Writers' September Gathering at Sheridan's Wine Bar

Liz Gallagher

Over The Edge presents readings by poet Liz Gallagher and fiction writer Paul Lenehan at Sheridan’s Wine Bar, 14-16 Church Yard Street, Galway on Friday, September 11th, 8pm. The evening will also see short readings by visiting American Salmon poets Ron Houchin and Art Stringer and the launch of Lady Gregory’s Townhouse, a collection of work by the Advanced Poetry Workshop at Galway Arts Centre, co-edited by Susan Lindsay, Mary Madec & Maureen Ryan.

Liz Gallagher is from Donegal but has been living in the Canary Islands for the past 14 years. Liz was the featured poet in this winter’s (08/09) issue of The Stinging Fly. Her work featured in the 50 Best New Poets 2007 Anthology from Meridian Press at Virginia University. She is also one of six winners for the Oxfam Ireland Poetry Calendar 2009. This year she was selected poets for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Readings. Her first full collection, titled The Wrong Miracle, is just published by Salt Publishing. http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/9781844715671.htm

Paul Lenehan is a fiction writer from Dublin where he works with Poetry Ireland and is editor of Poetry Ireland News Letter. Paul was shortlisted twice for a Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Short Story Prize. His most recent work is included in The Clifden Anthology and The Cork Literary Review, and he has a story forthcoming in a Leaf Books anthology in the UK. He received an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Glamorgan in Wales.

Art Stringer lives in Huntingdon, West Virginia. His poetry collection Human Costume is just published by Salmon Poetry. http://www.salmonpoetry.com/humancostume.html

Ron Houchin taught in the public school system of the Appalachian region of southernmost Ohio for thirty years. His most recent collection of poetry, the third he has published with Salmon poetry, is just published. http://www.salmonpoetry.com/museumcrows.html

Lady Gregory’s Townhouse is a collection of poems by participants in the renowned Thursday afternoon Advanced Poetry Workshop at Galway Arts Centre. The poems are accompanied by a thought provoking introduction by co-editors, Susan Lindsay, Mary Madec & Maureen Ryan.

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 and Galway City Council.

Poetry at Lake Hotel Oughterard for Culture Night

As part of Oughterard’s Culture Night event the poets of the Advanced Poetry Workshop at Galway Arts Centre will take to the stage in the Lake Hotel Oughterard at 8pm on the 25th September.

The will read from their recently published Lady Gregory’s Townhouse which includes poems by Mary Madec, Tom Lavelle, Denise Heneghan, Deirdre Kearney, Liam Duffy, Maureen Ryan, Des Kavanagh, Lorna Shaughnessy, Brian O’Connell, Rita O’Donoghue, Mary Hanlon, Jean Kavanagh, Susan Lindsay, Connie Masterson and Marie Cadden.

The event is organised bt Oughterard Community Arts Group in association with Over The Edge.

For further details contact Anne Quinn, Village Bookshop, Moycullen, Co Galway. Phone 091 868612

http://www.galwayculturenight.com/

Poetry at Artspace Studios for Culture Night

Susan Millar DuMars

Gerard Hanberry

Kevin Higgins

Celeste Augé

As part of Culture Night, which is Friday 25th Sept, Artspace Studios are hosting a poetry reading which will take place in conjunction with their exhibition of visual art.

The reading will commence at 8pm. All welcome.

The participating poets are Gerard Hanberry, Susan Millar DuMars, Celeste Augé & Kevin Higgins.

The reading will take place at

Artspace Studios

7/8 Addley Park

Liosban

Tuam Road

Galway

For further details, including transport, contact Artspace Studios on 091 773046 or email: artspacegalway@eircom.net

http://www.artspacegalway.com/

SHORT-LIST ANNOUNCED for 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year

A short-list for the 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition was announced this evening at the August ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ in Galway City Library.

This year’s competition attracted 324 entries.

The short-list is as follows:

Graham Allen, Cork
Lisa Allen, Galway
Elizabeth Brennan, Dublin
Brendan Carey Kinane, Dublin
Mike Casey, Dublin
Paul Conway, Galway
Evan Costigan, Kildare
Madeleine Darcy, Cork
Ursula Deane, Dublin
Vincent Flannery, Galway
Andrew Fox, Dublin
Cristina Galvin, Galway
Richard Gibney, Dublin
Orla Higgins, Galway
Paul Jeffcutt, Down
Brian Kirk, Dublin
Tom Lavelle, Galway
Seán Leonard, Galway
Gemma Marren, Mayo
Patricia McAdoo, Galway
David Mohan, Dublin
Marcella Morgan, Galway
David O'Dwyer, Dublin
Lani O'Hanlon, Waterford
Shane Ó Maoildhia, Galway
Kevin O'Shea, Galway
Brendan Murphy, Galway
Elizabeth Reapy, Mayo
Maureen Ryan, Galway – two entries on the long-list
Suzanne Walsh, Tipperary

The competition judge this year is Patrick Chapman.

The winners will be announced at the next Over The Edge: Open Reading which takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 24th, 6.30-8pm.

The total prize money is €1,000. The best fiction entry will win €300. The best poetry entry will win €300. One of these will then be chosen as the overall winner and will receive an additional €400, giving the author total prize money of €700 and the title Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 2009. The 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year will be a Featured Reader at a reading to be scheduled in Galway City Library in Winter 09/10.

The 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition is sponsored by Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Kelly Office Supplies, Mary Higgins & a generous individual donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

Creative Writing Beginners & Intermediate at Galway Technical Institute this September

Creative Writing for Beginners with Kevin Higgins takes place one evening per week (Monday) from 7-9pm. (10 weeks) It commences on Monday, 28th September, 2009. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €115. Kevin Higgins will provide writing exercises for, and give gentle critical feedback to, those interested in trying their hand at writing poems, stories or memoir.

Intermediate Creative Writing with Susan Millar DuMars takes place one evening per week (Tuesday) from 7-9pm. (10 weeks) It commences on Tuesday, 29th September, 2009. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €115. 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 in either class contact GTI, Father Griffin Road, Galway Telephone 091-581342, e-mail adultedinfo@cgvec.ie or see http://www.gti.ie/

Poetry Workshops with Kevin Higgins at Galway Arts Centre

This September Galway Arts Centre is offering aspiring poets a choice of three poetry workshops, all facilitated by poet Kevin Higgins, whose best-selling first collection, ‘The Boy With No Face’, published by Salmon Poetry, was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish poet. Kevin’s second collection of poems, ‘Time Gentlemen, Please’, was published in 2008 by Salmon Poetry and his poetry is discussed in the recently published Cambridge Introduction to Modern Irish Poetry. His third collection Frightening New Furniture will be published next year by Salmon when his work will also appear in the generation defining anthology Identity Parade – New British and Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010).

Kevin is an experienced workshop facilitator and several of his students have gone on to achieve publication success. One of his workshop participants at Galway Arts Centre won the prestigious Hennessy Award for New Irish Poetry, while several others have gone on to publish collections of their poems.

Each workshop will run for ten weeks, commencing the week of September 14th. They will take place on Tuesday evenings, 7-8.30pm (first class September 15th); Wednesday afternoons, 2-3.30pm (first class September 16th); and on Thursday afternoons, 2-3.30pm (first class September 17th).

The Tuesday evening and Wednesday afternoon workshops are open to both complete beginners as well as those who’ve been writing for some time. The Thursday afternoon workshop is an Advanced Poetry Workshop, suitable for those who’ve participated in poetry workshops before or had poems published in magazines. The cost to participants is €110, with an €100 concession rate.

Places must be paid for in advance. To reserve a place contact Victoria at reception at Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street, phone 091-565886 or email victoria@galwayartscentre.ie

Poetry on the prom: Salthill Community Arts Festival & Over the Edge

"Poetry on the Prom"

Calling all budding and aspiring poets. On Sunday the 20th of September at 7pm, The Bal bar in Salthill will present a Poetry Open Mic Session in conjunction with the Salthill Community Arts Festival.

The Event will be hosted by the “Over the Edge” literary group & will see poets stand up and give a reading of their poems. It's an event that is open to all and we are looking for poets both new and experienced to share their work with others. To kick off the night, members of the Advanced Poetry Workshop at Galway Arts Centre will give readings from their new publication entitled Lady Gregory's Town House.

It promises to be a fun and enjoyable night so those interested should get in touch with pamelatwynne@gmail.com or call Kevin on 087 6431748.

Clifden Arts Week presents reading by Galway Arts Centre Advance Poetry Workshop

CLIFDEN ARTS WEEK

Members of the Advanced Class
at the Galway Arts Centre read

Poetry

from their showcase collection,

Lady Gregory's Townhouse

'best description of a poetry workshop I’ve ever read ' James Harrold

Galway Arts Centre’s Advanced Workshop is facilitated by Kevin Higgins.

The readers will include Mary Madec, Tom Lavelle, Denise Heneghan, Deirdre Kearney, Maureen Ryan, Des Kavanagh, Lorna Shaughnessy, Brian O’Connell, Rita O’Donoghue, Mary Hanlon, Jean Kavanagh, Susan Lindsay, Connie Masterson and Marie Cadden.

• Venue: Clifden Library
• Date: 18 September 2009
• Time: 1:00pm -
• Price: €5

http://www.clifdenartsweek.ie/index.php?option=com_redevent&view=details&xref=6&id=7%3Agalway-arts-centres-advanced-workshop&Itemid=86

Galway Arts Centre presents Daytime Creative Writing with Susan Millar DuMars

This September Galway Arts Centre presents two daytime classes for all those beginner and continuing creative writing students out there, both facilitated by Susan Millar DuMars.
Susan Millar DuMars writes both poetry and fiction. A collection of her stories, American Girls, was published by Lapwing Press in 2007; her first collection of poetry,Big Pink Umbrella, was published last year by Salmon Poetry. Her second collection of poems, Dreams For Breakfast, will be published by Salmon Poetry next year.

The classes are suitable for both beginning and continuing creative writing students, working in either poetry or fiction. Students will spend their week responding to writing exercises designed to inspire, rather than inhibit. In class, they will receive gentle feedback on their work from their classmates and from the teacher. Both classes run for ten weeks. The classes takes place on Monday afternoons, 2-3.30pm, commencing on Monday September 14th and Tuesday afternoons, 3-4.30pm , commencing on Tuesday September 15th.

The cost to participants is 110 Euro with a 100 Euro concession price. Booking is essential as places are limited. For booking please contact Galway Arts Centre, 47 Dominick Street. Phone 091 565886 or email victoria@galwayartscentre.ie

Connacht Regional Final for All Ireland Poetry Grand Slam

North Beach Poetry Nights announces the Connacht Regional Heat for the All Ireland Grand Slam in The Crane Bar, Sea Road on Monday 28th September at 9pm.

The Connacht Regional Heat is open to Poets who
- are living in the Connacht region- are over 18 years of age
- will perform two 3-minute, self-composed and memorized poems
- have registered for entry (no fee) at johnwa@iolfree.ie on or before 18th September.

There are 16 places in the regional heat, which will be given on a first-come, first-served basis. So register quickly!

Regional heats are also being held in Derry, Belfast, Dublin, Cork, Limerick during September.

Two winners from each province will go through to the All Ireland Grand Slam which is being hosted by North Beach Poetry Nights in the Crane Bar on Monday, October 26th.

Prizes for the Grand Slam winners are:

1st Prize-200 Euro

2nd prize-100 Euro

3rd Prize-50 Euro

Admission 5/ 3 Euro.

info: john walsh @ 091-593290

North Beach Poetry Nights gratefully acknowledges the generous support
of the Arts Council and Galway City Council.

Monday September 7th: Martina Evans for North Beach Poetry Nights

North Beach Poetry Nights returns on Monday September 7th at 9 pm in The Crane Bar, Sea Road, Galway with The North Beach Poetry Nights' Slam and Guest Poet, Martina Evans from Cork via London.

Here's the line-up for the autumn.

September 7th-Martina Evans (Cork-London)

September 28th-Connacht Heat of the All-Ireland Slam

October 5th-Iggy McGovern (Dublin)

October 26th- All-Ireland Poetry Grand Slam

November 9th-Linda Cleary (Cornwall)

December 14th-North Beach Poetry Nights' Grand Slam with guest poet and judge: RAVEN (Dublin)

Admission: 5 / 3 Euro

Info: John Walsh @ 091-593290

North Beach Poetry Nights gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council.

GMIT presents Creative Writing for Beginners with Susan Millar DuMars

Susan Millar DuMars will give support, instruction and feedback to students who are interested in writing either fiction (short stories, novels) or poetry. The course takes place one evening per week (Wednesday) for 8 weeks from 7.30–9.30 p.m. It commences on Wednesday, September 23rd. Advance booking is essential. Places cost €120.00. For further details or to book a place contact GMIT, Dublin Road, Galway. Telephone 091-742145 or see http://www.gmit.ie/lifelong-learning/lifelong-learning-programmes/general-interest/artistic-creative/creative-writing-beginners.html

2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year long-list announced

A long-list for the 2009Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition was announced this evening.





This year’s competition attracted 324 entries.

The long-list is as follows:

Graham Allen, Cork
Lisa Allen, Galway
Sharon Black, France
Elizabeth Brennan, Dublin
Brendan Carey Kinane, Dublin
Gary Casey, Galway
Mike Casey, Dublin - two entries on the long-list
Jane Clarke, Wicklow
Paul Conway, Galway - two entries on the long-list
Evan Costigan, Kildare
Madeleine Darcy, Cork - two entries on the long-list
Ursula Deane, Dublin
Danny Denton, Cork
Vincent Flannery, Galway
Andrew Fox, Dublin
Cristina Galvin, Galway
Richard Gibney, Dublin
Valery Gring, Galway
Noel Harrington, Clare
Orla Higgins, Galway
Paul Jeffcutt, Down
Sandra Jensen, Cork
Eileen Keane, Kildare
Brian Kirk, Dublin - two entries on the long-list
Britt Kwait, Galway
Tom Lavelle, Galway
Seán Leonard, Galway - two entries on the long-list
Mike MacDomhnaill, Limerick
Marie MacSweeney, Louth
Gemma Marren, Mayo - two entries on the long-list
Connie Masterson, Galway
Patricia McAdoo, Galway
Maggie Mitchell, Dublin
David Mohan, Dublin
Marcella Morgan, Galway
Áine Ní Choisdealbha, Dublin
David O'Dwyer, Dublin
Lani O'Hanlon, Waterford
Shane Ó Maoildhia, Galway
Kevin O'Shea, Galway
Brendan Murphy, Galway - two entries on the long-list
Deirdre Nevin, Galway
Shane Raymond, Dublin
Elizabeth Reapy, Mayo
Nollaig Rowan, Dublin
Maureen Ryan, Galway - four entries on the long-list
Seamus Scanlon, New York
Evelyn Walsh, Dublin
Suzanne Walsh, Tipperary
Grace Wells, Tipperary

The competition judge this year is Patrick Chapman.

The total prize money is €1,000. The best fiction entry will win €300. The best poetry entry will win €300. One of these will then be chosen as the overall winner and will receive an additional €400, giving the author total prize money of €700 and the title Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 2009. The 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year will be a Featured Reader at a reading to be scheduled in Galway City Library in Winter 09/10.

The 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition is sponsored by Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Kelly Office Supplies, Mary Higgins & a generous individual donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

Máighread Medbh for August Over The Edge: Open Reading

The August Over The Edge: Open Reading takes place in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, August 27th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Michele Coghlan, Kevin O’Shea & Máighréad Medbh.

Michele Coghlan is originally from Kerry, but lived in Germany for over twenty years before settling in Galway in 2003. She works as a translator with an international software company. She has participated in various Creative Writing workshops at Galway Arts Centre and GTI under the guidance of Geraldine Mills, Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar Du Mars. She says she has grown quite passionate about writing and takes pleasure in triggering a bit of laughter in the audience. She particularly likes slam poetry and took 3rd place at the 2008 North Beach Nights Poetry Grand Slam.

Kevin O’Shea lives in Moycullen within earshot of the old Galway-Clifden Railway line. He recently retreated from the world of technology to consult the imagination and the garden. He is a survivor, reasonably intact, of multiple Creative Writing Classes with Susan Millar DuMars and Kevin Higgins. Earlier this year he was selected to participate in the Cúirt poetry masterclass with Jane Hirshfield and greatly enjoyed the experience.

Máighréad Medbh was born in County Limerick. She has published four poetry collections: The Making of a Pagan(Blackstaff Press, 1990); Tenant (Salmon Publishing, 1999); Split (in Divas! , Arlen House, June 2003); and When the Air Inhales You (Arlen House 2008). Máighréad has become widely known as a poet who applies much creative energy to the presentation of her work in performance. She has also written three novels and is currently working on a four-volume fictional work for young adults. A story for children, set to music, was commissioned by Ireland’s Lyric FM radio station and broadcast in 2007 and 2008. She was awarded an Arts Council Bursary in 2008.

There will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially 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 and The Arts Council

Poem by Sarah Clancy

Hippy get a job by Sarah Clancy

You might not realise your predictability
but when you caught my eye on Shop Street at the demo,
I could see the thoughtless words forming in your brain
so before you shout them at me pass- remarkably
let me just stop you there for once, and in the gap between
now and when those words make it out of your mouth
into the air between us, let me tell you something;
because I have wrestled with a pitchfork the same size as I was
and shovelled unknown tons of horse manure from sheds
before your mother brought you breakfast toast and tea
on school mornings before your leaving cert.

And when you daydreamed out the window of maths class
from an overheated room into the driving rain
I was lifting bales of sodden hay through the mud and bitter wind
to the bottom field where the old cow died in spring
and because I had small hands I woke a hundred early mornings
to turn unborn lambs around inside their mothers.
while you were filling CAO forms and when you were accepted,
bringing weekend washing home on student discount busses
I was pitting my eight stone against half a ton of pulling racehorse
and couldn’t feel my fingers or open my eyes with the rushing wind

You then, qualified and interviewing in your shirt and tie and nerves,
while I was taking sweating tourists on foot through humid rainforests
carrying longhouse chief’s heavy gifts of pineapples nine hours back to base
in a country you don’t have the breath of mind to even imagine,
and nearer home when you guffawed into your pint glass and refused to leave
Taylor’s bar on Sunday early closings, I washed your glass, swept the floor
and woke before the county to spend frozen hours putting
rubber bands on live lobster’s claws in a concrete tank in Bearna

and then I bet you were promoted for your clever corporate antics,
while I did three years mortgage- paying on the night shift
with bleary day time TV addicts and stoners manufacturing,
things that you might one day have inserted after too many business lunches
And later still when I decided I needed education, and you sat,
with popcorn consuming the latest Hollywood blockbuster
you couldn’t see me upstairs splicing your next bit of entertainment.
you have no idea how long a day is invigilating young accountants
in tedium and silence in dusty exam halls with the smell of fast food fat
still clinging to my clothes from my night time cash in hand gig.

You won't realise that I have the streets of Galway imprinted on my brain
From delivering pesto and goats cheese pizza to your Knocknacarra sofa,
or that I’m an expert on late night radio, and all night petrol stations;
secondary benefits of an unfree education, and now and here,
when I‘ve finally got myself some work I think has merit, and,
I chose to use this day off, working to defend the rights of others
don’t be surprised at all at how quickly I abandon my principles of non-violence
and use this placard on you as a weapon if you say what you are thinking.

Sarah Clancy is 36 and from Salthill in Galway. She has travelled and worked in many countries and likes writing poetry as a way of revisiting the situations she encountered abroad and at home. Despite the chequered career path described in the poem below she now works for Amnesty International and so spends more time composing letters to errant government officials than writing poems.

3 Poems and Essay by Kinga Cybulska

My perception of Ireland leads to poetry, fresh greenness and people’s kindness. One of the contemporary Polish poets named Ernest Bryll once said, that Irish land is for those who are tender-hearted. Perhaps, he was absolutely right.

I came to Ireland in 2006, just after my graduation at university. I was trying to get accustomed to shivering of my voice which was breaking the soft English vowels, new landscapes and the sky bending towards me with sparkling colour grey. As my passion for literature was still strong I kept reading, writing and dreaming.

A year ago, by a pure accident, I found out about the literary organization called Over The Edge which was looking for some volunteers. The plan was to organize the Polish Poetry Evening in Galway to meet the expectations of a serious amount of Poles in that time and all those interested in exploring exciting new literatures. I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars while working over the Polish Poetry Evening. The event itself turned out to be a success and it attracted lots of different people. Significant Polish poets’ works and biographies (Czesław Miłosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Wisława Szymborska, Aleksander Wat, Halina Poświatowska, Marcin Świetlicki and others) were presented. Also some Polish volunteers, including myself, took a plunge and read out their own poems.

A couple of weeks later Michael O’Loughlin, also present at the Poetry Evening, wrote to me asking if I wanted to contribute my short piece of a poetic prose to his book: Galway, city of strangers, a collection of various literary forms created by different immigrants living in Galway. That is how I got published in Ireland.

In May and in the autumn 2008 I attended to a couple of the poetry workshops in Galway Arts Centre facilitated by Kevin Higgins. Gloomy late afternoons, often rainy and cold brought an interesting perspective of learning so much about poetry and, in fact, touching “the real poetry”. It was an amazing and wonderful opportunity to develop writing techniques in English and meet interesting people (with their individual views) and confront them of course. Participating in this kind of activity helps in gaining the necessary confidence to present any pieces of work in public. It also built up the essential writing skills and made me realize why I write, what I might like to achieve in the future. I did present a few of my poems twice: during the 2008 Westside Festival and during English classes (devoted to the immigrants’ aspect in Galway) following the kind invitation of Kevin Hynes from the NUI Galway.

Being able to use a foreign language despite its twists, tricks and thorns in a creative way has been a great challenge to me, without a doubt. I am still fighting the limits and trying to capture the enigmatic depths of the beautiful English language. Anyhow, I write poems only in English. Ireland, I will always appreciate that…

3 poems by Kinga Cybulska

Warsaw

A tram meanders slowly to the airport.
I used to look through dusty blinded windows
And I am sighing now. The time is quoting itself.

The road diverged in Warsaw: exquisite greyness.
Always the underground of existence, fame of sorrows.
I am smuggling my books, ginger biscuits, my Master of Arts.
Gaining the bitterness of Guinness and a bite of W B Yeats.
Spitting out the sticky joke of a month salary.
Over fifty years of systems disguised in glamorous ideas.
I will miss stunning ugliness, crushing leaves with my heels.
Sweet, cold mornings of weakness in November.

The road diverged in Warsaw. It was four o’clock in the morning
In New York and a man enjoyed espresso on his way to work.


Dreams and awakenings

Every night and every morning
Possibilities crawl undefined.

I could have been this girl –
Her face drifting in a puddle of a window
On a night train to Paris.

Or with every anorexic reflection
Living on self hatred and lettuce.

A mythological sylph in disguise
Giggling viciously outside heaven.


Limbo

Wrong was the sudden quaver in my legs,
Fatigue on my lips – unlike the loquacity of yours.
There were many bottles
Jingling mellow and softly, breaking fantastically.
Let’s liquefy our devotion.
I’ll be your bloody naughtiness
Where your loneliness gasps
And your monotony.
The small pantry where you used to bite through candies
And wild Angelica loved blenched almonds.
Words. I am tasting dirt.

Kinga Elwira Cybulska is from Lublin, Poland. In 2006 she received her MA in Polish language and literature at Catholic University of Lublin (KUL). Her work was published in the anthology: Galway city of strangers, Edited by M. O’Loughlin. In 2008 she participated in the Polish Poetry Evening (organized by Over The Edge). She also attended a couple of Kevin Higgins's poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre. Currently she is involved in writing for the Polish internet website. The main area of interests includes: "the stream of consciousness", slightly darker sides of a human nature, angelology and various kinds of feminism. Some poems of Kinga's will feature in an anthology of poetry by immigrants to Ireland, co-edited by Eva Burke, which will be published next year by Dedalus Press.

Mary Hanlon and Deirdre Kearney Launch First Collections at Charlie Byrne’s Literary Jamboree

Deirdre Kearney

Nigel McLoughlin

David Starkey

Over The Edge presents the launch of two debut collections of poetry, Dear Beloved by Mary Hanlon & Spiddal Pier by Deirdre Kearney, both published by the Belfast based Lapwing Press, at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop on Thursday, August 6th from 6.30pm.

The evening will also see the Galway launch of Chora: New & Selected Poems by visiting poet Nigel McLoughlin, which has just been published by Templar Poetry and Transmorphosis & Other Short Story by Boris Belony (aka Stephen Hughes), which was recently published by Stitchy Press. And there will be a short reading by David Starkey, the Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara, California who is visiting Galway.


Mary Hanlon lives in County Mayo. She is a participant in the Advanced Poetry Workshop facilitated at Galway Arts Centre by Kevin Higgins. Her poems have appeared in a variety of magazines, including West 47 online, The Cúirt Annual and Revival. ‘Thirst’, her poem inspired by Hugo Chavez, was published on the Over The Edge website this March. Dear Beloved is Mary’s first collection of poems and is published by Lapwing Press in Belfast.

Deirdre Kearney is originally from Omagh, County Tyrone, but has lived in Galway since 1983. She has been a participant in the Advanced Poetry Workshop at Galway Arts Centre. Her poems have been published in West 47, Cúirt New Writing 2007, The Ulster Herald, Crannóg, Words on the Web, Tinteán, Australian-Irish Magazine- Treóir, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann magazine, the Over the Edge website & Galway Exposed. She was a Featured Reader (alongside Denis O’Driscoll) at the May 2008 Over The Edge: Open Reading. Spiddal Pier is Deirdre’s first collection of poems and is also published by Lapwing Press.

Nigel McLoughlin is a prize-winning poet, editor and teacher. His work is published in journals and athologies in Ireland, the UK, USA and Australia. He has read his work at most of the major poetry festivals in Ireland and the UK. He is Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire. His fifth collection, Chora: New & Selected Poems, has just been published by Templar Poetry.

Stephen Hughes began his writing career by putting out the highly popular zine Boris Belony which was one of best selling zines in Ireland in the early 2000's. He has read alongside such zinester greats as Al Burian (Burn Collector Zine) and Dave Roche (On Subbing). Ross O Carroll Kelly) says, "Franz Kafka meets Flann O'Brien meets John Kennedy Toole. <em>transmorphosis & Other Short Story reads like a collection of your worst cheese nightmares and the essays that persuade primary school teachers to call in social workers. Surreal, hilarious and very, very smart – and then, just when you're settling into a vein of laughter, unexpectedly, disquietingly, sad and touching. I loved every page."


David Starkey is the poet laureate of Santa Barbara, California, and director of the creative writing program at Santa Barbara City College. Among his poetry collections are Starkey’s Book of States (Boson Books, 2007), Adventures of the Minor Poet (Artamo Press, 2007), Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems (Artamo, 2006), David Starkey’s Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2002) and Fear of Everything, winner of Palanquin Press’s Spring 2000 chapbook contest. A Few Things You Should Know about the Weasel will be published by the Canadian press Biblioasis next year

Everyone is welcome to attend. For further details 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council.

Article by Kernan Andrews in today's Galway Advertiser

The is an article about 'Down With This Sort of Thing!' - poems in opposition to Ireland's new blasphemy law in today's Galway Advertiser http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/15173

Send us your poems on the issue to over-the-edge-openreadings@hotmail.com

2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year Competition

Patrick Chapman

sponsored by Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, Kelly Office Supplies, Mary Higgins & a generous individual donor who wishes to remain anonymous

In 2009 Over The Edge is continuing its exciting annual creative writing competition. The competition is open to both poets and fiction writers. The total prize money is €1,000. The best fiction entry will win €300. The best poetry entry will win €300. One of these will then be chosen as the overall winner and will receive an additional €400, giving the author total prize money of €700 and the title Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 2009. The 2009 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year will be a Featured Reader at a reading to be scheduled in Galway City Library in Winter 09/10.

Entries should be sent to Over The Edge, New Writer of the Year competition, 3 Carbry Road, Newcastle, Galway, Ireland with an accompanying SAE. Entries will be judged anonymously, so do not put your name on your poem(s) or story. Put your contact details on a separate sheet.

Criteria: fiction of up to three thousand words, three poems of up to forty lines, or one poem of up to one hundred lines. Multiple entries are acceptable but each must be accompanied by a fee. The fee for one entry is €10. The fee for multiple entries is €7.50 per entry e.g. two entries will cost €15, three entries €22.50 and so on. Fee payable by cheque or money order to Over The Edge. To take part you must be at least sixteen years old by September 1st 2009 and not have a book published or accepted for publication in that genre. Chapbooks excepted. Entries must not have been previously published or be currently entered in any other competition.

The closing date is Monday, August 3rd, 2009. A longlist will be announced in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009. A shortlist will be announced at the Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 27th. The winners will be announced at the Over The Edge reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 24th, 2009.

This year the competition judge is Patrick Chapman. He is a poet, fiction-writer and screenwriter. His poetry collections are Jazztown, (Raven Arts Press, 1991), The New Pornography (Salmon, 1996), Breaking Hearts and Traffic Lights (Salmon, 2007) and A Shopping Mall on Mars (BlazeVOX, 2008). His fifth collection will appear from Salmon in 2010. He has also written a collection of stories, The Wow Signal (Bluechrome, 2007); Burning the Bed (2003), a multi-award-winning film starring Gina McKee and Aidan Gillen; and an audio play, Doctor Who: Fear of the Daleks (Big Finish, 2007). He lives in Dublin.

For further details contact Over The Edge on 087-6431748 or e-mail over-the-edge-openreadings@hotmail.com

DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING! poems in opposition to Ireland's new blasphemy law

Bishop Brennan gets what's coming to him on Father Ted

Send your poems on this theme to over-the-edgeopenreadings@hotmail.com and we will publish the best of them here

The Christ of Velasquez by William Wall
for Gerry Murphy

I see a dead man nailed
to a plank
someone knifed him
& stole his shorts

William Wall was born in Cork in 1955. His poetry collections are Mathematics & Other Poems* (Collins Press 1997), which won The Patrick Kavanagh Award and the Listowel Writers’ Week Collection Prize; and Fahrenheit Says Nothing To Me (Dublin, Dedalus Press, 2004). His novels for are Alice Falling (London, Sceptre, 2000/New York, Norton, 2000); Minding Children (Sceptre 2001); The Map of Tenderness (Sceptre, 2002); and This is the Country (Sceptre, 2005), which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.


Hampshire College Halloween by Susan Millar DuMars
 
Wearing prom pink with white gloves, I was hypnotised by
my skirt spinning.
Chuck and Mike were lazing on this bench –
the moon was silver.
And Andy walked by, dressed as Jesus in a long white toga, hair wavy
like a midnight ocean.
And he was carrying this crazy cross, big as him, and it was
white in the moonlight.
And Andy said “hey” and we said “hey”, and then Chuck got up
and he was walking behind Andy,
matching step for step.
And I said, “Watcha doin’?” and Chuck said,
“Following Jesus, Dude.”
And we giggled and got in line and then we were all followers of Jesus.
And Jesus led.
And if Jesus drank, we drank; and if Jesus danced, we danced;
and if Jesus did a bong hit,
we praised Jesus,
and did one right after Him. And we fell around giggling
and Jesus giggled too.
And He led us through the silvered night, and we were free;

and no one got nailed to anything.

'Hampshire College Halloween' appears in Susan Millar DuMars poetry collection Big Pink Umbrella (Salmon Poetry, 2008) and will also appear in the Best of Irish Poetry 2010 (Southword Editions).


A Prayer for Monsignor Daly by Dave Lordan

Monsignor,
I remember you
The way you strode into our classroom
Your mouth full of tombstones,
Your thin lips full of the grave’s punishments.
Death strode in beside you with a cold wind
And our young limbs stiffened
As we felt the corpse’s grip within ourselves.

One grey afternoon
Or another
You asked us all for news
And I stuck up my hand
And told in all sincerity
How in my room at night
I saw a statue of the Virgin
Filling up with light.

You scowled
And said what I had seen
Was nothing but a childish dream
Impossible!
Impossible!
You said.

I was nine years old and full of talk
And knowing that I had been awake
Knowing it was vision and not dream
Knowing it wasn’t lie or mistake
I told again what I had seen
The truth of light in a plastic queen.

A liar! I was
A blasted little liar’s what you said
And whacked a wooden ruler
Off the back of my head
And whacked again.
A liar! A liar! you said.

Monsignor,
I’m still here to peddle dirt
You’re ten years rotting in the ground
Ten years crumbling into earth
I hope you found your mouldy god
But guess you’re mostly in the sod.

Imagination knows no law
Vision’s way cannot be barred
The day after you struck me
I pissed in the churchyard.

Dave Lordan is originally from Clonakilty in West Cork, but now lives in Dublin. His first collection of poems, The Boy In The Ring (Salmon Poetry, 2007), was shortlisted for last year's Irish Times/Poetry Now Award and won the Strong Award for best first collection by an Irish poet.


Last Testament by Kevin Higgins

Whether I leave this world peacefully,
surrounded by respectable nephews
and voluptuous nieces, or go roaring
at four in the morning in the Prison Hospital,
come what may, let no black crow
sit squawking by my bed,
but pin this sign above my head:
“This fucker here does not repent,
would do the same again and worse.”
Yes, when I have gasped my final gasp,
let Satan clap his hands and cry: “At last!”
May I be down below, having
dinner with Tricky Dicky, sharing
dirty jokes with old Al Haig;
before “nice Father What’s-
His-Name” realises I’m gone.

'Last Testament' is taken from Kevin Higgins's poetry collection Time Gentlemen, Please (Salmon Poetry, 2008) 


My Reduction Phalloplasty by Patrick Chapman

 If you can raise a human being from the grave
And cure a leper of his withered limbs;
If you can walk upon the surface of the sea
And change mere drinking water into wine;

If you can whip a pair of haddock and some loaves
Into a picnic for five thousand hungry souls;
If you can put a virgin in the family way
By whispering sweet nothings in her ear –

Possessing such a god-proportioned rod
You don’t intend to put to proper use,
Appears a tad superfluous. That’s why
I let them circumcise me as a boy.

Patrick Chapman is the judge of this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition. He is a poet, fiction-writer and screenwriter. His poetry collections are Jazztown, (Raven Arts Press, 1991), The New Pornography (Salmon, 1996), Breaking Hearts and Traffic Lights (Salmon, 2007) and A Shopping Mall on Mars (BlazeVOX, 2008). His fifth collection will appear from Salmon in 2010. He has also written a collection of stories, The Wow Signal (Bluechrome, 2007); Burning the Bed (2003), a multi-award-winning film starring Gina McKee and Aidan Gillen; and an audio play, Doctor Who: Fear of the Daleks (Big Finish, 2007). He lives in Dublin.



The Holy Shrine of Knock by Miceál Kearney

a three ring circus of clowns —
suffering, praying and molesting;
where auld women form the mountains,
cripples and fools
rot their teeth on candy floss
and leave with bottles of cryptosporidium.

Miceal Kearney won the 2006 Cúisle Poetry Slam in Limerick, the 2007 Cúirt Grand Slam, the 2007 North Beach Nights Grand Slam, the 2007 Baffle Bard in Loughrea and also the 2008 In-Sight of Raftery Poetry Grand Slam. Short-listed for the 2007 Cinnamon Press Poetry Collection Award. Doire Press published Inheritance, Miceál’s debut collection last year.
 

X & Y by Alan Jude Moore

the earth is flat
territories stretched
across canvas maps

no circum needed
all the journeys we take
tracked on the X & Y

the earth is flat
gated by the godly
from the universe outside

all we need to know
marked on the axis
or scripted in a bible

the earth is flat
pounded down our throats
a Ford Motor Corporation
production line

filtered and smoothly run
lives reasoned out
in dollar signs and oil

fractions of security
payments laid away
made down on beauty

the earth is flat
and there is nothing
to be done

only a monkey
would not believe
in the shape of things

and this is the reason
this is the reason
the reason is

Alan Jude Moore was born in Dublin. Two collections of poetry, Black State Cars (2004) & Lost Republics (2008), are published by Salmon Poetry. His third collection, Strasbourg, will be published, also by Salmon, in 2010. His fiction has been twice short-listed for the Hennessy Literary Award for New Irish Writing. His website is http://www.alanjudemoore.com/


The devil makes work for idle hands by Liam Duffy

The hounds
Were truly
At his door.

In the
Academic
And joyless office
He was forced into
An unfortunate
Constitution
Took his attention,

Drivelling through
Its pages,
The sacred words
Of De Valera,
He found a job
He could do.

Exiting his office
The fruits
Of his labour
Written on tablets
Of stone,
Blasphemy
Would be forbidden,

All the hounds
Stopped growling
And tilted
There heads
In honest awe,

Curious of the forces
That led to
The immaculate
Conception
Of this idea.

Liam Duffy is from Galway but next month will be going to Finland to attend university there. His poems have appeared in The Shop, Revival and many more. He recently completed the Advance Poetry Workshop at Galway Arts Centre. Liam will be a Featured Reader at the December Over The Edge: Open Reading.



Poem by Patrick Cunningham

Jesus Christ King of the Jews
I wonder has he heard the news ?
Thoughts nailed up for the good of the nation
Surely man’s ideas are also Gods creation.

Patrick Cunningham lives in Galway city. He has never written poetry before and is quite surprised to be included here. Nevertheless he feels strongly opposed to any infringement on freedom of expression and couldn't resist expressing himself.



Proof Reading by PJ Kelly

There is a song a say’s something, as all songs do
Its say’s that Freedom oh freedom is just some people talking
And you give us these empty streets
The latest diet…a diet for our diction
Not allow us to run a mere metaphor over our own tongues
Are we to have more traffic lights and no pedestrians
What next?
Juggling blasphemy and infamy, speaking when spoken to
Chivalry, gate houses, horse drawn carriages
And ours is not to wonder why, just to do or die
The monarchy of monotony
What next?
The contradictory patronage of painters and poets
The prostitution of progress over the progress of prostitution
And capital punishment and for the innocents we lose, we lose
What next?
Are the children soon be seen again and never heard
Are we to suffer our angst on Robben Island
Incarcerated for articulations apartheid
Then freedom oh freedom is talking to just some people

PJ Kelly lives in Salthill, Galway. He works as an engineer and is past the halfway point of life expectancy. He attended the Bish Secondary school in the nineteen eighties and then NUIG, gaining his formative education in all the hours in between and thereafter.


Progress at Last by Paul Casey

Onward Christmas soldiers and deliver unto me
my twenty-five thou-a-head, each disrespectful enemy
Oh yes my faithful ministers, please us, geeeeeez us
Twenty-five and three zeeerus! It's Gaaaaaw dly bizznus!

Next on the local walrus agenda ... for sure
is a well deserved fifty grandly cure
for coveting thy neighbour's car. A hundred Gs
for praising that false god Mammona Monneeey

Ah, for Buddha's sake! Help me please!
Pour Krishna's blessings down upon my knees!
I've never taken the lord thy god's name in vain! Darn!
Coz he's not my god anyway! The holy minister Harn

eee mayez well be for all her vanity. You'd never catch me
hummmin GeeeeeezusMAAAREEEEandjosefff now, would ya, hmmmmm?
There should be a million euro fine for that one, at least!
Let's pay commission for getting homeless drunks to sprout the beast.

Come on, say we can, on camera man,
all make good 'aul civilian arrests
for a change
Medieval-style. Think of the benefits ...

I say we fling all the unemployed in jail
after six months of no working, nail
them with a National Politeness Campaign
and reform those damn blasphemers again!

Paul Casey was born in Cork in 1968. He is the founder and organiser of the weekly Ó'Bhéal poetry readings in Cork. A chapbook of his poems, It's Not All Bad, was published recently by Heaventree Press. Paul will be a Featured Reader at the March 2010 Over The Edge: Open Reading.