Sarah O’Toole, Margaret Brady & Frank Dullaghan for October Over The Edge: Open Reading PLUS the announcement of the winners of the 2013 Over The Edge New Writer of the Year

Frank Dullaghan

The October ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, October 31^st, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Sarah O’Toole, Margaret Brady & Frank Dullaghan. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. The evening will also see the announcement of the winners in this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, which received a large number of entries again this year. This year’s competition judge is Sarah Clancy. 

Sarah O'Toole hails from the West of Ireland and works as a theatre practitioner and lecturer. She was the winner of the Aran Islands/Hillstead poetry competition in 1997 and travelled to Connecticut to read at the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival with other emerging poets from both sides of the Atlantic. Since returning to her passion for poetry she has been published in Emerge Literary Journal, Crannóg and The Irish Left Review. She has also written two plays which have been performed in Ireland - an adaptation of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" and an original piece "The Heroism Hotline" co-written with Donnacha Bushe.

Margaret Brady grew up in 1960s Dublin. An only child, she filled the long, lonely winter evenings curled up by the fire with good books. Over the years she remained a voracious reader of virtually every genre of book with a particular soft spot for science fiction. She moved to Galway from Dublin as a trailing spouse nearly 20 years ago. It was only meant to be for one year, but Galway seemed to be the perfect place to raise children. She hasn't returned to Dublin yet. She shares her home with her two college going children, an energetic dog and four and a half cats. She has recently been a participant in creative writing classes at Galway Technical Institute.

Frank Dullaghan is an Irish writer living and working in Dubai since 2006. He holds an MA with Distinction in Writing from the University of South Wales (previously Glamorgan). His poetry has been widely published in UK and Irish journals. Prior to living in Dubai, Frank lived in the UK where he was a co-founder of the Essex Poetry Festival and chaired the judging panel for The Young Essex Poet of the Year competition. He was also editor of Seam Poetry Magazine for many years. In Dubai, he has run workshops in poetry and short story writing in schools, university and for various literary and writing groups. He is a member of the spoken word platform Poeticians as well as the Dubai Writers Group and the Emirates Literary Group. Frank has two collections of poetry - On the Back of the Wind, 2008 and Enough Light to See the Dark, 2012 from Cinnamon Press - and two collections of haiku published in the UK. His third poetry collection, A Slow Implosion of the Heart, is due out from Cinnamon Press in September 2014.

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

2013 OVER THE EDGE NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR-SHORTLIST!

2013 OVER THE EDGE NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR 

The winners will be announced at the October Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, October 31st, 6.30-8pm.

THE SHORTLIST

which was announced at 

the Over The Edge Culture Night event @ Kenny's 

is as follows:

Sheila Armstrong, Dublin

for her story 'To Come Home'

Bernie Ashe, Galway 

for 'Crow' & other poems

Eileen Bennett, Co, Galway

for her story 'John Byrne Rides Again'

Marie Cadden, Co. Galway 

for 'Up To Scratch' & other poems

Alvy Carragher, Galway

for 'Broken Symmetry' other poems

Brian Colgan, Galway 

for 'From Babi Yar to Bethlehem'

Teresa Coleman, Mayo

for her story 'Elizabeth'

Denis Collins, Wexford 

for 'Pete' & other poems

Maurice Devitt, Dublin 

for 'A Stranger in the House' & other poems

Cal Doyle 

for 'The Heist' & other poems

Kevin Doyle, Cork

for his story 'Whatever It Was About Men'

Erin Fornoff, Dublin

for 'On Planes' & other poems

Sean Glynn, Co. Galway

for his story 'Hackett's Hole'

Sandra Harris, Dublin

for her story 'A Death'

Mary Healy, Kilkenny 

for her story 'What's Worth Keeping'

Aidan Hynes, Dublin

for his story 'Hair'

Anne Irwin, Galway

for 'The Stations of the Crossbar' & other poems

Katherine Janeczeck, Galway 

for 'Genesis' & other poems

Rupert Jenkins, Scotland

for his story 'Tender To The Shore'

Susan Kelly, Mayo

for 'Mother Superior' & other poems

Brian Kirk, Dublin 

for his story 'The Creaseless Society'

Jennifer Matthews, Cork

for 'Planning Permission' & other poems

Anna McCarthy, New York

for her story 'An Inventory of Slights'

Pat McDonnell, Galway

for his story 'Three Sisters in the Sky'

Christopher Meehan, Co. Galway 

for 'The Ever Changing Definition of Youth in Revolt'

Brendan Murphy, Co. Galway

for his story'The Loneliness of the Long Distance Sinner'

Catherine Myddleton-Evans, London, UK

for 'under the sea' & other poems

Gerard O’Brien, Co. Galway

for his story 'Nissen Hut'

Clare O’Reilly, Kildare 

for her story 'Hey Presto!

 Eleanor O’Reilly, Wicklow

for her story 'Classifieds, Fags And Coconut Creams' 

Anita Ouellette, Massachusetts, USA 

for 'Almost Afraid To Talk To God While Others Are Listening'

Micheál Ó’Síocháin, Cork

for his story 'The Last Days of The Pavilion'

Maeve O’Sullivan, Dublin 

for 'Agent of Confusion' & other poems

Christine Paintner, Galway

for 'Remember' & other poems

Valerie Ryan, Kildare

for her story 'The Postman'

Breda Wall Ryan, Wicklow

for 'Inheritors' & other poems

Rejini Samuel, Galway

for her story 'The Alleyway'

Ashlie Schweitzer, Galway

for her story 'Prairie Lights'

Fiona Scoble, Galway

for her story 'What have you brought for us?'

Breda Spaight, Limerick

for 'Final Cut' & other poems

Ekaterina Tikhoniouk, Laois

for her story 'Katie'

Alison Wells, Wicklow

for her story'The Memory-Jar'

Dimitra Xidous, Dublin

for 'The science of hands' & other poems

We would like to thank our competition sponsors: 

Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop,

ISupply Flood Street, Ward’s Hotel,

Kenny’s Bookshop & Derek Nolan T.D

Competition judge Sarah Clancy

THE WINNERS WILL BE ANNOUNCED

@ the October Over The Edge: Open Reading

in Galway City Library,

Thurs October 31st,6.30-8pm 

Doire Press invites you to the launch of FEAR KNOT by Susan Lindsay SATURDAY!

Open Writing Workshop with Kevin Higgins @ University Hospital Galway

Poet; Kevin Higgins will be in UHG THIS WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 2nd from 12noon to 2pm for an open workshop. The workshop will take place on the second floor in the Lecture room between St. Pius’ and St. Nicholas’ ward.

All staff, patients and visitors to UHG are welcome to drop in to the session anytime during the two hours. Kevin will give participants creative writing exercises to get them writing. People who have written something already and would like feedback or advice are welcome to bring in their poems or stories. 

The workshops will take place fortnightly on Wednesday October 2^nd, Wednesday October 16^th, Wednesday October 30^th, Wednesday November 13^th, Wednesday November 27^th & Wednesday, December 11^th

Kevin Higgins was born in London in 1967, and grew up in Galway City where he still lives. He is co-organiser of the highly successful Over The Edge literary events. He facilitates  poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre; teaches creative writing at Galway Technical Institute and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words creative writing programme for people with disabilities. He is also Writer-in-Residence at Merlin Park Hospital and the poetry critic of the Galway Advertiser. He was a founding co-editor of The Burning Bush literary magazine. His first collection of poems The Boy With No Face was published by Salmon in February 2005 and was short-listed for the 2006 Strong Award. His second collection, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published in March 2008 by Salmon. One of the poems from Time Gentlemen, Please, ‘My Militant Tendency’, featured in the Forward Book of Poetry 2009.  His work also features in the anthology Identity Parade – New British and Irish Poets (Ed Roddy Lumsden, Bloodaxe, 2010). Frightening New Furniture is his third collection of poems and was published in 2010 by Salmon Poetry. Kevin has read his work at most of the major literary festivals in Ireland and at Arts Council and Culture Ireland supported poetry events in Kansas City, USA (2006), Los Angeles, USA (2007), London, UK (2007), New York, USA (2008), Athens, Greece (2008); St. Louis, USA (2008), Chicago, USA (2009), Denver, USA (2010), Washington D.C (2011), Huntington, West Virginia, USA (2011), Geelong, Australia (2011), Canberra, Australia (2011), St. Louis, USA (2013), Boston, USA (2013) & Amherst, Massachusetts (2013). Mentioning The War, a collection of his essays and reviews was published in April 2012 by Salmon.  Mentioning The War has been described by Clare Daly T.D. as “a really good and provocative read. It will jolt you; it will certainly touch you; make you laugh; maybe make you snarl a little bit as well, depending on where you come from or what your background is.” Kevin’s fourth collection of poetry, The Ghost In The Lobby, will be published by Salmon Poetry in early 2014.

For further details contact

Margaret Flannery

Arts Director

Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust

Galway University Hospitals

Newcastle Road

Galway

Tel: +353 (0)91 544979

Email: Margaret.Flannery@hse.ie