Over The Edge Celebrates 20th Birthday at January 2023 Over The Edge: Open Reading featuring Ferdia Mac Anna, Terri Metcalfe, & Séan Gibbons

Over The Edge Celebrates 20^th Birthday at January 2023 Over The Edge: Open Reading featuring Ferdia Mac Anna, Terri Metcalfe, & Séan Gibbons PLUS open-mic including SHOWCASE of poets from the 2022/23 MA in Writing at University of Galway. 

The January ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place at Galway City Library on Thursday, January 26th at the new usual Over The Edge time 6pm-7.30pm. The Featured Readers are Séan Gibbons, Terri Metcalfe, & Ferdia Mac Anna. There will, as usual, be an open-mic which this month will include a Showcase of some of the poets on this year’s MA in Writing at the University of Galway. 

This reading celebrates a historic TWENTY YEARS since the first ever Over The Edge reading in Galway City Library, during which two decades Over The Edge has had a transformative effect on the literary scene in the West of Ireland and nationally. There will be a birthday cake to celebrate Over The Edge’s status as (easily) the longest running and most influential literary reading series in Ireland. There will be a bit of a party afterwards. But the entire evening will in a sense be a party. This is not one to miss. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. 

 

Ferdia Mac Anna was born in Dublin. He has worked as a television producer/director, journalist, magazine editor and novelist.At present, he lectures in Screenwriting and DCU and ACD and facilitates Creative Writing courses. He has directed feature Films, short films, documentaries and TV Dramas. Hisfeature film ‘DannyBoy’won Best Film at Birmingham Film Festival and has just been released worldwide on various online platforms.He was producer and script editor on the BAFTA winning children’s drama series, ‘Custer’s Last Stand-Up’ (BBC 2000-2002) and ‘Seacht’ (2007, TG4). For some years he toured Ireland as lead singer and songwriter with first Rocky De Valera and the Gravediggers (1977-79/2005-2008) and Rocky de Valera and The Rhythm Kings (1980-83). Now and then, he still rock and rolls. He has written  three novels , ‘The Last of the High Kings’ (made into a Hollywood movie starring Gabriel Byrne, Jared Leto and Christina Ricci), ‘The Ship Inspector’and ‘Cartoon City’  as well as two memoirs, ‘Baldhead’(Raven Arts) and ‘The Rocky Years’ (Hodder Headline, 2006). He has written one poem.

Cumbria native Terri Metcalfe moved to Ireland with her Mayo born partner and two children in 2019. Considering herself from a down-to-earth, tools of the practical trade family, she only recently in her forties thought it acceptable that she might be a serious poet. She had an impressive total of eighteen poems published during 2022, her first year of sending her work out, in publications such as Abridged, A New Ulster, Skylight 47 and Green Ink Poetry.

Seán Gibbons, the father of three adult children, originally from Galway City, now lives with his partner in Wexford in the sunny South East of Ireland. He is a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Galway and Brunel University, London. After a career spent mostly in youth work and social care, Seán is at last able to indulge his lifelong passion for writing. In the early 2000’s he spent four years driving a taxi in Galway and it was from this experience that his unconventional, taxi-driving crime-solver, Ben Miller, gained life. Along with writing crime fiction and historical thrillers, Seán is also an award-winning playwright and film-maker. When not writing, Seán is a patient, often frustrated, and always passionate supporter of Galway United FC, his hometown League of Ireland club. There are four books so far in Sean’s ‘Ben Miller’ series, each dealing with gritty contemporary issues yet written with a darkly humorous touch. Each book sees taxi-driver Ben Miller become unwillingly involved in situations, including murder, people-trafficking, prostitution and the illegal drugs trade that blur the distinctions between good and evil, as well as dealing with his own issues, including possible autism. The character of corrupt Gárda Superintendent Martin Folan features prominently in the Galway-set stories, each one of which is based on experiences the author had whilst working as a taxi-driver in the city.

The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars.  As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always particularly welcome. Those interested in reading at the open-mic should give their names to one of the Over The Edge volunteers at Galway City Library before the reading starts at 6pm.

The reading will also be broadcast live via Over The Edge’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070193895521

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

Final Over The Edge: Open Reading of 2022 with Bill Heaney, Abby Oliveira, Marc Gregg PLUS open-mic

The December ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, December 15^th, 6.00pm-7.30pm. The Featured Readers are Marc Gregg, Abby Oliveira, & Bill Heaney. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers. New readers are especially welcome. The Over The Edge end of year celebration will take place afterwards. There will, we understand, be mince pies. You are invited to come and mark the end of the strange year that has been 2022 with Over The Edge. There will be a surprise or two. 

Bill Heaney grew up in the heart of Galway. His family had a pub in the dock area of the city. He worked in Dublin and London for many years before returning to Galway. He had a variety of work situations from pubs to prisons to homeless services.  He cites these experiences as inspiration for some of his writing. Bill started  attending writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars and Kevin Higgins about five years ago. He writes both poetry and short stories.  He has had some of his poems published in Vox Galvia. Bill’s poetry is mainly inspired by the injustices in society.

Abby Oliveira is a writer and performer based in Derry.  Her work is often cross-discipline and collaborative; comprising poetry, storytelling, music, prose, playwriting, and/or physical performance.  Her work has been most recently published in The 32: An anthology of Irish Working Class voices (Unbound, 2021), The New Frontier: reflections from the Irish border (New Island Books, 2021), and Empty House: poetry & prose on the climate crisis (Doire Press, 2021).  She has been commissioned as a writer by organisations such as The MAC in Belfast, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Foyle, RTÉ Radio, and more. 

Marc Gregg is a writer and classical vocalist from Lisburn, Northern Ireland. Previously, he was the host and co-producer of a show called Soap Opera on BBC Radio Ulster that examined the stories we tell through the voice. He also founded "Button Mash", Northern Ireland's largest video game tournament series for the Tekken franchise. Currently, he is working as an Assistant Producer with Outburst Arts in Belfast producing their queer literature magazine "Catflap" among other pieces of theatre, opera, gallery shows, concerts and artist development work. His current work focuses around queerness, class and technology and the hazy boundaries between the three. An essay of his recently featured in The 32 – An Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices (edited by Paul McVeigh).

The reading will also be broadcast live via Over The Edge’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070193895521

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

November Over The Edge: Open Reading with Antoinette Lyons, Monica Igoe, & Ryan Dennis

The November ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday,November 17^th, 6pm-7.30pm. The Featured Readers are Ryan Dennis, Monica Igoe, & Antoinette Lyons. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always especially welcome at the open-mic. 

 

The reading will also be broadcast live via Over The Edge’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070193895521  

Antoinette Lyons hails from Ennis, Co. Clare. She has been an avid reader since childhood but only started writing in the last few years. Antoinette has completed poetry and fiction writing classes with Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars. Settling in West Clare,  Loop Head, the sea, and the area’s  soft landscape has found its way into her writing.  Antoinette is surprised to be writing a coming of age book about two young boys. She is still an avid reader.  Her five guests at fantasy dinner would be John Banville , Jack Reacher,  Enid Blyton,  Haruki Murakami and Patti Smith.

Monica Igoe grew up in Wexford, and studied Communications at Dublin City University a long time ago.  She lives in Galway with her husband and three sons. She previously worked as a staff journalist in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and as a freelancer out of Sydney and Galway. She is drawn to the short story format because it allows you inhabit so many different worlds, and just makes life so much more interesting.

Ryan Dennis is the author of the novel The Beasts They Turned Away, published by époque press. In addition to being a Fulbright and PhD in creative writing, he is a former writer-in-residence at Maynooth University and has taught at various institutions. In 2020 he founded The Milk House, an initiative to showcase the work of those writing on rural subjects.

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 one of the Over The Edge volunteers at Galway City Library before the reading starts at 6pm.

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

September Over The Edge: Open Reading with Anne Rouse, Jim Ward, & Fiona Hanley PLUS launch of issue 16 of Skylight 47

  

The September ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 29^th, 6-7.30pm. The Featured Readers are Fiona Hanley, Jim Ward, & Anne Rouse. The evening will also see the launch, by Anne Rouse, of issue sixteen of perhaps Ireland’s most exciting, informative, and accessible poetry magazine Skylight 47. There will be readings by contributors. All welcome. 

 

Currently based in Connemara, Fiona Hanley writes poetry and lyrical essays. Previous work can be read in Cassandra Voices and Kunstlicht and forthcoming poems in Howl: New Irish Writing and The Interpreter’s House. She was recently placed 3rd for the Lough Mask Poetry competition and holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of Edinburgh. She recently participated in Kevin Higgins’s Thursday Afternoon advanced poetry workshop via Galway Arts Centre. Fiona read some of her poems at the Poetry Co-operative’s arts for mental healh fundraising gig in aid of Jigsaw at Róisin Dubh in July.

Jim Ward has published for poetry and stories in Irish and English in various publications. His play Just Guff won 'Best in the West' award at Galway Fringe Festival, 2017 and has toured nationally including Town Hall Studio, Galway, Kilkee Playwright Festival and Liberty Hall, Dublin as part of MayFest 2019. His poem 2016 Proclamation was runner-up in the Galway Bay FM/Thoor Ballylee Yeats Poetry Challenge,2017. Another poem Orange Sunset came 3^rd in the Bobby Sands Creative Writing Contest, 2021. A second play Three Quarks was performed live via Zoom on February 2^nd last, Joyce’s birthday, by The James Joyce Centre in Dublin, and is on YouTube. His memoir piece Begging from Beggars was published in The 32 Anthology of Irish Working Class Voices, edited by Paul McVeigh, in 2021. He finished his first novel during the lockdown and is also a published cartoonist. 

Raised in Virginia, Anne Rouse lives in East Sussex. A former health worker, she's held Royal Literary Fund Fellowships in Glasgow, Belfast and London. Her poems have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, Poetry Review, Magma, the Guardian, and other journals and anthologies. The Upshot: New and Selected Poems was a TLS Book of the Year in 2008.  Ox-Eye, poems on personal and social change, was published by Bloodaxe this June. She can be found on Twitter @rouseanne.

The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. The entire event will be broadcast  via Facebook live at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070193895521

For further details phone 087-6431748.

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

Autumn Beginners & Intermediate Online Creative Writing Classes via Galway Technical Institute BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW

Creative Writing for Beginners with Kevin Higgins takes place one evening per week (Monday) from 7-9.30pm (10 weeks). It commences on Monday, September 12^th, 2022. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €140. Kevin Higgins will provide writing exercises for, and give gentle critical feedback to, those interested in trying their hand at writing stories, poems, or memoir

 To book a place, go to https://www.gti.ie/parttime/courses/detail/5342

Intermediate Creative Writing with Susan Millar DuMars takes place one evening per week (Wednesday) from 7-9.30pm (10 weeks). It commences on Wednesday, September 14th, 2022. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €140. This class is suitable for those who’ve participated in creative writing classes before or begun to have work published in magazines. Flexible exercises and work-shopping of assignments, together with the study of the works of published writers, will help each class member to find their own writing voice.

To book a place, go to https://www.gti.ie/parttime/courses/detail/5395

Both classes will be conducted via Zoom in the usual friendly supportive manner that have made Kevin and Susan’s regular in-person creative writing classes at Galway Technical Institute so popular. Participants shouldn't worry about the technology! Full details of precisely how the workshop will function online will be explained to participants during the first session.

 

For further information contact Galway Technical Institute, Father Griffin Road, Galway, 

phone 091-581342 or email gtiadulted@gretb.ie or see http://www.gti.ie