and BBC Radio and others. Her awards include the Eludia Award for first fiction, The Cecil Day Lewis emerging writer award, and the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year. Her short fiction has never yet appeared in an Irish print journal, but she lives in hope!  www.orlamcalinden.com

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.