Over The Edge Returns To Galway City Library After Covid!

Caoimhe May, Sinead Mears, & Morag Anderson for May Over The Edge: Open Reading

The May ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 26^th, 6pm-7.30pm. This is a big occasion as it is the first Over The Edge: Open Reading to take place in Galway City Library since February 2020. The Featured Readers are Morag Anderson, Sinead Mears, & Caoimhe May. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always especially welcome at the open-mic. People outside Galway can still join the reading via Zoom. We hope that those who wish to will be able to read remotely at the open-mic via Zoom. The technology is a work in progress, so we ask that potential open-mic readers bear with us for what is our first post-Covid Over The Edge: Open Reading! Note the new slightly earlier 6pm start time.

For those of you attending via Zoom:  Over The Edge is inviting you to the May Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom. Thursday, May 26^th, 6pm-7.30pm.

Join The Over The Edge Zoom Meeting at

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

Meeting ID: 738 901 3549

Caoimhe May is a teenage writer, spoken word artist and performer in Galway. She is an avid activist who focuses on issues such as eating disorder recovery, sex positivity, and self love. Caoimhe’s writing has been published in Vox Galvia, Skylight 47 and elsewhere and she is a published children's author. 

Sinead Mears has always had a love for language. She won a National writing competition at 12 years old. She stumbled upon a Spoken Word group in Debarra’s pub in Clonakilty, Co Cork at aged 17 and partook in their Open Mics from then on. She learned a lot about life and writing from everyone I listened to. They gave her the confidence to pursue writing. Sinead then moved to Galway and studied Creative Writing at NUIG for two years. She recently took part in Susan DuMars’ writing course via GTI. Sinead has read here work at poetry readings held in Galway City and had a poem published in the Galway Advertiser’s Vox Galvia creative writing page.

Morag Anderson

Morag Anderson is a Scottish poet based in Highland Perthshire, Scotland. Her debut chapbook, Sin Is Due to Open in a Room Above Kitty’s (Fly on the Wall Press, 2021), explores human connections—concealed violence, love, and everything in between. It was a Winter 2021 Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Her poetry appears in Finished Creatures, Gutter, Popshot Quarterly, Skylight 47, The Broken Spine Arts Collective, and The Scotsman as well as several anthologies, including Best Scottish Poems 2021. She collaborated on a chapbook, How Bright the Wings Drive Us, which won the Dreich Alliance Competition 2021. She was placed in the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition 2021, the Edwin Morgan Trust Competition 2021, shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize 2021, and won Over the Edge New Poet 2018.She is currently working on a series of commissions by the Scottish Poetry Library.

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always particularly welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. Those interested in reading at the open-mic should give their names to Kevin Higgins at Galway City Library before the reading starts at 6pm. Those who wish to read remotely should text 087-6431748 in the half hour before the reading starts; if you are texting from outside the Republic of Ireland please add the international code and knock off the first zero on the number.

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

July Over The Edge Writers' Gathering: Yehuda Amichai, Róisin Tierney, Katherine Noone, Yvonne Green, Morag Anderson

July Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents poetry by Roisín Tierney, Yvonne Green, Yehuda Amichai, & Morag Anderson and the launch of Katherine Noone’s new poetry collection.

The July Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering in association with the Yehuda Amichai International Poetry Festival presents an international poetry extravaganza. The event will take place on Thursday, July 11th, 8pm at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish, Galway. All are welcome. There is no cover charge. Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) is widely regarded as having been Israel’s leading poet.

Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000)

Yvonne Green curates the Yehuda Amichai International Poetry Festival. She was born in London in 1957, into a multi lingual family of Central Asian descent (all 4 of her grandparents left Boukhara in Uzbekistan in 1920), her father was born in Germany her mother in Egypt. Yvonne is a poet and translator. Her new collection Jam & Jerusalem was published by Smith/Doorstop in autumn 2018. As well as reading her own poetry on the evening Yvonne will read her own favourite Yehuda Amichai poem.  

Róisín Tierney

Róisín Tierney is an Irish poet who taught English in Spain for several years (Valladolid and Granada) and is now based in London.  She read in Dublin as part of the Poetry Ireland Introduction Series in June 2008 and also featured as one of Ireland's 'Rising Poets' in Poetry Ireland Review in 2016. Her pamphlet, Dream Endings (Rack Press) won the 2012 Michael Marks Pamphlet Award.  She has also won prizes in many national competitions including the Strokestown, the Brendan Kennelly, the Bridport and the Winchester Poetry Prize.  She is a Hawthornden Fellow and occasionally teaches at The Poetry School.  Her debut collection The Spanish-Italian Border is published by Arc (2014). A more recent pamphlet Five Poems is published by Clutag Press. www.roisintierney.blogspot.com As well as reading her own poetry on the evening Róisín will read her own favourite Yehuda Amichai poem. 

Morag Anderson lives in Highland, Perthshire in Scotland with her husband, three children, two dogs, and one cat. She has recently been a regular participant in Kevin Higgins’ online poetry workshop. Morag’s poem ‘Tricky Dicky’ was the over all winner in the poetry section of the 2018 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition and is published in the most recent issue of Skylight 47 (no. 11).

Katherine Noone (pictured centre)

Katherine Noone’s poems  have  appeared  in  Boyne  Berries, Crannóg, The  Galway Review, Linnets Wings, Orbis , Skylight 47. She was shortlisted  for the Vallum (Canada) poetry competition in 2012 and Poem for  Patience 2015. She attends Kevin Higgins advanced poetry workshop in Galway. Katherine’s debut poetry collection, Keeping Watch, was published by Lapwing Publications in 2017 and The Galway Advertiser said of it “Many of [Noone’s] poems ache for a gone world, yet gracefully accept that world's passing.”  Her second collection ‘Out Here’, which is published by Lapwing Press, will be launched on the evening. 

AND A SPECIAL GUEST APPEARANCE by American poet Sandy Yannone: Sandra Yanonne grew up near the edge of the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island Sound in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Her interest in the Titanic disaster of 1912 sparked a dialogue with Ireland, the country where Titanic was built (Belfast) and her last port of call (Cobh, formerly Queenstown), as well as with other international sites connected with the disaster. Her poems and book reviews have appeared in numerous print and online journals including Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Stony Thursday Book, Glass: A Poetry Journal, Women’s Review of Books, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, CALYX: A Journal, and Seattle Review. She has written numerous articles about the intersections between poetry and social justice for the monthly newspaper Works in Progress. Her work has received the Academy of American Poets Prize and an AWP Intro Award. She earned her B.A. in writing and literature from Wheaton College (MA); an M.F.A. from Emerson College; and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Currently, she is the Faculty Director of the Writing Center at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. Her poetry collection Boats for Women is just published by Salmon Poetry.

Sandy Yannone

The evening will be MCed by Kevin Higgins who will read both a poem of his own which was inspired by one of Yehuda Amichai’s as well as the original Yehuda Amichai poem.

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

Over The Edge New Writer of the Year - WINNERS!

The winner in the Fiction category, and 2018 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year, is Maeve Mulrennan from Galway for her story 'A Blood Cure'.

Maeve Mulrennan - photo by Boyd Challenger

Maeve receives €700 in prize money, a hamper of books from Kenny's Bookshop, Galway, and will be a Featured Reader at an Over The Edge: Open Reading in the first half of 2019. Turas Press will read, without prior commitment to publish, a collection of short stories submitted to them by Maeve.

The runner-up in the Fiction category is Aongus Murtagh, Berlin for his story 'Don’t Ask Why'.

In third place is Patrick Holloway, Brazil for his story 'Untitled'.

Highly commended in the fiction section are Theresa Sweeney, Galway for her story 'Some Young One’, & Pauline McNamee, Galway for her story ‘The Last Journey’.

The winner in the Poetry category is Morag Anderson, Scotland for her poem 'Tricky Dicky'. 

Morag Anderson

Morag receives prize money of €300 and Salmon Poetry will now read, without prior commitment to publish, a collection of poems submitted to them by Morag. Morag will also read her work at an Over The Edge event during 2019. Morag's winning poem will appear in the next issue of Skylight 47.

The runner-up in the poetry section is Sighle Meehan, Galway for her poem 'There Is No Forever'.

In third place is Caroline Bracken, Wicklow for her poem ‘Place Kanada’.

Highly commended in the poetry section are Nicola Geddes, Galway for her poem 'For Mum on Her First Birthday as a Widow '; Molly Twomey, Waterford for her poem ‘Prana’; Anne Walsh Donnelly, Mayo for her poem ‘Vows’; Linda McKenna, County Down for her poem ‘Blue’, and Vinny Steed, Galway for his poem ‘Canal Bank Hole’.

The shortlist from which the winners were chosen is available here. 

A huge thank you is due to our competition judge this year Rachel Coventry. 

Over The Edge would also like to warmly thank Charlie Byrne's Bookshop, Kenny's Bookshop & Gallery, Dock No. 1 Bar & Restaurant, Ward's Hotel, and Clare Daly T.D. for again sponsoring our competition this year.