Since its inception in 2006 the New Writing Showcase has grown to become one of the most important platforms for emerging writers in Ireland. This year’s Cúirt Over The Edge New Writing Showcase features three participants from the Over the Edge literary series in Galway – Sadhbh Goodwin, D’or Seifer, & Hannah Ward – and Shane Murphy and Siobhán Flynn, the winners of the Cúirt New Writing Prize 2022. Also reading this year will be Flavia Simas who is chosen as part of the new Skylight 47 Open Window project which will, from now on, be an annual part of Cúirt. The MC for the event will be regular Over The Edge host Susan Millar DuMars. It takes place on Tuesday, April 5th, 11 am, at The Mick Lally Theatre, Druid Lane. Entry is pay what you can. All welcome.
Sadhbh Goodwin is a nineteen year old poet from Galway. Their poetry has been published in the Wild Words anthology (four years in a row), in VoxGalvia, and Cinders magazine, and was also featured on Headstuff.org as poem of the week. They write in both Irish and English, and their poem “Oidhreacht” was featured on the #WEARETHEPOETS poetry jukebox in Dublin. They have performed before in the “Over the Edge" open mic, as well as the “In my Orbit" open mic at the Galway Arts centre. They are currently studying English in UCC. Sadhbh was a Featured Reader at the March 2021 Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom.
D'or Seifer lives in Limerick. She contributes to poetry gatherings, such as Filí an Tí Bháin, and On the Nail. D’or co-runs the online poetry series Lime Square Poets. Previous to this, she co-ran the Not the Time to be Silent series. Her work has appeared in Skylight 47, The Galway Advertiser's Vox Galvia page, Spilling Cocoa Over Martin Amis, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and Pendemic. D’or was a Featured Reader at the September 2021 Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom.
Hannah Ward is from Roscommon and grew up in a family ran petrol station which closed in 2018. Hannah is currently a student in NUIG studying creative writing and working towards a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy. Hannah would like to follow in the grand Irish tradition of speaking in great descriptive volumes, with a lot of heart and conviction, and never really making a point. Her poetry has been published in the Vox Galvia creative writing page in The Galway Advertiser. Hannah was a Featured Reader at the May 2021 Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom.
Flávia Simas was born and raised in Goiás, Brazil, where she completed her studies and earned a Master’s Degree in Linguistics. Flávia is interested in literature as a means to express the shared humanity of our daily struggles. Her work has appeared at the rabble.ie, Elephant Journal, and at the special edition of Skylight 47 published in 2019. Flavia is reading as part of the new Skylight 47 Open Window project which will, from now on, be an annual part of Cúirt.
Shane Murphy is the winner in the fiction category for this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize. Of Shane’s winning story “Welcome to the World”, this year’s fiction judge Lisa McInerney wrote: ‘A character study that’s compassionate and raw, and a reflection on yearning and identity that was moving and surprising. This isn’t the most polished work on the longlist, but to me it was the most promising. I felt the writer was at once curious and distanced enough from their protagonist to convey a memorable story. A sign, I think, of a gift for words and for people’.
Siobhán Flynn is the winner in the poetry category for this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize. Of Siobhán’s winning poem “I’m Trying to Write a Poem About an Angel” this years’ poetry judge Gail McConnell wrote: ‘Often the test of a true poem is the reader’s desire to return to it again and again. I liked this poem when I read it first, but I noticed that I kept re-reading it, and each time I did, I noticed something new. It’s a poem that knows what it’s about – and it’s about a state of unknowing. The poem is asking what it is to be a self and what it is to be a body, and to try to answer its questions it looks beyond the binaries of gender (male and female), and presence (natural and supernatural), hoping ‘to find the right form’. It’s a poem after Analicia Sotelo’s ‘I’m Trying to Write a Poem about a Virgin and It’s Awful’, so it’s playing with imitation in its form as well as in its subject. It sets up a pair of relationships: of the poem with its influence, and of ‘I’ with ‘they’. There’s a lot about it to enjoy – humour, clear diction, good line endings and a self-consciousness about the whole strange endeavour of living and writing – but it’ the ending I marvel at. Wonderful’.
Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing financial support of The Arts Council, Galway City Council, and Poetry Ireland, and our ongoing partnership with the Cúirt Festival of International Literature.
