The Over the Edge reading and open mic night is returning to Galway City Library this month after taking a break for the summer.
The Featured Readers for the August Over the Edge poetry and fiction gathering are Maeve Mulrennan, Nollaig O’Donnell, & Jo Burns and, as usual, there will be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished.
The evening will also see the announcement of the long list for the 2019 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year for which the competition judge this year is poet, fiction writer, and publisher Liz McSkeane.
Maeve Mulrennan is a curator and writer based in Galway, where she has worked as the Head of Visual Art + Education in Galway Arts Centre since 2006.
She is the co-curator of the youth programme for Cúirt International Festival of Literature and also serves on the Board of Directors of Galway Community Circus.
Maeve is a short story writer, with fiction published in several online journals, The Doire Press 2013 Anthology, The Honest Ulsterman, for whom she also interviews writers, and The Galway Review.
Her story ‘Blood Cure’ won the 2018 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition and can be read here https://humag.co/prose/blood-cure.
Nollaig O’Donnell is a teacher of Piano, French and English who lives in Galway with her husband, Richard.
Nollaig has attended Susan Millar DuMar’s Advanced Writing Class and is currently a member of Galway Write-on Group. As well as writing, Nollaig also enjoys sketching and silk painting.
Her first book, Something Within, was published by Veritas in 2016. It is a compilation of some of her poetry, reflections, vignettes, sketches and paintings.
Nollaig’s short story, In the Pink, appeared in Write-on Anthology 2019, and more will be featured in the 2020 anthology.
Jo Burns is a poet from Norther Ireland, but who currently lives in Germany. Her poetry has been published in Oxford Poetry, Poetry Ireland Review, Southword, The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47 and Magma, among many others.
Jo has in the past been shortlisted for the Over The Edge Prize, Bridport Prize, Strokestown International Prize and nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
She won the Shirley McClure Poetry Prize 2017 at the Irish Writers Festival, CA, the Magma Poetry Competition 2018 and the New Irish Writing in Germany Poetry Award 2018.
Her pamphlet Circling for Gods was published by Eyewear Publishing, while her first full collection White Horses was published by Turas Press in November 2018.
The August Over the Edge Open Reading will take place at the city library on Thursday, August 29 from 6.30-8pm, and the MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.
