The December ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in
Galway City Library on Thursday, December
19th, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Eileen Sheehan, June Caldwell, Karl Parkinson & Deborah Watkins. There
will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. New
readers are especially welcome. The Over The Edge Christmas celebration will
take place afterwards.
Deborah Watkins is a newcomer to the Galway
writing scene although she has worked in the visual arts for over twenty years.
Deborah began writing a blog about her painting work in 2012 (www.deborahwatkinspaintings.com) and was a finalist in the 2012
Irish Blog Awards. She joined a creative writing class in early 2013 and
currently attends a poetry workshop in Galway, facilitated by poet and essayist
Kevin Higgins. Her poem ‘Missing’ has recently been accepted for publication by
the Galway poetry newspaper Skylight 47.
Karl Parkinson’s debut collection of poetry Litany
of The City and Other Poems was published in 2013 by Wurmpress. His
work has been published in The New planet Cabaret Anthology of new Irish
writing, The Stinging Fly, Penduline, The Poetry Bus, Revival and
more. His work has also been broadcast on RTE’s Arena Arts show a number of
Times. He is an acclaimed performer of his work and has Performed by invitation
and Events and festivals in Ireland, England, Scotland, the USA and Canada
.He is one half of the spoken word duo Droppin The Act(with Dave Lordan).
He won a Balcony TV award for one of his video poems. He is the spoken word
editor of Colony.ie.
June Caldwell worked
for 13 years as a freelance journalist for the UK & Irish press. She has
been shortlisted for the RTÉ Guide/Penguin Short Story Competition. In
2010 she received an Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) bursary for
fiction. Her work has been showcased at the Italo-Irish Literature
Exchange in Nogarole Rocca / Verona (May 2012), Read For The
World (June 2012) & Bloomnibus at the Irish
Writers' Centre (June 2013) and at Galway Pro Choice in association
with Over The Edge (August 2013). A self confessed addict of short
stories, June is currently working on a collection of stories themed around
'the city', and a novel set in the Blitz in Coventry and in 1980s Dublin.
She'll be reading the prologue to the book Domestic Blitz at
Over The Edge.
Eileen Sheehan is from Killarney, Co Kerry. Her
collections are Song of the Midnight Fox
and Down the Sunlit Hall (Doghouse
Books). Anthology publications include The
Watchful Heart: A New Generation of Irish Poets (ed Joan McBreen/Salmon
Poetry) and TEXT: A Transition Year
English Reader (ed Niall MacMonagle/ Celtic Press). She has worked as Poet
in Residence with Limerick Co Council Arts Office and is on the organizing
committee for Éigse Michael Hartnett Literary & Arts Festival. Her third
collection, The Narrow Place of Souls,
is forthcoming.
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.
