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.

August Over The Edge: Open Reading with Hazel Naughton, beam, & Donald Gardner PLUS open-mic

The August ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 25^th, 6pm-7.30pm. The Featured Readers are Donald Gardner, beam, & Hazel Naughton. 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 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. Note the new slightly earlier 6pm start time.

For those of you attending via Zoom:  Over The Edge is inviting you to the August Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom. Thursday, August 25^th, 6pm-7.30pm

Join The Over The Edge Zoom Meeting at

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

Meeting ID: 738 901 3549

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

Hazel Naughton is a Galway native. She has taken Kevin Higgins's poetry workshop twice over the years and has read at several open mics in the past. She has had her writing published by Yasodhara Ashram and Berlin Art Parasites. She will be attending Queen's University Belfast in September to begin her post grad in creative writing. Her writing deals with themes of love, loss, home, and spirituality. 

 

beam is a poet from Galway. She has participated in workshops led by Kevin Higgins and read as a featured reader for Lime Square Poets. Her work has been published in Broadsheet.ie, ThePlatform.uk, Cabinet Of Heed, Poetry With Pride (Belfast Pride 22’), Spilling Cocoa Over Martin Amos, WordCityLit, Ink Sweat & Tears, Lothlorien Journal, impspired, Open Skies and has been included in Corks Quare festival as an interactive audio piece. Upcoming work will appear in Stoney Thursday (edited by Annemarie Ní Churreáin) and Skylight 47 (16th issue). You can find more of her poetry @personalbeam on instagram.

Donald Gardner is described as ‘one of the most entertaining and perceptive poets of his generation’. He has been giving readings of his work since the mid-60s when he lived in New York. Recently Grey Suit editions brought out his New and Selected Poems (1966-2020).One reviewer has said: ‘Every section of this book is a time capsule containing poems that are as fresh and meaningful today as the day they were written’. London-born, Gardner currently divides his time between Co. Kildare and Amsterdam.

 

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.

March Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom with Anne Tannam, John Transier, & Aoife Cunningham

 The March ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place on Zoom on Thursday, March 24^th at the usual Over The Edge time 6.30-8.00pm (local Galway time). The Featured Readers are Aoife Cunningham, John Transier, & Anne Tannam. There will, as always at Over The Edge: Open Readings, be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always especially welcome at the open-mic. Anyone interested in taking part in the open-mic should text Kevin Higgins on 087-6431748 or or register their interest by messaging the Over The Edge Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/Over-The-Edge-Literary-Events-712507866206899 between 6pm and 6.30pm on the evening of the reading. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. 

Aoife Cunningham grew up in a small village on the suburbs of Galway City. A twin in a family of 6 children, Aoife grew up as a middle child. She was raised single handily by her mother Sylvia. Aoife began writing when she was 7, beginning with short stories before progressing on to writing and publishing her poetry. Aoife began her poetry career in 2018 after taking a poetry workshop with Kevin Higgins. From there, Aoife has been published in the Galway Advertiser, Broadsheet.ie, The Crow of Minerva and Spilling Cocoa On Martin Amis. As someone who struggled with their mental health, Aoife found solace through her poetry. From jumping off a bridge in 2018 to ending up on life support in 2020 due to Anorexia, Aoife’s poetry documents the battle of mental illness and her subsequent recovery. Aoife aspires to write a book and become an advocate for mental health.  Her dream is to become an renowned author and to help improve the mental wellness support in Ireland, ensuring that all young people have access to treatment.    

John Transier is a fiction writer based in Portland, Oregon who has been shortlisted in many literary competitions. John is currently working on his first novel. He loves reading history, cooking, writing, long walks and the novels of John Steinbeck, George MacDonald Fraser and Patrick O’Brian. He does not understand why anyone drinks anything other than Aviation gin, which is distilled about ten miles from his house in Portland. On winter evenings he likes to lay on the couch, listen to his wife play guitar and his daughter play piano and reflect on the fact that he has no musical ability whatsoever. 

Anne Tannam is from Dublin and is the author of three poetry collections, ‘Take This Life (Wordonthestreet 2011), ‘Tides Shifting Across My Sitting Room Floor’ (Salmon Poetry 2017) and the latest ‘Twenty-six Letters of a new Alphabet’ published with Salmon in 2021. Anne’s work has been featured on national radio and press and forms part of UCD’s Irish Poetry Reading Archive. Also a spoken word poet, Anne has performed at home and abroad at events such as Electric Picnic, Kosovo International Poetry Festival and Berlin’s Craw Festival. For more on Anne’s poetry visit www.annetannampoetry.ie

Over The Edge is inviting you to the March Over The Edge: Open Reading on Zoom. Thursday, March 24^th, 6.30-8pm

Join The Over The Edge Zoom Meeting at

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

Meeting ID: 738 901 3549

 

 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. For further details phone 087-6431748.

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