2018 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop

The 2018 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase featuring Liz McSkeane,

Paddy Mhaemie Ó'Shuilleabháin, 

Karen McDonnell, Hugh Doyle, Aoife Reilly, Katherine Noone, Kevin Higgins, Nicki Griffin, Lorna Shaughnessy, Mary Madec, Ross Hattaway, Marion Cox, Bernie Crawford, Mari Maxwell, & Susan Lindsay and the  anthology Bosom Pals (Doire Press, Ed. Marie Cadden) will take place at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop on Friday, February, 9^th at 6.30pm.

In this annual retrospective of the year just past, Galway-based poets, who published a new collection of poems during 2017, are invited to read three poems from the collection in question. There will also be readings from the anthology Bosom Pals (Doire Press, Ed. Marie Cadden), & a showcasing of 2017 publications by the new Irish poetry publisher Turas Press. 

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

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 presents Poems for Patience winners & launch of poetry collection by Aoife Reilly

The May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents an exciting variety of poetry, including the launch of Aoife Reilly’s debut poetry collection.  There will also be readings by the winners of this year’s Poems for Patience competition, Lorna Shaughnessy and Marie Cadden, and American poets Ron Houchin and Art Stringer. The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, May 12^th, 8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Aoife Reilly

Aoife Reilly is originally from Laois, but has been living in Galway since 2012. She works as a psychotherapist and teacher and has been attending Kevin Higgins’s poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre since Autumn 2013. Aoife’s poetry has been published in Crannóg, Skylight 47, on the Poethead website, and in a wide variety of other poetry magazines recently. Aoife was a Featured Reader at the August 2015 Over The Edge: Open Reading and was also selected to read at the 2016 Cúirt Festival / Over The Edge New Writers’ Showcase. Her debut poetry collection Lilac and Gooseberries is just published by Lapwing Press.

Art Stringer is the author of the poetry collections Channel Markers (Wesleyan University Press), Human Costume (Salmon Poetry) and Late Breaking, also published by Salmon. His work has appeared in such journals as The Nation, Antaeus, The Ohio Review, Denver Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Poetry Northwest, and in Backcountry: Contemporary Writing in West Virginia.  He also edited and introduced an edition of Louise McNeill’s Paradox Hill (West Virginia University Press). For twenty-five years, he taught writing and literature at Marshall University. Art will be reading from his new poetry collection which is just published by Salmon Poetry.

Lorna Shaughnessy was born in Belfast and lives in Co. Galway, Ireland. She has published three poetry collections, Torching the Brown River, Witness Trees, & Anchored (Salmon, 2008, 2011, & 2015), and her work was selected for the Forward Book of Poetry, 2009. She is also a translator of Spanish and South American Poetry. Her most recent translation was of poetry by Galician writer Manuel Rivas, The Disappearance of Snow (Shearsman Press, 2012), which was shortlisted for the UK Poetry Society’s 2013 Popescu Prize for translation. She lectures in Spanish and Creative Writing in NUI, Galway. Lorna is the joint winner of this year’s Poems for Patience competition for her poem ‘The Dual Citizen’ which is now framed and displayed in University Hospital Galway.

Ron Houchin was born in San Diego, California, and raised from the age of three in Huntington, West Virginia.  He comes from a family of factory workers, coal miners, and farmers who have always lived in Appalachia. For thirty years he taught in an Ohio public school in the southernmost tip of Ohio. The Quiet Jars, a new and selected poetry collection, was published in 2013 by Salmon Publishing and a short story collection, Tales Out Of School, was published, also in 2013, from Wind Publications of Kentucky. Ron lives in a haunted house, built by the grandson of an ex-slave, on the banks of the Ohio River. He will be reading from his latest poetry collection which is just published by Salmon Poetry.

Marie Cadden lives in Spiddal, Co. Galway. Her acclaimed debut poetry collection Gynaecologist in The Jacuzzi was published last year by Salmon Poetry. Winner of the Cuirt 2011 New Writing Prize for Poetry,  Runner-Up 2012 Westport Arts Festival Poetry Prize,  Third Prize 2012 Francis Ledwidge Poetry Competition.   Shortlisted for Desmond O'Grady Poetry Competition 2012, Bradshaw Books/Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition 2011, Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Award 2010. Her poems have been published in The Recorder (USA), THE SHOp, ROPES, Revival, Boyne Berries, and the anthologies Mosaic (2011), and Lady Gregory's Townhouse (2009). A co-editor of “Ireland’s most interesting poetry magazine” Skylight 47, Marie is the joint winner of this year’s Poems for Patience competition for her poem ‘In Praise of Denial’ which is now framed and displayed in University Hospital Galway.                       

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

2017 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop

The 2017 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase featuring Alvy Carragher, Breda Joyce, Miceál Kearney, Mary Lee, Pete Mullineaux, Luke Morgan, Susan Millar DuMars, Marie Cadden, Kevin Higgins, James O’Toole, Gerry Hanberry, Liz Quirke, Nicki Griffin, Sighle Meehan, Mary Madec, Ger Reidy and the anthologies Even The Daybreak - 35 Years of Salmon Poetry (Salmon), The Poet’s Quest For God (Eyewear Publishing), Fermata – Writings Inspired By Music (Artisan House) & Poems For Jeremy Corbyn (Shoestring Press) will take place at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop on Friday, February, 10^th  at 6.30pm. 

In this annual retrospective of the year just past, Galway-based poets, who published a new collection of poems during 2016, are invited to read three poems from the collection in question. There will also be short readings from the anthologies Poems For Jeremy Corbyn (Shoestring Press, Ed. Merryn Williams), Fermata – Writings Inspired By Music  (Artisan House, Ed. Eva Bourke & Vincent Woods), Even The Daybreak - 35 Years of Salmon Poetry (Salmon, Ed. Jessie Lendennie), & The Poet’s Quest For God (Eyewear Publishing, Ed. Fr. Oliver Brennan, & Todd Swift with Kelly Davio & Cate Myddleton-Evans), all of which include poems by Galway-based writers.

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

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

Special Over The Edge: Open Reading At This Year’s Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering

The Over The Edge: Open Readings in Galway City Library are famed for their large, supportive audiences. During the past decade many now established writers have taken their first early steps at these legendary readings. The venue for these readings since their inception in 2003 has always been Galway City Library. This year’s Lady Gregory Autumn Gathering will include a special Over The Edge: Open Reading which will take place at Gort Public Library on Thursday, October 3^rd, 7pm. The Featured Readers are Bernie Crawford, Anthony O’Brien & Marie Cadden. There will as is usual at Over The Edge events be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. Everyone who has a poem or page or two of a story they’d like to try out on an audience is most welcome to come along and participate.

Bernie Crawford lives near Oranmore, Co Galway.  She won first prize in The Dead Good Poetry Competition in 2013. She was long-listed for Over the Edge Poetry Competition in 2011 and again this year 2013. She was also long listed this year for Doire Press Annual International Poetry Chapbook Competition. In 2012 she was long-listed for the Powers Irish Whiskey Short Story Competition and was also a finalist in the Baffle poetry festival in Loughrea. She has been invited to read at a number of venues and her poems have appeared in the poetry anthology Behind The Masks and in a number of publications including Irish Left Review and Skylight 47.

Anthony O’Brien was born in Limerick and has been involved in Creative Writing since his schooldays in CBS Sextons Street. As well as his chapbook 21 Poems Anthony’s poems have been published in The Old Limerick Journal, The Limerick Poetry Broadsheet and The Stony Thursday Book and many other magazines. He has translated the poetry of the 19^th century poet French Symbolist poet Paul Verlaine two of these translations were published in The Gorey Detail. In the 1990s he was a member of Fourfront poets with fellow Limerick poets Ciaran O Driscoll, Jo Slade and Mark Whelan. They wrote poetic drama pieces for the stage which they performed themselves at venues nationally. Since moving to live in Oranmore he has contributed to many Galway poetry workshops and recently been published in the NUIG creative writing chapbook Sourcings edited by Moya Cannon. Anthony is a member of the Oranmore Library Poetry Reading group and The Weir writing group and was shortlisted for the 2013 Cúirt New Writing prize

Marie Cadden lives in Spiddal, Co. Galway.  Winner of the Cuirt 2011 New Writing Prize for Poetry,  Runner-Up 2012 Westport Arts Festival Poetry Prize,  Third Prize 2012 Francis Ledwidge Poetry Competition.   Shortlisted for Desmond O'Grady Poetry Competition 2012, Bradshaw Books/Cork Literary Review Manuscript Competition 2011, Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Award 2010. Poems published in The Recorder (USA), THE SHOp, ROPES, Revival, Boyne Berries, Skylight 47 and anthologies Mosaic (2011), Behind the Masks (2010 - as co-editor) and Lady Gregory's Townhouse (2009).                    

There will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished, which is open to everyone. 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 & The Arts Council.