2021 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase takes place on Zoom in association with Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop

The 2021 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase, featuring Aoife Reilly, John D. Kelly, Rita Ann Higgins, Attracta Fahy, Vinny Glynn-Steed, Danielle Holian, Christine Valters Paintner, Mary Turley McGrath, Jessamine O’Connor, John W. Sexton, Marion Kilcoyne, Hilary Wakeman, Denis Mockler, Eileen Sheehan, Peadar O’Donoghue, Kevin Higgins, and the anthologies The Shop: An Anthology of Poetry (Liffey Press, edited by Hilary Wakeman & Hilary Elick) & Galway Then, Galway Now – The Crannóg 2020 Anthology (Wordsonthestreet) will take place on Zoom on Friday, February, 12^th starting at 6.30pm (Galway local time - GMT). The event will be jointly MCed by Kate Ennals and Kevin Higgins.

In this annual retrospective of the most peculiar year just past, poets based in the West of Ireland, who published a new collection of poems during 2020, are invited to read three poems from the collection in question. There will also be readings from the anthologies The Shop: An Anthology of Poetry & Galway Then, Galway Now – The Crannóg 2020 Anthology, to which several Galway-based poets contributed.

 

Over The Edge is inviting you to the 2021 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase Reading on Zoom. Friday, February 12^th, 6.30-8pm.

Join The Over The Edge Zoom Meeting at

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7389013549

Meeting ID: 738 901 3549

 

All welcome. There is no cover charge. For further details phone 087-6431748.

 

All of the poetry books showcased at this event will be available for purchase via Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop https://charliebyrne.ie/product/silver-spoon/

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of The Arts Council, Poetry Ireland and Galway City Council.

May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering launches Christine Valters Paintner’s debut poetry collection

The May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents an exciting variety of poetry including the Galway launch of Christine Valters Paintner’s debut poetry collection, Dreaming of Stones (Paraclete Poetry) with guest speaker Dara Molloy. There will also be readings by Patrick Chapman, Raine Geoghegan, Colm Keegan, and Anita Ouellette. The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, May 10th, 8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Christine Valters Paintner is the online Abbess of Abbey of the Arts, a virtual monastery and global, ecumenical community integrating contemplative practice and creative expression. She is a Benedictine oblate living on the west coast of Ireland with her husband John. Together they lead pilgrimages and retreats in Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and Austria. Christine is the author of twelve books on spirituality, monastic wisdom, creativity, and the arts including The Artist’s Rule and The Soul’s Slow Ripening.  Her poems have been published in journals in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and the UK. She has participated in poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre and online. Dreaming of Stones is Christine’s debut poetry collection. 

Patrick Chapman was born in 1968 and lives in Dublin. He has published eight poetry collections since 1991, as well as a novel and three volumes of stories. His other works include a short film, television for children, and audio dramas for Doctor Who and Dan Dare. He produced B7’s dramatisation of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles for BBC Radio 4. His most recent poetry collection Open Season on the Moon is just published by Salmon Poetry.

Anita Ouellette is a poet living in Massachusetts. She was runner-up in the 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year competition and is a regular participant in Kevin Higgins’ online poetry workshop. Anita is currently on holiday in Ireland and will share a couple of her poems.

Colm Keegan is from Dublin. Elaine Feeney said this of his most recent poetry collection, Randomer (Salmon, 2018): “Delving into themes of mid-life, fatherhood, love, belonging and family, with solid observations and self-surrendering language, here is a poet now ready to watch and listen. Keegan is loyal to his trade, never hiding truth, or shirking responsibility. Randomer catapults Keegan into the anti-hero role of his own tales. The Dublin that created him, he bravely recreates, through lines that are gritty yet gorgeous. Keegan continues to write politically, honouring the list poem, watching Ireland with a satirical eye and sharp wit, while questioning the poet’s place in everything: the home, the city, even his place in poetry and its lure, for better or worse.  Randomer is a fascinating read. It finds edgy beauty in the banality of human struggle, in a world that’s off-kilter. These poems are gut-wrenchingly raw and beautiful.  You will return to this book again and again. Keegan is a romantic with nerve and bravery.  We find solace in his path.”  

Raine Geoghegan, MA is a poet and prose writer of Romany, Irish and Welsh descent living in the UK. Recent publications include Poetry Ireland Review; The Curlew; Travellers' Times; Ofi Press and Under the Radar. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net 2018 nominee. Her pamphlet, Apple Water: Povel Panni was launched in December 2018.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of the Arts Council, Poetry Ireland, and Galway City Council.

February Over The Edge: Open Reading with Christine Valters Paintner, Erin Fornoff & Julian Gough

The February ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, February 26^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Julian Gough, Erin Fornoff & Christine Valters Paintner. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are especially welcome. 

Christine Valters Paintner is the online Abbess of a virtual monastery called Abbey of the Arts leading retreats and pilgrimages with her husband John of twenty years. She is the author of eight nonfiction books on spirituality and creativity including The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom. Christine is an American living in Galway, where she actually adores winter and the rain, never tires of finding more monastic ruins, and has found Ireland to be a wondrous poetic muse.

Appalachian born, Dublin-based poet Erin Fornoff has performed her poetry at Glastonbury, Electric Picnic, and dozens of other festivals and events across the UK and Ireland. In 2013 she was featured at Farmleigh House' "New Voices' alongside Hozier, came in third at the Strokestown Poetry Awards, and won the StAnza Slam. She has been published in The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, New Planet Cabaret, Cyphers, and many others. In 2014 she was selected for the 2014 Poetry Ireland Introductions Series and became Artistic Director for Lingo, Ireland's first ever spoken word festival. In the coming months she will open for Hollie McNish on her Ireland tour. She is working on a novel. 

Julian Gough is an award winning author who first shot to fame in the 1980s when, as a student at University College Galway, he was leader singer and lyricist with alternative rockband Toasted Heretic. He won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2007 and his The iHole was shortlisted for the one-off BBC International Short Story Award in 2012. He has also been shortlisted, twice, for the Everyman Bollinger Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction. He represented Ireland in Best European Fiction 2010; won a Pushcart Prize in the US in 2011; and represented Britain in Best British Short Stories 2012. He is the author of three novels, Juno & Juliet, Jude in Ireland, and Jude in London; two radio plays, The Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble, and The Great Squanderland Roof; and a poetry collection, Free Sex Chocolate. In 2011, he wrote the ending to Time Magazine’s computer game of the year, Minecraft. In July 2013 his Kindle Single CRASH! went to number one in the UK Kindle Single chart in the week of its release. London born and Irish raised, Julian now lives in Berlin. 

Julian Gough

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome at the open-mic. 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.