May Over The Edge Writers' Gathering - launch of four books PLUS 2018 Poems for Patience Winner

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 18^th, 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.

July Over The Edge Writers' Gathering-readings by Máire T. Robinson, Mary Madec, & showcase of Wordsontreestreet & Doire Press writers

July Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering

at Galway City Library

showcases Galway publishers

Wordsonthestreet, &  Doire Press,

& presents readings by Máire T. Robinson & Mary Madec

on Thursday, July 9^th, 6.30-8pm.

The July Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents readings by Horslips drummer Eamon Carr, Máire T. Robinson, John Fogarty, Mary Madec, Lorne Patterson, and Paul O’Reilly. At this event Over The Edge will showcase authors published by Galway-based publishers Doire Press and Wordsonthestreet. The reading takes place at Galway City Library on Thursday, July 9^th, 6.30-8pm. All are welcome and there is no cover charge. 

Máire T. Robinson

Máire T. Robinson is a graduate of the MA in writing at NUI, Galway. In 2013, she was the overall winner of the Doire Press Chapbook Competition. Her short story collection Your Mixtape Unravels My Heart was published as a result. Máire's recently published début novel Skin, Paper, Stone (New Island, 2015) was described by the Irish Times as “a deceptively simple novel that packs a punch. Robinson writes with warmth and understanding, giving the reader a bird’s-eye view of a modern, post-boom Galway through a diverse and credible cast of characters.” Kevin Higgins’s Galway Advertiser review of Skin, Paper, Stone can be read here http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/77976/buskers-beggars-and-degenerates-of-every-persuasion

Eamon Carr and friend in 1975

Eamon Carr was born in Meath. Along with Peter Fallon, he formed poetry-performance group Tara Telephone, before concentrating his energies as writer, conceptualist and drummer for Horslips, the band he co-founded and remains a member of. A journalist and occasional broadcaster, he is a former recipient of the Sarah Purser Scholarship and Prize in the History of European Painting from Trinity College, Dublin. In 2005, his poster poem ‘A Tale of Love’, originally designed in 1969 by Che Guevara poster artist Jim Fitzpatrick, was included in the Tate Gallery, Liverpool, Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era Exhibition. In 2008, as lyricist, he collaborated on an album of new songs with former Sweeney's Men and Wings guitarist Henry McCullough. In 2010, his five-poem cycle Ascension: Ireland was staged in the Walled Garden of the Pearse Museum, Dublin by composer and intermedia artist Daniel Figgis. In 2011, Horslips recorded a live performance of music suites adapted from The Táin and The Book of Invasions concept albums in concert with the Ulster Orchestra, conductor Brian Byrne. In 2012, Eamon contributed a reading of ‘Dublin’, a lyric by deceased friend and colleague Philip Lynott, to Sound City Beat, an album by the Radiators from Space. His first book, The Origami Crow, Journey into Japan World Cup Summer 2002 (Seven Towers) was published in 2008. Deirdre Unforgiven: A Journal of Sorrows, a one-act play based on Deirdre of the Sorrows, was published by Doire Press in 2013. 

John Fogarty is a fiction writer whose debut novel Scenes from an Indian Summer will be published in September by Galway based publishers Wordsonthestreet. Scenes from an Indian Summer has already been shortlisted for the RTÉ 1/Penquin book prize. He has had work published in Connect Magazine and a range of other publications at home and abroad.  He is also an actor and has taken demanding roles in numerous productions, most notably, in JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls and in Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men.

Lorne Patterson is an Edgeworthstown writer and member of the Ballymahon Writers Group, Co Longford, Ireland. He is a psychiatric nurse and community educator who has worked in a number of countries, including Britain, the United States and Russia. A past runner-up in the Sean Ó Faoláin short-story competition, he published his first book, Witch, in 2012 to critical acclaim. Witch was followed by another novella, Bad Blood , published in 2013 by Wordsonthestreet. Lorne is currently working on a non-fiction history of drug addiction treatment and on Hour of the Witch, the follow-up to Witch’.

Paul O’Reilly lives Co. Wexford and has been published in Necessary Fiction; Irish Independent’s New Irish Writing; Natural Bridge; Stinging Fly; and the Irish Times. He has been shortlisted for the Seán O’Faoláin Prize and the Hennessy First Fiction Award; was runner up for Bristol Short Story Prize and the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story Prize; was a joint-winner of The Lonely Voice: Short Story Introductions competition hosted by the Irish Writers’ Centre; received honourable mention in Glimmer Train’s Family Matters competition; and had a story nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is also an award-winning traditional Irish singer and musician and was awarded Deis funding by the Arts Council in 2008. As well as working in fiction, music and song, Paul has produced several albums, two film documentaries, adapted a Claire Keegan short story for film that was later produced and screened at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2013, and for the past twelve years has been active in the promotion of culture and new writing in the south-east of Ireland. Visit pauloreilly.ie for more details. The Girl Missing From The Window, Paul’s debut collection of short stories, is just published by Doire Press.

Mary Madec

Mary Madec was born and raised in Mayo. She studied at NUI, Galway (B.A., M.A., H.Dip Ed.) and at the University of Pennsylvania from which she received a doctorate in Linguistics in 2002. She has published widely (Crannóg, West 47, The Cuirt Annual, Poetry Ireland Review, the SHOp, The Sunday Tribune, Southword, Iota, Nth Position, Natural Bridge and The Stand Orbis, The Fox Chase Review, The Recorder among others. Her first collection, In Other Words, appeared with Salmon Poetry in 2010 ; her second collection, Demeter Does Not Remember also with Salmon Poetry at the end of 2014. She has received several awards and prizes most notably the Hennessy XO Prize for Emerging Poetry in 2008. She co-founded the community writing project, Away With Words, and works for Villanova University. Kevin Higgins’s Galway Advertiser review of Demeter Does Not Remember can be read here http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/74755/sexing-up-greek-myths-and-facing-down-the-bank

For further information contact 087-6431748.

All Welcome. No Cover charge.

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

2014 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year to be judged by Eleanor Hooker NOW TAKING ONLINE PAYMENTS

2014 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition

OPEN TO POETS  FICTION WRITERS WORLDWIDE

NOW TAKING ONLINE PAYMENTS  

COMPETITION JUDGE: ELEANOR HOOKER

Major Sponsor: Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop. 

Other sponsors to date:

ISupply, Flood Street; Ward’s Hotel Lower Salthill;

 Kenny’sBookshop,  Clare Daly TD & Derek Nolan TD

Closing date: Wednesday, August 6^th, 2014

STILL TAKING ENTRIES 

UNTIL MIDNIGHT

 If you make your payment online before midnight on August 6th, we will accept your entry. And we will accept all entries postmarked August 6th or earlier, even if they arrive after that date. Extracts from novels absolutely accepted. As well, of course, as short stories and poems.

In 2014 Over The Edge is continuing its exciting annual international creative writing competition. Since its inception in 2007, it has grown to become one of the most important competition’s for emerging writers in Ireland and internationally. The competition is open to both poets and fiction writers worldwide. The total prize money is €1,000. The best fiction entry will win €300. The best poetry entry will win €300. One of these will then be chosen as the overall winner and will receive an additional €400, giving the overall winner total prize money of €700 and the title Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 2014. The 2014 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year will be a Featured Reader at Ireland’s leading literary reading series, the Over The Edge: Open Readings in Galway City Library, on a date to be scheduled in Winter 2014/15. Salmon Poetry will read, without commitment to publish, a manuscript submitted to them by the winner in the poetry category. Doire Press will read, without commitment to publish, a manuscript of short stories submitted to them by the winner in the fiction category. The overall winner will receive a hamper of books from the famous Kenny’s Bookshop of Galway, Ireland. The winner in the poetry category will have one of the poems from her or his winning entry published in the January 2015 issue of Skylight47 magazine.

Entries should be sent to Over The Edge, New Writer of the Year competition, 3 Carbry Road, Newcastle, Galway, Ireland. Entries will be judged anonymously, so do not put your name on your poem(s) or stories. Put your contact details on a separate sheet. If you live in Ireland and wish to be informed of the results by post, please enclose a stamped addressed envelope. OTHERWISE, YOU DO NOT NEED TO ENCLOSE A STAMPED ADDRESSED ENVELOPE. 

Criteria: fiction of up to three thousand words, three poems of up to forty lines, or one poem of up to one hundred lines. Any of the aforementioned is one entry. Multiple entries are acceptable but each must be accompanied by a fee. 

The fee for one entry is €10. The fee for multiple entries is €7.50 per entry e.g. two entries will cost €15, three entries €22.50 and so on. Fee payable by cheque or  money order to Over The Edge. The competition is open to writers worldwide. We accept payment in Dollars, Sterling, Australian Dollars, Canadian Dollars and so on. Writers from outside the Euro area can calculate the payment for their entry here http://www.xe.com/ucc/ WE ALSO NOW ACCEPT ONLINE PAYMENTS. See the below for details. If you pay the entry fee online you must still post us a hard copy of your entry/entries and enclose with it a note saying ‘entry fee paid online’. PLEASE INCLUDE THE EXACT NAME IN WHICH THE ONLINE PAYMENT HAS BEEN MADE SO THAT WE CAN VERIFY.

To take part you must be at least sixteen years old by September 1st 2014 and not have a book published or accepted for publication in the genre in which you enter. Chapbooks/ pamphlets excepted. Entries must not have been previously published or be currently entered in any other competition. The closing date is Wednesday, August 6th, 2014. A long-list will be announced at the August Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 28th, 2014 (6.30-8pm). THE LONGLIST WILL BE AVAILABLE, BEFORE THAT, AT CHARLIE BYRNE’S BOOKSHOP FROM 5PM ON THURSDAY AUGUST 28^TH.  The shortlist will be announced at the September Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 25^th, 2014 (6.30-8pm). The winners will be announced at the October Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, October 30^th, 2014 (6.30-8pm).

Eleanor Hooker lives in North Tipperary. Her debut collection of poems  The Shadow Owner's Companion, published by TheDedalus Press in 2012, has recently been shortlisted for the Strong/Shine award  for best first collection in 2012.  Her poetry has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, The SHOp, Crannog, Can Can, Agenda, POEM: International English Language Quarterly, New Leaf, and in the anthology I Live In Michael Hartnett. Online her poetry has been published in Wordlegs, And Other Poems, Ink Sweat and Tears and Poethead.  In June 2013 Eleanor won the Poetry Ireland/Trocaire poetry competition (Published Author Category). In 2011 she was a winner in the Frank X Buckley Flash Short Story competition at the Irish Writers' Centre, was joint second prize winner in the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story competition. In December 2012 she was a winner in the ten word short story competition held by @shortstoryday. Eleanor has a BA (Hons 1st) from the Open University, an MA (Hons.) in Cultural History from the University of Northumbria, and an MPhil in Creative Writing (Distinction) from Trinity College, Dublin. She was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series in 2011. She is the Vice-Chairperson of the Dromineer Literary Festival. She is Helm and Press Officer for Lough Derg RNLI Lifeboat. 


For further details contact Over The Edge on 087-6431748,

or e-mail over-the-edge-openreadings@hotmail.com

If you make your payment online before midnight on August 6th, we will accept your entry. And we will accept all entries postmarked August 6th or earlier, even if they arrive after that date. Extracts from novels absolutely accepted. As well, of course, as short stories and poems.

TO PAY YOUR ENTRY FEE ONLINE SEE BELOW

Competition payments

ONE ENTRY €10.00 EUR TWO ENTRIES €15.00 EUR THREE ENTRIES €22.50 EUR FOUR ENTRIES €30.00 EUR FIVE ENTRIES €37.50 EUR SIX ENTRIES €45.00 EUR SEVEN ENTRIES €52.50 EUR EIGHT ENTRIES €60.00 EUR

Major Sponsor: Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop,

other sponsors to date: ISupply, Flood Street;

Ward’s Hotel, Salthill; Kenny’s Bookshop, 
Clare Daly TD, & Derek Nolan TD