2012 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition to be judged by John Corless

This year's cometition judge John Corless

Major Sponsor: Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop,

other sponsors to date:

Derek Nolan T.D.

Ward's Hotel, Salthill

ISupply, Quay Street

The Creole Restaurant, Dominick Street

& Trevor Sherlock

In 2012 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 overall winner total prize money of €700 and the title Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 2012. The 2012 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year will be a Featured Reader at an Over The Edge: Open Reading to be scheduled in Galway City Library in Winter 2012/13. Salmon Poetry will read, without commitment to publish, a manuscript submitted to them by the winner in the poetry category. Doire Press will read, without commitment to publish a collection of short stories submitted to them by the winner in the poetry category. The winning poems and the winning story will both be published in a special Over The Edge Tenth Birthday anthology which will be published during 2013.

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 2012 and not have a book published or accepted for publication in the genre in which you enter. Chapbooks excepted. Entries must not have been previously published or be currently entered in any other competition. The competition is open to writers worldwide.

The closing date is Wednesday, August 8th, 2012. A longlist will be announced in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012. A shortlist will be announced at the Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 30th, 2012. The winners will be announced at the Over The Edge reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 27th, 2012.

This year’s competition judge is John Corless. John Corless lives near Claremorris, in County Mayo, and is a vastly experienced creative writing tutor. He has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Lancaster and is currently researching a PhD. Many satisfied students have taken John’s creative writing courses at GMIT Castlebar, over the past number of years. Some have gone on to win prizes and had their work published. John has also facilitated workshops with active retired groups in Ballindine and Ballinrobe also in County Mayo – both groups launching anthologies of their work. John has facilitated workshops as part of the Luisne project, and has mentored students in the UK, USA and Uganda. He has also given workshops at a number of festivals and summer schools and has worked in national and secondary schools, facilitating both creative writing and drama workshops. He has performed his work all over the country, including at the Electric Picnic, the Force 12 Festival, The Munster Literary Festival, Over The Edge, and The Whitehouse Poetry Revival. He regularly features on RTE and local radio stations. He writes poetry, drama and fiction. His work has been published internationally and he has won many prizes for his writing. John’s debut poetry collection, Are you ready? (Salmon Poetry) was published in 2009 and has sold out two print runs making it a poetry best seller. John’s poetry is a mix of political and satirical; one critic described it as Paul Durcan meets The Sawdoctors. Another said: "... he shines the tell tale torchlight of his killer wit into all the most embarrassing areas of contemporary Irish life. No-one is safe..."

For further details contact Over The Edge on 087-6431748,

or e-mail over-the-edge-openreadings@hotmail.com

New Writer of The Year Eimear Ryan for May Over The Edge: Open Reading

Eimear Ryan is 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 

and also the winner of a Hennessy Award in 2009 for her fiction

The May ‘Over The Edge: Open Reading’ takes place in Galway City Library on Thursday, May 31st, 6.30-8.00pm. The Featured Readers are Eimear Ryan, Adam White & Bernie Ashe. Eimear Ryan was the over-all winner of the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year and this reading is part of her prize. This is the final Over The Edge: Open Reading before the summer break.

Bernie Ashe was born in Galway city and, apart from some years in the UK and America, has lived her life there. She took a couple of creative writing classes with Celeste Augé and Susan Millar DuMars some years ago, but it wasn’t until she attended poetry classes with Kevin Higgins over the past couple of years that her interest in writing poetry arose. Since then she has contributed to Open Mic readings at Over The Edge readings in Galway City Library and was short-listed in the Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition in 2011. Her poetry draws on themes of relationships and nature.

Adam White is from Youghal in east Cork. He began reading and writing poetry in earnest three years ago, having taken part in the North Beach Nights poetry slam in Galway. Teaching English at present, he has worked in a variety of jobs at home and abroad, including six years as a carpenter/joiner. It is mainly the experiences and love of doing a job well that inspire his poems. He was among the prize winners at the 2011 Cúirt Festival Poetry Grand Slam and has read his poems at The Electric Picnic.  Adam’s debut collection of poems is forthcoming from Doire Press.

Eimear Ryan’s fiction has appeared in The Irish Times, The Stinging Fly, New Irish Writing, Necessary Fiction and Horizon Review. She was the winner of the Sean Dunne Young Writers' Award 2011 and the Hennessy Award for First Fiction 2009. She is currently studying creative writing at Trinity College and is writing a novel. She is the 2011 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year.

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.

Congratulations to Cristina Galvin: winner of the Powers Short Story Competition

Cristina Galvin is the winner of the €10,000 prize for first place in the Powers Short Story Competition. For more and to hear Cristina reading her winning story, Aprés-Match, see here http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2012/0526/1224316639540.html

Cristina was a Featured Reader at the May 2009 Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library and was also chosen to read at the 2010 Cúirt Festival / Over The Edge Showcase reading.

http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com/2010/03/2010-cuirt-over-edge-showcase-reading.html

She is a graduate of the MA in Writing at NUI Galway, having previously taken creative writing classes at Galway Technical Institute with Susan Millar DuMars.

CRISTINA WILL BE READING HER WINNING STORY, APRÉS-MATCH, AT THE OPEN-MIC AT THE MAY OVER THE EDGE: OPEN READING IN GALWAY CITY LIBRARY THIS THURSDAY, MAY 31ST (6.30-8pm). 

Clare Daly T.D. to lauch 'Mentioning The War' by Kevin Higgins at the Irish Writers' Centre

Clare Daly T.D.

YOU ARE INVITED

to

The Dublin Launch

of

Mentioning the War - Essays and Reviews

(1999 -2011)

by Kevin Higgins

published by Salmon Publishing

http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=255&a=108

The book will be launched by Clare Daly T.D.

@ the Irish Writers’ Centre, 19 Parnell Square, Dublin 1

on Wednesday, June 6th

LAUNCH STARTS: 7pm

ALL WELCOME

CLARE DALY is a Socialist Party & United Left Alliance TD for Dublin North. Formerly a Councillor for the Swords Local Electoral Area, Clare was first elected to Fingal County Council in 1999, and was subsequently re-elected in 2004 and 2009 decisively topping the poll each time before being elected to the Dáil in February 2011. Clare is to the forefront of the campaign against the Household Tax. In conjunction with Deputies Mick Wallace and Joan Collins she has recently brought before the Dáil the Medical Treatment (Termination Of Pregnancy In Case Of Risk To Life Of Pregnant Woman) Bill 2012 in order to provide a legislative basis for the legal termination of a pregnancy in the very limited circumstances where such treatment is deemed necessary to prevent a woman’s death, including the threat of suicide. This was the outcome of the Supreme Court judement in Attorney General v. X in 1992.

Best known for his dark, satirical poems; KEVIN HIGGINS published his first book review in The Galway Advertiser in June 1999. Reading Mentioning the War, it becomes obvious that Higgins is not like other critics. An enthusiastic advocate for the work of the new generation of poets who have emerged from Ireland’s thriving live poetry scene; he is also a merciless opponent of hypocrisy and pretentiousness wherever he finds it. His writing is overtly political in a way that draws comparison with George Orwell – the subject of two extended essays here. It would be impossible to agree with everything in this book; it is a book which often disagrees with itself. But on subjects as diverse as socialist poetry and neoconservatism, funding for the arts and the anti-war movement, Higgins informs, infuriates and entertains, as any good critic should.

“The importance of Higgins, in particular, in spearheading a whole new poetry reading/performance movement in Ireland over the last decade cannot be overstated…he is important not just to readers who might agree with his political or ideological critiques but also to practitioners and students of poetry itself regardless of their ideological inclinations.” Philip Coleman

“There’s an arresting phrase, a new angle on a writer or a political position you thought you already knew about, in just about every piece here…The insights range from the literary to the existential to the seriously amusing…one of the things Mentioning the War offers, almost incidentally, is an insider’s account of how to learn to write.” John Goodby

KEVIN HIGGINS facilitates poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre; teaches creative writing at Galway Technical Institute and on the Brothers of Charity Away With Words programme. 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). As part of his Culture Ireland supported trip to Chicago in February 2009 he participated in and took first place in a specially arranged poetry slam at the Chicago’s Green Mill Bar and Lounge, the birthplace of slam poetry. Kevin’s fourth collection of poetry, The Ghost In The Lobby, will be published by Salmon Poetry in 2013. Kevin is co-organiser of Over The Edge literary events.

For further information about the Dublin launch

Tel: +353 1 8721302

Email: info@writerscentre.ie

Esther Murbach & Kevin Higgins read and take questions at Charlie Byrne's Bookshop

Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop invite you to join them on Friday the 1st of June at 6pm for an evening with Esther Murbach and Kevin Higgins. Esther & Kevin will read from their recently published books The Turtle Woman and Mentioning The War: Essays & Reviews (1999-2011). After the reading they will take questions from members of the audience.

After a long career as a journalist and translator, Esther Murbach decided to do what she had always wanted, to become a novelist. Since 2009 she has published three books in German. The Turtle Woman is her first book written in English.

ABOUT The Turtle Woman: Emily is a Swiss woman with a unique disfigurement: a shell covers her body. Successful as a writer but privately resigned to a life without love, she undertakes a trip to Ireland to explore her partly Irish roots. This proves to be a turning point in her life. She discovers a spiritual bond with the Emerald Isle and meets a man who is her counterpart. Niall, an Irish patriot, guesses what her condition is and where it comes from, because he had once experienced it himself. He offers her his understanding and help. They open up to each other, disclosing their dark secrets. In a difficult and painful process Emily overcomes her physical and emotional boundaries with Niall's assistance. Together they start on an emotional and spiritual journey as soul mates. Niall takes Emily to the Aran Island of Inishmore, where she meets her Irish grandmother for the first time. A few obstacles have to be overcome before Emily and Niall finally understand where their happiness lies.

Best known for his dark, satirical poems, Kevin Higgins published his first book review in The Galway Advertiser in June 1999. Reading Mentioning the War, it becomes obvious that Higgins is not like other critics. An enthusiastic advocate for the work of the new generation of poets who have emerged from Ireland’s thriving live poetry scene; he is also a merciless opponent of hypocrisy and pretentiousness wherever he finds it. His writing is overtly political in a way that draws comparison with George Orwell – the subject of two extended essays here. It would be impossible to agree with everything in this book; it is a book which often disagrees with itself. But on subjects as diverse as socialist poetry and neoconservatism, funding for the arts and the anti-war movement, Higgins informs, infuriates and entertains, as any good critic should. http://www.salmonpoetry.com/details.php?ID=255&a=108

NEW GALWAY POETRY MAGAZINE SEEKS SUBMISSIONS

Skylight Poets are a group of poets who meet with poet and facilitatior Kevin Higgins to workshop their writing in Galway Arts Centre on Thursday afternoons. The room they use is at the top of no. 47 Dominick St., the attic with skylight windows, hence the name of the group.

Skylight Poets are seeking submissions for a new poetry magazine to be launched on January 24 2013 at the 10th Anniversary Over The Edge: Open Reading at Galway City Library.  Please send no more than six poems, along with a short biographical note to skylightpoets47@gmail.com

Poems are to be sent as an attachment (.doc, .docx, .txt or .rft) AND in the body of the email. Work should be unpublished. Closing date for submissions is September 1st 2012.

The editors would also be interested to receive ideas for reviews, particularly of recent debut poetry collections. Contributors will recieve one copy of the magazine, plus an invitation at a special Over the Edge reading in Galway City.

NEWS FLASH! from North Beach Poetry Nights

MONDAY, MAY 21ST at 6.30pm in the Crane Bar, Sea Road, Galway - North Beach Poetry Nights with music from MY FELLOW SPONGES and TWO Galway shortlisted authors for the Powers Short Story Competition CRISTINA GALVIN and JIM MULLARKEY there to read their 500 word stories. Now where would you get an evening like that? And the SLAM! If you miss it, you have only yourself to blame.

May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering at The Kitchen @ The Museum

Ross Donlon

The May Over The Edge Writers’ Gathering presents readings by John Corless, Elaine Cosgrove, Mick Donnellan & visiting Australian poet Ross Donlon. The evening will also see the launch of novels by two unique Galway-based writers Rejini Samuel & Yvonne McEvaddy. The event will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway on Wednesday, May 9th, 8pm. All are welcome. There is no cover charge.

Yvonne McEvaddy has been dabbling in the written word since early childhood, having decided at the age of 5, when she read her first Enid Blyton book, that she wanted to be a writer. Her summer holidays were often spent writing adventures in the remaining pages of her school copybooks. When not writing she was daydreaming about her books being available in her local bookstore. Her novel, Passion Killer, is just published.

Ross Donlon has featured at poetry festivals in Australia and England. He has won spoken words events as well as international poetry competitions including the Wenlock Festival Poetry Prize (U.K.) judged by Carol Ann Duffy (2010), the MPU International Poetry Competition (2011) and was shortlisted for this year’s Bridport Prize (U.K.) from 8, 200 entries. His latest book, The Blue Dressing Gown and other poems, is published by Profile Poetry.


Elaine Cosgrove is 26, comes from Sligo and lives in Galway City. Her writing has been published online at wordlegs, minus 9 squared and UpStart. She was short listed for both the Over the Edge 'New Writer of the Year Competition' and the Fish Publishing 'One Page Story Prize' in 2010. Most recently, two of her poems were included in the wordlegs '30 Under 30' ebook anthology of thirty younger Irish writers. Elaine was long listed in the poetry category of the Doire Press '1st Annual Chapbook Competition'. She has recently being accepted onto the MPhil in Creative Writing at Trinity College Dublin.


John Corless lives near Claremorris, in County Mayo, and is a vastly experienced creative writing tutor. Many satisfied students have taken John’s creative writing courses at GMIT Castlebar, over the past number of years. John’s debut poetry collection, Are you ready?, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2009 and has been a poetry bestseller. He is the judge for this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition.


Mick Donnellan is originally from Ballinrobe. He had an immensely successful year in the theatre in 2011. His most popular plays to date – Sunday Morning Coming Down, Shortcut to Halleljuah and Gun Metal Grey – have sold out across the country, inspiring excellent reviews and standing ovations from sell-out crowds. Mick Donnellan’s artistic metirs are now also being recognised in the fiction world. His debut crime novel, El Niño, has just been published.


Rejini Samuel was short-listed for the 2011 Over the Edge ‘New Writer of the Year Competition’ and she was the only entrant to have both her fiction and her poetry long-listed for the Doire Press ‘1st Annual International Fiction and Poetry Chapbook Competition’ in January 2012. Under her pen name R J Samuel, she has just published her first novel Heart Stopper.

There is no entrance fee. The Kitchen @ The Museum has a wine licence.


For further information contact 087-6431748.


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