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. 

July Over The Writers' Gathering with Niamh Boyce, Liz McSkeane PLUS Fiction Slam

Niamh Boyce and Liz McSkeane Featured Readers & Judges at Eleventh Annual Over The Edge Fiction Slam at The Kitchen @ The Museum

Over The Edge presents its eleventh annual fiction slam with Featured Readers, Liz McSkeane and Niamh Boyce, at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish, Galway on Friday, June 28^th, 8pm.

Liz McSkeane

Liz McSkeane born in Scotland of Scottish and Irish parents and has lived in Dublin since 1981. She is an award-winning novelist, poet and short story writer. Her début novel, Canticle, was a winner in the Irish Writers' Centre/Greenbean Novel Fair of 2016. In 2011,  she was an Irish Writers’ Centre Lonely Voice winner and in 1999, she won the Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year.  Liz has three poetry collections and her poetry and short stories have been published in the Irish Times, Poetry Ireland Review, Irish Pages, The Shop, Stinging Fly, Orbis, Stepaway, Gutter Magazine, The Lea-Green Down and others. In 2016, Liz set up her own small press, Turas Press, which published six books during 2016-18,with a further four scheduled for 2019.

Niamh Boyce

Niamh Boyce was named Newcomer of the Year at the 2013 Irish Book Awards for The Herbalist, her first novel ('The most entertaining yet substantial historical novel since Joseph O'Connor's Star of the Sea' Irish Times) which was also a Number One bestseller. She won the 2012 Hennesssy XO New Irish Writer Of  The Year Award and Emerging Poetry Award for her poem 'Kitty'. Her short fiction has been widely published in anthologies. Her Kind is her second novel and has been called 'Enthralling' by the Irish Examiner while the  Sunday Independent described it as “'Masterful ... Boyce delicately unfolds this atmospheric, magical thriller with pace and juice, while also making sure that the sentiments (vilification of women, policing of female biology, etc) echo through time'.

The first twelve fiction writers to make it to The Kitchen @ The Museum on the evening of Friday, June 28^th and register will be guaranteed a place in the slam. If you want to be sure of a place, get there early! All participating writers should bring two pieces of their own fiction, as there are two rounds. The time limit in both rounds is five minutes. Extracts from longer stories are admissible. Stories do not have to be memorised. The Fiction Slam will be judged by a three person jury made up of Niamh Boyce, Liz McSkeane and an audience member. Three writers will go through to the second round and the prize for the winner is a bottle of excellent red wine.

There is no entrance fee. All welcome. For further information contact 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 launches Christine Valters Paintner’s debut poetry collection

The May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents an exciting variety of poetry including the Galway launch of Christine Valters Paintner’s debut poetry collection, Dreaming of Stones (Paraclete Poetry) with guest speaker Dara Molloy. There will also be readings by Patrick Chapman, Raine Geoghegan, Colm Keegan, and Anita Ouellette. The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Friday, May 10th, 8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Christine Valters Paintner is the online Abbess of Abbey of the Arts, a virtual monastery and global, ecumenical community integrating contemplative practice and creative expression. She is a Benedictine oblate living on the west coast of Ireland with her husband John. Together they lead pilgrimages and retreats in Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and Austria. Christine is the author of twelve books on spirituality, monastic wisdom, creativity, and the arts including The Artist’s Rule and The Soul’s Slow Ripening.  Her poems have been published in journals in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and the UK. She has participated in poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre and online. Dreaming of Stones is Christine’s debut poetry collection. 

Patrick Chapman was born in 1968 and lives in Dublin. He has published eight poetry collections since 1991, as well as a novel and three volumes of stories. His other works include a short film, television for children, and audio dramas for Doctor Who and Dan Dare. He produced B7’s dramatisation of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles for BBC Radio 4. His most recent poetry collection Open Season on the Moon is just published by Salmon Poetry.

Anita Ouellette is a poet living in Massachusetts. She was runner-up in the 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year competition and is a regular participant in Kevin Higgins’ online poetry workshop. Anita is currently on holiday in Ireland and will share a couple of her poems.

Colm Keegan is from Dublin. Elaine Feeney said this of his most recent poetry collection, Randomer (Salmon, 2018): “Delving into themes of mid-life, fatherhood, love, belonging and family, with solid observations and self-surrendering language, here is a poet now ready to watch and listen. Keegan is loyal to his trade, never hiding truth, or shirking responsibility. Randomer catapults Keegan into the anti-hero role of his own tales. The Dublin that created him, he bravely recreates, through lines that are gritty yet gorgeous. Keegan continues to write politically, honouring the list poem, watching Ireland with a satirical eye and sharp wit, while questioning the poet’s place in everything: the home, the city, even his place in poetry and its lure, for better or worse.  Randomer is a fascinating read. It finds edgy beauty in the banality of human struggle, in a world that’s off-kilter. These poems are gut-wrenchingly raw and beautiful.  You will return to this book again and again. Keegan is a romantic with nerve and bravery.  We find solace in his path.”  

Raine Geoghegan, MA is a poet and prose writer of Romany, Irish and Welsh descent living in the UK. Recent publications include Poetry Ireland Review; The Curlew; Travellers' Times; Ofi Press and Under the Radar. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net 2018 nominee. Her pamphlet, Apple Water: Povel Panni was launched in December 2018.

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