August Over The Edge: Open Reading with Aoife Reilly, Matt Flesk & Jessica Traynor

The first ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ after the summer break takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 27^th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Jessica Traynor, Matt Flesk & Aoife Reilly. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. The evening will also see the announcement of the long list for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition which received a very healthy number of entries again this year.

Aoife Reilly is originally from Laois, but has been living in Galway since 2012. She works as a psychotherapist and teacher and has been attending Kevin Higgins’s poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre since Autumn 2013. Aoife’s poetry has been published in Crannóg, Skylight 47, on the Poethead website, and in a wide variety of other poetry magazines recently.

Matt Flesk is originally from Tuam, and now lives just outside Galway City. He is a retired school teacher and has completed a number of creative writing classes with Susan Millar DuMars, including her Advanced Fiction Writing Class. Matt was short-listed for 2014 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year.

Jessica Traynor was born in Dublin in 1984.  Literary Reader at the Abbey Theatre and a creative writing teacher, she has published poems in a variety of magazines and journals and her work is included in a number of anthologies including If Ever You Go: A Map of Dublin in Poetry and Song (Dublin’s One City One Book, 2014) and The New Planet Cabaret Anthology. She won the 2011 Listowel Poetry Prize and the Hennessy New Irish Writer of the Year Award in 2013. She was awarded the Ireland Chair of Poetry Bursary in 2014. Liffey Swim, Jessica’s debut collection of poems, was published last year by Dedalus Press and shortlisted for the Shine/Strong Award for best first collection by an Irish poet. She has recently been commissioned to write a poem as part of the Poet’s Rising project, sponsored by the Arts Council, to mark the 1916 Rising. 

As usual there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New readers are always most welcome. The evening will also see the announcement of the long list for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, which received a very healthy number of entries again this year.

The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

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

July Over The Edge Writers' Gathering-readings by Máire T. Robinson, Mary Madec, & showcase of Wordsontreestreet & Doire Press writers

July Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering

at Galway City Library

showcases Galway publishers

Wordsonthestreet, &  Doire Press,

& presents readings by Máire T. Robinson & Mary Madec

on Thursday, July 9^th, 6.30-8pm.

The July Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents readings by Horslips drummer Eamon Carr, Máire T. Robinson, John Fogarty, Mary Madec, Lorne Patterson, and Paul O’Reilly. At this event Over The Edge will showcase authors published by Galway-based publishers Doire Press and Wordsonthestreet. The reading takes place at Galway City Library on Thursday, July 9^th, 6.30-8pm. All are welcome and there is no cover charge. 

Máire T. Robinson

Máire T. Robinson is a graduate of the MA in writing at NUI, Galway. In 2013, she was the overall winner of the Doire Press Chapbook Competition. Her short story collection Your Mixtape Unravels My Heart was published as a result. Máire's recently published début novel Skin, Paper, Stone (New Island, 2015) was described by the Irish Times as “a deceptively simple novel that packs a punch. Robinson writes with warmth and understanding, giving the reader a bird’s-eye view of a modern, post-boom Galway through a diverse and credible cast of characters.” Kevin Higgins’s Galway Advertiser review of Skin, Paper, Stone can be read here http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/77976/buskers-beggars-and-degenerates-of-every-persuasion

Eamon Carr and friend in 1975

Eamon Carr was born in Meath. Along with Peter Fallon, he formed poetry-performance group Tara Telephone, before concentrating his energies as writer, conceptualist and drummer for Horslips, the band he co-founded and remains a member of. A journalist and occasional broadcaster, he is a former recipient of the Sarah Purser Scholarship and Prize in the History of European Painting from Trinity College, Dublin. In 2005, his poster poem ‘A Tale of Love’, originally designed in 1969 by Che Guevara poster artist Jim Fitzpatrick, was included in the Tate Gallery, Liverpool, Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era Exhibition. In 2008, as lyricist, he collaborated on an album of new songs with former Sweeney's Men and Wings guitarist Henry McCullough. In 2010, his five-poem cycle Ascension: Ireland was staged in the Walled Garden of the Pearse Museum, Dublin by composer and intermedia artist Daniel Figgis. In 2011, Horslips recorded a live performance of music suites adapted from The Táin and The Book of Invasions concept albums in concert with the Ulster Orchestra, conductor Brian Byrne. In 2012, Eamon contributed a reading of ‘Dublin’, a lyric by deceased friend and colleague Philip Lynott, to Sound City Beat, an album by the Radiators from Space. His first book, The Origami Crow, Journey into Japan World Cup Summer 2002 (Seven Towers) was published in 2008. Deirdre Unforgiven: A Journal of Sorrows, a one-act play based on Deirdre of the Sorrows, was published by Doire Press in 2013. 

John Fogarty is a fiction writer whose debut novel Scenes from an Indian Summer will be published in September by Galway based publishers Wordsonthestreet. Scenes from an Indian Summer has already been shortlisted for the RTÉ 1/Penquin book prize. He has had work published in Connect Magazine and a range of other publications at home and abroad.  He is also an actor and has taken demanding roles in numerous productions, most notably, in JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls and in Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men.

Lorne Patterson is an Edgeworthstown writer and member of the Ballymahon Writers Group, Co Longford, Ireland. He is a psychiatric nurse and community educator who has worked in a number of countries, including Britain, the United States and Russia. A past runner-up in the Sean Ó Faoláin short-story competition, he published his first book, Witch, in 2012 to critical acclaim. Witch was followed by another novella, Bad Blood , published in 2013 by Wordsonthestreet. Lorne is currently working on a non-fiction history of drug addiction treatment and on Hour of the Witch, the follow-up to Witch’.

Paul O’Reilly lives Co. Wexford and has been published in Necessary Fiction; Irish Independent’s New Irish Writing; Natural Bridge; Stinging Fly; and the Irish Times. He has been shortlisted for the Seán O’Faoláin Prize and the Hennessy First Fiction Award; was runner up for Bristol Short Story Prize and the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen International Short Story Prize; was a joint-winner of The Lonely Voice: Short Story Introductions competition hosted by the Irish Writers’ Centre; received honourable mention in Glimmer Train’s Family Matters competition; and had a story nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He is also an award-winning traditional Irish singer and musician and was awarded Deis funding by the Arts Council in 2008. As well as working in fiction, music and song, Paul has produced several albums, two film documentaries, adapted a Claire Keegan short story for film that was later produced and screened at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2013, and for the past twelve years has been active in the promotion of culture and new writing in the south-east of Ireland. Visit pauloreilly.ie for more details. The Girl Missing From The Window, Paul’s debut collection of short stories, is just published by Doire Press.

Mary Madec

Mary Madec was born and raised in Mayo. She studied at NUI, Galway (B.A., M.A., H.Dip Ed.) and at the University of Pennsylvania from which she received a doctorate in Linguistics in 2002. She has published widely (Crannóg, West 47, The Cuirt Annual, Poetry Ireland Review, the SHOp, The Sunday Tribune, Southword, Iota, Nth Position, Natural Bridge and The Stand Orbis, The Fox Chase Review, The Recorder among others. Her first collection, In Other Words, appeared with Salmon Poetry in 2010 ; her second collection, Demeter Does Not Remember also with Salmon Poetry at the end of 2014. She has received several awards and prizes most notably the Hennessy XO Prize for Emerging Poetry in 2008. She co-founded the community writing project, Away With Words, and works for Villanova University. Kevin Higgins’s Galway Advertiser review of Demeter Does Not Remember can be read here http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/74755/sexing-up-greek-myths-and-facing-down-the-bank

For further information contact 087-6431748.

All Welcome. No Cover charge.

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

Westport Arts Festival Poetry Competition judged by Geraldine Mills & Gerard Reidy

Westport Arts Festival is running a poetry competition again this year in memory of their greatly missed friend, Dermot Healy. Judges, Geraldine Mills and Gerard Reidy.

Prizes: 1^st prize-€500, 2^nd prize-€200, 3^rd prize-€100.

Cost of entry: €3 per poem, 4 entries for €10, unlimited entries.

Closing date for entries: Friday September 4^th, 2015

THE RULES: Entries must not have been, by the date of submission, published or broadcast in any medium. Entries must be the entrant’s own work. Entries should consist of no more than 40 lines. Entrants are advised to keep copies of their own work as entries will not be returned. The adjudicators will not enter into any correspondence concerning the competition. The decision of the adjudicators is final. You may enter as often as you like, provided entries are accompanied by the appropriate fees. Entries must be typed, using only one side of the page. No indication of the writer’s identity may appear on the poem(s) entered.

Postal entries and accompanying entry forms should be sent in an A4 envelope to: Westport Arts Festival Poetry Competition, c/0 Westport Chamber of Commerce, The Fairgreen, Westport, Co. Mayo, Ireland. All cheques accompanying postal entries should be made payable to Westport Arts Festival. Please do not enclose cash. 

Winners will be announced during the Festival on Thursday, Oct 1^st 2015. Short- listed entrants will be notified one week in advance and invited to attend. There will be an Open Mic night at the Creel Restaurant, Westport Quay before the prize winners are announced.

Entry Form

For more information and to enter online visit http://westportartsfestival.com

Name:

Email:

Address:

Telephone number:

Number of poems entered:

Entry Fee:

June Over The Edge Writers' Gathering presents Louis de Paor, Eamonn Wall, Anne Tannam, Brian Kirk, Alan McMonagle, Carlos Reyes in SKYLIGHT 47 SPECIAL

June Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering

at Galway City Library

presents readings by

Louis de Paor, Eamonn Wall,

Anne Tannam, Brian Kirk,

Alan McMonagle,  Carlos Reyes

in a special

SHOWCASE READING

for contributors to

Skylight 47

probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication 
THURSDAY, JUNE 25th, 6.30-8PM 

The June Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents a special showcase reading by contributors to Skylight 47, probably Ireland’s most interesting poetry publication. Those reading their poetry on the evening will be Carlos Reyes, Alan McMonagle, Brian Kirk, Anne Tannam, Eamonn Wall, & Louis de Paor, The event will take place at Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, June 25th, 6.30-8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge. 

Louis de Paor

Louis de Paor is one of Ireland's leading Irish-language poets, and was a key figure in the Irish language poetry renaissance of the 1980s and 90s. He has worked closely on English translations of his poetry, with his co-translators fully engaging with the original poem in Irish. Louis is director of the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway. His most recent publication The Brindled Cat and the Nightingale’s Tongue – an Irish-English bilingual edition of his poems in the original Irish and in translation – was co-published by Bloodaxe and Cló Iar-Chonnachta. Louis is interviewed, by Deirdre Kearney, in the current issue of Skylight 47.

Eamonn Wall

A native of Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Eamonn Wall lives in Missouri, where he is Smurfit-Stone Corporation Professor of Irish Studies/Professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the author of Writing the Irish West: Ecologies and Traditions which was published by University of Notre Dame Press in 2011. His most recent publication Junction City: New & Selected Poems was published earlier this year by Salmon Poetry. Kevin Higgins’s Galway Advertiser review of that book can be read here http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/77676/poet-leaves-enniscorthy-to-drive-around-america . Eamonn was a contributor to issue no. 3 of Skylight 47.

Anne Tannam’s has poems published, or forthcoming, in Poetry Ireland Review, The Moth, The Poetry Bus, Prairie Schooner, Literature Today, and several anthologies. Take This Life, her first book of poems, was published by 6^th House in 2011. She has performed her work at the Electric Picnic, Cúirt, and other festivals and is co-founder of the Dublin Writers’ Forum. Anne is a contributor to the current issue of Skylight 47.

Brian Kirk is an award winning poet and short-story writer from Clondalkin, Dublin. He was selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions Series in 2013, and highly commended in the 2014 Patrick Kavanagh Award. His poems have appeared in many journals and anthologies. He is a members of the Hibernian Poetry Workshop. Brian is a contributor to the current issue of Skylight 47.

Alan McMonagle lives in Galway. His poems have appeared in The Shop, The Moth, The Stony Thursday Book, and Crannóg. He has published two collections of short stories Liar Liar (Wordsonthestreet, 2009) & Psychotic Episodes (Arlen House, 2013). Last year, his radio play, Oscar Night, was produced and broadcast as part of RTE’s Drama on One series. Alan has contributed poems to previous issues of Skylight 47; his review of Alan Jude Moore’s poetry collection Zinger is in the current issue.

Carlos Reyes is a noted Portland poet and translator, world traveller and story teller.  His latest books of poetry are Pomegranate, Sister of the Heart  and The Book of Shadows: New and Selected Poems.  He is currently travelling in Ireland to promote his first book of prose, The Keys To The Cottage, Stories from the West of Ireland, which tells the story of his life in Co. Clare over the last 40 years. Carlos has had fellowships from the Oregon Arts Commission, Yaddo (New York), Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain), Heinrich Boll Association (Ireland), Island Institute (Sitka, Alaska), as well as been poet-in-residence at Joshua Tree National Park, Acadia National Park, and Devil's Tower National Monument. He was a contributor to issue no. 3 of Skylight 47. 

There is no entrance fee. 

For further information contact 087-6431748.

 Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing financial support 

of the Arts Council, Poetry Ireland, and Galway City Council.