Over The Edge in association with the Cúirt Festival of International Literature presents the tenth annual New Writing Showcase.

Since its inception in 2006 the New Writing Showcase has grown to become one of the most important platforms for emerging writers in Ireland. This year’s Cúirt New Writing Showcase features three participants from the Over the Edge literary series in Galway – Alvy Carragher, Mary McGill, & Teresa Sweeney - Daniel Roy Connelly, the winner of the Cúirt New Writing Poetry Prize 2015, and Sonya Gildea, the winner of the 2015 Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize. The MC for the event will be regular Over The Edge host Susan Millar DuMars. It takes place on Thursday, April 23^rd, 4pm, at The Town Hall Theatre. Entry is free of charge. All welcome.

Alvy Carragher recently completed the MA in Writing at NUI Galway. Her poetry has been commended in the Gregory O’Donoghue Award, the 2013 Over the Edge New Writer of the year competition and she came third in the 2013 Doire Press Poetry Competition. Alvy was 2014 Connaught Slam Poetry Champion and her blog “with all the finesse of a badger” won best humour blog in the Irish Blog Awards and was a finalist for blog of the year in the Samsung Digital Media Awards 2014. Alvy was a Featured Reader at the February 2014 Over The Edge: Open Reading. 

Mary McGill lives in Galway. Her fiction has appeared in The South Circular, The Bohemyth, Crannóg and Wordlegs. In 2013, she was shortlisted for the Penguin / RTÉ Guide short story competition and the Irish Times ‘Legends of the Fall’ competition. Mary was also long listed for the 2013 Over the Edge award and short listed for the 2014 RTÉ Radio One Francis MacManus Award. Mary was a Featured Reader at the August 2014 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Teresa Sweeney is from county Galway. She was short listed in the 2014 Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition. Her fiction has been published in Roadside Fiction, Number Eleven Magazine, Wordlegs, Boyne Berries and she was a runner up in the WOW! Awards 2011. She was a Featured Reader at the November 2014 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Daniel Roy Connelly is a theatre director, writer and professor of English literature and creative writing at John Cabot University and The American University of Rome. He holds a PhD in Shakespeare's 'Othello' from The University of Saint Andrews and was the winner of the 2014 Fermoy International Poetry Festival Prize and a finalist in the 2015 Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Prize. He recently directed a sold-out 'Hedda Gabler' and returns to the stage next week at Rome's 'Teatro Arciliuto', where he will play 'Ralph Wantage' in Bryony Lavery's 'Frozen'. Daniel is the winner of the 2015 Cúirt New Writing Poetry Prize. 

Sonya Gildea was born in County Cork, Ireland. She lives and works in Dublin, and the east coast of Scotland. She is writing the poetry collection Apothecary; the short story collection, Heartscapes; and the debut novel, The Hours That God Sends. She has also received a number of awards for screenwriting. She is the winner of the 2015 Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing financial support of The Arts Council, Galway City Council, and Poetry Ireland, and our ongoing partnership with the Cúirt Festival of International Literature.

2014 Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading with Ruth Quinlan, Jennifer Matthews & Pat McDonnell PLUS this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize winners

2014 Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading with Ruth Quinlan, Jennifer Matthews & Pat McDonnell PLUS this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize winners Colm Scully &  Philip Connor

Thursday, April 10^th, 4pm

Town Hall Theatre
All welcome

There is no cover charge

The 2014 Cúirt Over The Edge showcase reading takes place as part of this year's Cúirt International Festival of Literature at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway on Thursday, April 10th, 4pm. The writers showcased this year are Ruth Quinlan, Jennifer Matthews & Pat McDonnell. The reading will be introduced by regular Over The Edge host, Susan Millar DuMars.

This event has grown since its inception in 2006 to become one of Ireland's premier platforms for showcasing new poets and fiction writers. Participating writers have previously been Featured Readers at Ireland's most successful reading series, the Over The Edge: Open Readings in Galway City Library. Colm Scully, the winner in the poetry section of this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize, will read with the Over The Edge writers. Philip Connor, the winner in the fiction section, is unable to attend Cúirt to participate in the reading. We offer Philip our congratulations on the major achievement that winning the The Cúirt New Writing Prize is kindly sponsored by Tigh Neactain in memory of Lena Maguire.

Jennifer Matthews is originally from Missouri but lives in Cork where she works at the Munster Literature Festival. She writes poetry and book reviews, and is editor of the Long Story Short literary journal. Her poetry has been published in The Stinging Fly, Mslexia, Revival, Necessary Fiction, Poetry Salzburg, Foma & Fontanelles and Cork Literary Review, and anthologised in Dedalus's collection of immigrant poetry in Ireland, Landing Places (2010). Jennifer was a Featured Reader at the January 2013 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Pat McDonnell writes fiction as an antidote to his work in mechanical engineering. He lives in Galway where he plays flute in pub sessions and aspires to write his one great novel. He has participated in Creative Writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars at Galway Technical Institute. He was shortlisted for the 2012 Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition. Pat was a Featured Reader at the March 2013 Over The Edge: Open Reading. 

Ruth Quinlan is from Tralee, County Kerry. She graduated from the MA in Writing at NUI Galway in 2012. She was shortlisted for the 2012 Cúirt New Writing fiction prize and longlisted for last year's Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition. Her work has been published by Emerge Literary Journal, Thresholds, SIN, Scissors and Spackle and she won the 2013 Irish Independent Hennessy New Irish Writing award for First Fiction. Ruth was a Featured Reader at the February 2013 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Colm Scully is from Cork and an active member of O’Bheal Open Mic group at the Long Valley Bar. He has been published recently in Cyphers, The Stony Thursday book, Boyne Berries and The Poetry Bus. He was shortlisted for the 2012 Fish Poetry prize. He is the winner in the poetry section of this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize.

Philip Connor is a current MA in Publishing student at University College London.  He previously worked in Galway’s Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop. He has a BA from the NUI Galway in English, History and Creative Writing. In 2013 he was awarded the inaugural Faber & Faber Scholarship which will include 5 weeks placement at Faber's London office. Philip is the fiction winner in this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing support of Galway City Library, Galway City Council, The Arts Council and The Cúírt Festival of International Literature.

Cúirt New Writing Prize DEADLINE JANUARY 30th

 

Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading: Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunniffe & Eimear Ryan PLUS Hugo Kelly Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize Winner

Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading:Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunniffe, Eimear Ryan PLUS Hugo Kelly Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize Winner



Dearbhaile Houston

Damian Cunniffe

Eimear Ryan

Caolinn Hughes

Hugo Kelly 

  

2013 Cúirt Over The Edge Showcase Reading

Thursday, April 25th, 4:30pm

Town Hall Theatre

All welcome

There is no cover charge

The 2013 Cúirt Over The Edge showcase reading takes place as part of this year's Cúirt International Festival of Literature at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway on Thursday, April 25th, 4:30pm. The writers showcased this year are Dearbhaile Houston, Damian Cunniffe & Eimear Ryan. The reading will be introduced by regular Over The Edge host, Susan Millar DuMars.

This event has grown since its inception in 2006 to become one of Ireland's premier platforms for showcasing new poets and fiction writers. Participating writers have previously been Featured Readers at Ireland's most successful reading series, the Over The Edge: Open Readings in Galway City Library. Hugo Kelly, the winner in the fiction section of the Cúirt New Writing Prize will read with the Over The Edge writers. We also congratulate Caoilinn Hughes, the winner in the poetry section, who is now living in New Zealand and will be unable to make it to read at Cúirt. The Cúirt New Writing Prize is kindly sponsored by Tigh Neactain in memory of Lena Maguire. http://www.cuirt.ie/Site-Content/cuirt-new-writing-prize-submissions-2013.html

Dearbhaile Houston grew up in Co. Galway. She is in her second year of New Media and English at the University of Limerick, learning the art of procrastination and strong coffee. She began attending Creative Writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars in Spring 2011 and won the Seán Uí Riordáin prize for poetry in the Oireachtas na Gaeilge Literary Competition 2011. Dearbhaile was a Featured Reader at the January 2012 Over The Edge: Open Reading. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2011/12/over-edge-celebrates-ninth-birthday.html

Damian Cunniffe is from Abbeyknockmoy in North County Galway. In 2011 he was longlisted for the Fish Publishing International Short Story Prize, the Ink Tears Prize and was joint winner of the Lonely Voices Short Story Introductions competition run by the Irish Writers Centre. He was runner-up in the fiction section of the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer Of The Year competition. His work has been published in Crannóg and the Cúirt Journal. He is currently working on a play and a collection of short stories. Damian was a Featured Reader at the January 2012 Over The Edge: Open Reading. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2011/12/over-edge-celebrates-ninth-birthday.html

Eimear Ryan’s fiction has appeared in The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, New Irish Writing, Necessary Fiction and Horizon Review. She was the winner of the Sean Dunne Young Writers' Award 2011 and the Hennessy Award for First Fiction 2009. She is currently studying creative writing at Trinity College and is writing a novel. Eimear was the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year and was a Featured Reader at the May 2012 Over The Edge: Open Reading. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.ie/2012/05/new-writer-of-year-eimear-ryan-for-may.html
 

Caoilinn Hughes is a Galway-born poet and novelist, currently completing a Ph.D. in Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies in Ireland, the U.K. and New Zealand, including: Poetry Ireland, PN Review, The Irish Times, Southword, The Yellow Nib, New Zealand Books, NZ Listener, Landfall, The Cuirt Annual and elsewhere. Her first collection of poetry, Gathering Evidence, won the 2012 Patrick Kavanagh Award and will be published by Carcanet Press in 2014. Caolinn was a Featured Reader at the first ever Open Reading in Galway City Library in January 2003.

Hugo Kelly has won many writing awards for his short fiction including the Brian Moore Short Story Competition and the Start Chapbook Award amongst others. He has twice being shortlisted for the Hennessy Award in Emerging Fiction and the Fish International Short Story Competition. His work has appeared in various publications including the Sunday Tribune, Verbal Magazine, the Stinging Fly and the Cúirt Annual. BBC Radio 4 and RTE Radio 1 have broadcast his short stories and in 2007 he was shortlisted for the Francis MacManus Award. He also writes for younger readers and won the inaugural Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Award in the UK. Hugo works as a librarian in NUI Galway. He was a Featured Reader at the September 2005 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

 
Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing support of Galway City Library, Galway City Council, The Arts Council and The Cúírt Festival of International Literature.

http://www.cuirt.ie/ga/event/140-cuirt-over-the-edge-showcase.html