Twelfth Annual Over The Edge Fiction Slam with Una Mannion & Alvy Carragher

 Over The Edge presents its twelfth annual fiction slam with Featured Readers, Alvy Carragher and Una Mannion, on Zoom on Friday, April 9th, starting 8pm sharp.

Alvy Carragher

Alvy Carragher grew up in rural Ireland and considered herself a writer long before it was appropriate. She has an MA in Writing from NUI Galway, and her first collection of poems, Falling In Love With Broken Things was published by Salmon Poetry in 2016; her follow up The Men I Keep Under My Bed will be published by Salmon this year. Her debut novel The Cantankerous Molly Darling was published by Chicken House Books in 2019. A former resident of both Louisiana and South Korea, she is currently holed up in Vancouver where she is tinkering away at a second novel and learning to speak Canadian. Alvy was a Featured Reader at the February 2014 Over The Edge: Open Reading and at the 2015 Cúirt / Over The Edge New Writers’ Showcase.

 

                                                                Una Mannion

Una Mannion was born in Philadelphia and now lives in County Sligo, Ireland with her husband and three children A CROOKED TREE is her first novel and was published by Faber & Faber in 2020. Una has an MA in Writing from NUI Galway and was a Featured Reader at the May 2016 Over The Edge: Open Reading and at the 2017 Cúirt / Over The Edge New Writers’ Showcase.

The first twelve fiction writers to text Kevin Higgins on 087-6431748 or email over-the-edge-openreadings@hotmail.com on the evening of Friday, April 9^th and register will be guaranteed a place in the slam. All participating writers should prepare 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 Alvy Carragher, Una Mannion and an audience member. Three writers will go through to the second round and the prize for the winner is two bottles of excellent wine, one read, one white, and a most delicious box of chocolates, which will be delivered to you.

Over The Edge is inviting you to the April 2021 Fiction Slam on Zoom. Friday, April 9th, 8pm sharp.

Join The Over The Edge Zoom Meeting at

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

Meeting ID: 738 901 3549

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.

Over The Edge in association with the Cúirt Festival of International Literature presents the twelfth annual New Writing Showcase

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 – Rena Garrett, Eileen P Keane, & Una Mannion – and Paul Bregazzi, the winner of the Cúirt NewWriting Poetry Prize 2017. The MC for the event will be regular Over The Edge host Susan Millar DuMars. It takes place on Wednesday, April 26^th, 3pm, at The Town Hall Theatre. Entry is free of charge. All welcome.

 

Rena Garrett

Rena Garrett is a graduate MA in Writing student in NUIG. She has also participated in poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre. Her poetry has been published in The Moth Magazine, and Spontaneity.org and was shortlisted for the Galway Rape Crisis Centre Short Story Competition 2016. Rena was a Featured Reader at the August 2016 Over The Edge: Open Reading.

Eileen P Keane

Eileen P Keane is from North Connemara, Co. Galway. She last year completed an MA in Writing at NUI Galway.  Eileen has written and performed for theatre and stage and her CD Spaces was released in 2014. She writes Poetry, Memoir and non-fiction. She is also a Singer/Songwriter and has performed at the: Electric Picnic, Lunasa Festival Sligo, and at the Clifden Arts Festival. Her songs have featured on RTE Radio and Television. Her poems appear in the latest edition of the Galway Review and her Flash Fiction was shortlisted for Allingham Festival 2015. Eileen was a Featured Reader at the March 2016 Over The Edge: Open Reading. 

Una Mannion

Una Mannion teaches Performing Arts in IT Sligo. In March 2016, her poetry was published in the New Irish Writing page in The Irish Times and her fiction was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing Prize. She won the Yeats' Society's Seamus Heaney Prize and came second place in Dromineer Flash Fiction 2015. She has been shortlisted in the Listowel, Bridport, Fish Memoir and other competitions. She recently completed an MA in Writing at NUI Galway. She lives in Sligo with her husband and three children.  Una was a Featured Reader at the May 2016 Over The Edge: Open Reading. Una won the Emerging Poetry Award at this year’s Hennessy Literary Awards and is also the winner of the Fiction section in this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize.

Paul Bregazzi

Paul Bregazzi is a Special Needs Teacher in West Dublin. His poetry has appeared widely and been anthologised on both sides of the Atlantic in Crannóg, The Stony Thursday Book, Skylight 47, Southword, The Stinging Fly, Magma (U.K),  Fields Magazine (Univ of Texas at Austin), The French Literary Review (Fr),  Thema (U.S.), The Ofi Press (Mexico). He has been shortlisted for the Bridport prize, the RSPB/Rialto Nature Poetry Competition and The Haiku Foundation U.S. Touchstone Awards. He won 2nd place in Magma (U.K.) Editors’ Short Poetry Prize and the Oliver Goldsmith International Poetry Competition. He is co-founder of the Dublin poetry group Listeners and was selected for Poetry Ireland’s Introduction Series 2015. Paul is the winner of the poetry section in this year’s Cúirt New Writing Prize.

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. 

May Over The Edge Open Reading with Paul McVeigh, Una Mannion, & Sandra Coffey

Paul McVeigh

The May ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 26^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Paul McVeigh, Una Mannion, & Sandra Coffey. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are especially welcome. 

Sandra Coffey is a writer from Athenry, county Galway. She has been published in Crannóg, Honest Ulsterman, Incubator Journal, Silver Apples, Lampeter Review, Galway Review, ROPES and ‘Around the Farm Gate’ a collection of rural stories published by Ballpoint Press, RTE and the Farmer’s Journal. She was longlisted for the 2015 writing.ie Bord Gais Energy Irish Short Story of the Year. She works as a journalist for the Galway Independent. She tweets at @SandraCoffey 

Una Mannion teaches Performing Arts in IT Sligo. In March 2016, her poetry was published in the New Irish Writing page in The Irish Times and her fiction was shortlisted for the Cúirt New Writing Prize. She won the Yeats' Society's Seamus Heaney Prize and came second place in Dromineer Flash Fiction 2015. She has been shortlisted in the Listowel, Bridport, Fish Memoir and other competitions. She is currently completing an MA in Writing at NUI Galway. She lives in Sligo with her husband and three children.  

Born in Belfast, Paul McVeigh is an award-winning writer whose work has been performed on stage and radio, published in print and been translated into French, German, Polish, Russian and Spanish. He began his career as a playwright before moving to London where he wrote comedy shows, which were performed at the Edinburgh Festival and in London’s West End. His short stories have been published in literary journals and anthologies, read on BBC Radio 5 and commissioned by BBC Radio 4. He is the Co-Founder of London Short Story Festival, of which, he was the Director and Curator for 2014 & ’15. He is Associate Director at Word Factory, the UK’s premier short story salon. The Good Son is his first novel and was shortlisted for The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, nominated for The People’s Book Prize, and shortlisted for The Guardian’s ‘Not The Booker’ Prize 2015. It was published in France in April 2016 and is a major German release for Autumn 2016. Paul received The McCrea Literary Award in 2015.

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome at the open-mic. 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, Poetry Ireland & The Arts Council.