Readers from Galway and much further afield with bring their experiences to the mic art the November Over the Edge open reading and mic this week.
Over the Edge returns this Thursday, November 18 at 6:30pm, sticking with the online Zoom format for people to tune in and enjoy the show.
The featured readers this month are a good mix, with local woman Sacha Hutchinson, Estelle Birdy from Louth, and coming from further afield is Gioconda Belli from Nicaragua.
There will be the usual Open Mic after the featured readers for anyone, newcomer or old hand, to take to the virtual stage and try out their work for a hungry audience.
Gioconda Belli is a poet and novelist, one who has led an active and eventful political life in her country as a feminist and defender of human rights.
Although she was part of the struggle to topple Somoza’s regime and the Sandinista Revolution (1979), she split from the new sandinismo of Daniel Ortega in 1993.
She writes both poetry and novels, for which she has won many awards, including four children’s books and a memoir of her guerrilla years: The Country Under my Skin.
Gioconda’s poetry has won the Mariano Fiallos Gil prize, the Casa de las Americas Prize, Generacion del 27 Prize, and more, and her first novel The Inhabited Woman (1988) became a literary and commercial success and was awarded the Best Political Novel of the Year and the Anna Seghers award in Germany in 1989.
Sacha Hutchinson is an eye doctor working in Galway, and a long time fan of Over the Edge.
Her poetry has appeared in Ropes 2018 and multiple editions of Skylight 47, the 2019 autumn edition of The Curlew, and many more.
She was shortlisted for Poetry for Patience 2018 and 2019, and for the Over the Edge New Writer of the Year in 2019.
Estelle Birdy describes herself as “Louth and proud” but is a long-time resident of Dublin’s Liberties.
The UCD graduate has seen her work reviews and non-fiction appear in the Sunday Independent, the Irish Times and others, and her work has won or been shortlisted in Dalkey Creates, Penfro Book Festival, Verve Poetry Festival and IWC Novel Fair competitions.
Estelle’s debut novel Ravelling, which has been described as “Fast-paced, funny and eye-popping, descending from Trainspotting, White Teeth and Milkman in its portrayal of urban life in the twenty-first century” is forthcoming from Lilliput Press.
Anyone interested in taking part in the open-mic should text Kevin Higgins on 087-6431748 or or register their interest by messaging the Over The Edge Facebook page.
To join in the cultural gathering this week join the Over the Edge Zoom Meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
