November Over The Edge: Open Reading - David Green, Riona Mac Eoin, Kevin Doyle PLUS NUIG MA in Writing poets

The November ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, November 21^st, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Kevin Doyle, Riona Mac Eoin, & David Green. There will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished; new readers are always especially welcome. This month’s open-mic will include a showcase for poets currently studying on the MA in Writing at NUI Galway.

David Green lives Galway, Ireland, and is the host and of OFF THE PAGE, a monthly open-mic giving space to writers and poets in Athenry. Originally from Manchester, UK, and of Irish descent, David is a fiction writer currently working on his debut novel. He has had several short stories in genres spanning science-fiction, horror and historical fiction published in various publications online and in print.

Riona Mac Eoin is the co-owner and works at Briarhill Vet Clinic in Galway City. Her hobbies include travelling, reading ,writing and sport, especially cycling. She recently achieved third place in her debut cycling race. Riona is very interested in psychology, specifically the influence our childhood years have on the development of our adult selves. Riona also volunteers with Foróige helping young people navigate their adolescent years. Ríona took a break from work last year and spent 6 months in New York which is where she discovered her love of writing.  She writes fiction and has lately been attending creative writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars at Galway Technical Insititute. She has previously read her work at the Over The Edge open-mic. 

Kevin Doyle

Kevin Doyle is a writer and activist. He was born and grew up in Cork. He holds a Masters in Chemistry and worked for many years as an industrial chemist in Ireland and the United States. His short stories been published in journals such as Stinging Fly, the Cork Review, Southwords and the Cúirt Journal. Shortlisted for several prizes, including the Ian St. James Award, the Hennessy Literary Awards and the Seán Ó Faoláin Prize, he won the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award in 2016. He has written extensively about Irish and radical politics and, with Spark Deeley, co-wrote the award-winning children’s picture book, The Worms that Saved the World.He is the author of two political crime thrillers published by Blackstaff Press. To Keep A Bird Singing (2018) and A River of Bodies (2019) are the first and second books in the Solidarity Books trilogy. The series is set in Cork and explores the murky world of Special Branch collusion with a network of abusers inside the Catholic Church. He is currently working on the third and final book in the series. See also www.kevindoyle.ie

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.

Over The Edge Culture Night Open-Mic at Kenny’s Bookshop & Gallery

Over The Edge is holding two special Culture Night open-mics - one for fiction writers, the other for poets - with prizes for the best readers, at Kennys Bookshop and Gallery in Liosbán Retail Park on Friday, September 22nd.

The open-mic for fiction writers starts at 3.30pm. Participants should bring along two pages of a story to read. The reading will include a guest appearance from Kevin Doyle who will be reading from his recently published short story collection Do You Like Oranges?

Kevin Doyle

The open-mic for poets starts at 5.45pm. Participants should bring along two poems to read. The reading will include guest appearances from Australian poets Catherine Bateson and Jane Williams. 

Catherine Bateson

The evening will be MC’d by Kevin Higgins and both open-mics will feature readings from their long-listed stories and poems by some of the writers on the long list for the 2017 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, for which Kenny’s is one of the sponsors.

This reading is open to all. If you have a poem or story you want to share, come along.

About our special guests: 

Kevin Doyle won the Michael McLaverty Short Story Award in 2016, in the same year his eBook collection Do You Like Oranges? won top prize in Ireland’s inaugural ‘indie’ book awards, The Carousel Book Awards. The Worms That Saved The World, an illustrated kids book about a community of earthworm who fight to save their home from a luxury golf course was published in May; Noam Chomsky has described the book as ‘charming’.  His short stories have been published in Cork Literary Review, Stinging Fly, Southwords, Burning Bush, Cúirt Journal, Duality, Liblit and Sunday Tribune.  His work has also been included in anthologies such as Irish Writers Against War (Dublin, 2003), Pulse Fiction (London, 1998) and Snapshots (London, 1999) as well as Cork millennium collection, An Gob Saor.  He has been shortlisted for many prizes (including Over The Edge, 2010) and has won top placings in the Ian St James Short Story Award, Kilkenny Prize, Tipperary Short Story Weekend Prize and the Highlands and Islands Short Story Award.  His work was described by the late Patrick Galvin as ‘terse and original’.  He blogs regularly on Irish and radical politics at http://www.kfdoyle.wordpress.com  . He has read on a number of occasions at the Frank O’Connor International Festival of the Short Story.

Catherine Bateson is an award-winning poet and writer for children and young adults. She has three poetry collections published, including, Marriage for Beginners, John Leonard Press, 2009. She has also had three verse novels for young adults published with University of Queensland Press. Her poetry has been widely anthologised. She has also published over a dozen books for children and young adults and twice won the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year, Younger Readers. Her latest book for young adults, Lisette’s Paris Notebook was published early in 2017 by Allen & Unwin.  She is currently working on both a new poetry collection and a new book for younger readers. Catherine has taught creative writing for the past thirteen years, and has been a guest writer at many schools. Her work has been read on radio and featured on television. She has also appeared at various poetry and writers festivals throughout Australia.

Jane Williams

Jane Williams was born in England in 1964 to an Irish father and Australian mother. She lives in Tasmania, Australia. Since the early 1990s her poems have been published in most major Australian literary journals and newspapers, in anthologies, and online in countries including Ireland, USA, Canada, England, Japan, Sweden and India. She has been a featured reader at reading venues and festivals around Australia and in Ireland, England, Canada, USA, Malaysia, Czech Republic and Slovakia where she held a three month residency at the Bridge Guard Residency in Sturovo in 2016. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from Canberra University. Jane has published six collections of poetry, most recently 2013 Days Like These - selected and new poems, published by Interactive Press.

Over The Edge acknowledges the generous financial support of Galway City Council, Poetry Ireland, & The Art Council.

May Over The Edge Writers' Gathering: Jean Folan, Dave Lordan, Fiona Smith, Kevin Doyle & Jo Hemmant

May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering

at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop

presents

readings by Fiona Smith & Kevin Doyle,

the LAUNCH of

Jean Folan’s debut poetry collection Between Time

plus The Galway Launches

of The Light Knows Tricks by Jo Hemmant

& The First Book Of Frags by Dave Lordan

The May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents readings by Fiona Smith and Kevin Doyle and the Galway launch of Between Time by Jean Folan, The Light Knows Tricks by Jo Hemmant & The First Book of Frags by Dave Lordan. The The event will take place at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Middle Street, Galway on Friday, May 17th, 6.30pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Fiona Smith is a freelance journalist and translator. She has published a wide range of journalistic work in both Irish and international publications. She currently writes on Irish topics for the German Press Agency dpa and translates from Scandinavian languages into English. She has published poetry in Southword and in the Hennessy New Irish Writing page in the Irish Independent. She won the poetry section of the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition in 2012 with the poem 'At Letterfrack'. She is currently working on a first collection.

Kevin Doyle is from Cork. His short stories have been published in Cork Literary Review, Stinging Fly, Southwords, Burning Bush, Cúirt Journal, Duality, Liblit and Sunday Tribune. His work has also been included in anthologies such as Irish Writers Against War (Dublin, 2003), Pulse Fiction (London, 1998) and Snapshots (London, 1999) as well as Cork millennium collection, An Gob Saor. He has been shortlisted for many prizes (including Over The Edge, 2010) and has won top placings in the Ian St James Short Story Award, Kilkenny Prize, Tipperary Short Story Weekend Prize and the Highlands and Islands Short Story Award. His work was described by the late Patrick Galvin as ‘terse and original’. He blogs regularly at on Irish and radical politics from an anarchist perspective (http://kfdoyle.wordpress.com).

Jean Folan was born in Galway in 1951. She lives in Inishcrone, Co Sligo and is enrolled on the MA in Writing in NUI Galway. Between Time is her first collection of poems and is published by Lapwing. Jean Folan was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing Prize 2007, and the Over the Edge Showcase 2008, and was a featured reader at Over the Edge 2007. She was the winner of the Impromptu Haiku, Culture Night 2010, Ballina Arts Centre, Co. Mayo and runner-up at Culture Night 2012, Kenny’s Bookshop, Galway.

Jo Hemmant was born in Manchester in 1967, and this was to be the first of many places she has lived, including Sicily, Holland and Hong Kong. She has always worked with words—after brief stints teaching English as a foreign language and writing PR puffs, she moved into journalism and editing. This experience in publishing prompted her to set up Pindrop, a boutique poetry press, in 2010, which has published twelve titles to date. She now lives in the Kent countryside with her husband and two sons and is involved in local poetry, acting as Secretary of The Kent and Sussex Poetry Society and running creative writing workshops. Her poems have been published in various magazines and anthologies, such as Magma, Iota, Dream Catcher, Jericho (Cinnamon Press, 2012) and nothing left to burn (Ragged Raven Press, 2011) and she has won prizes in several competitions, including first prize in The New Writer Poetry and Prose Competition 2011(collection category), second prize in the Torriano Poetry Competition in 2011 and runner-up in the Cardiff International Poetry Competition 2012. Her poetry collection, The Light Knows Tricks, is just published by Doire Press.

Dave Lordan is the first writer to win Ireland’s three national prizes for young poets. He is the current holder of the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary Award and previous winner of both the Patrick Kavanagh and Strong Awards for poetry. He has won wide acclaim for his writing and is a renowned performer of his own work, with the Irish Times calling him ‘as brilliant on the page as he is in performance’. He has read his work by invitation at festivals and venues across Europe and North America. His collections are The Boy in The Ring (2007) & Invitation to a Sacrifice (2010), both published by Salmon Poetry. His poems are regularly broadcast on Irish national radio and he reviews for the flagship Arts show Arena, as well as many publications including Ireland’s leading literary magazine, The Stinging Fly, of which he was a guest editor for summer 2012. He teaches contemporary critical theory and poetic practice on the MA in poetry studies in Dublin City University and he teaches creative writing at primary, secondary, third, and adult education levels. Dave’s debut collection of short stories First Books of Frags is just published by Wurm Press.

There is no entrance fee.

For further information contact 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing generous financial support of

the Arts Council and Galway City Council.