Writing Festival to Open With Humour

IN CLAREMORRIS THIS COMING WEEKEND
Writing Festival to Open With Humour 

The second annual Claremorris Literary Festival opens on Friday September 26th. and organisers, local writing group, The Mayo Writers Block, promise a humorous start with 'Happy Hour.'   Happy Hour is an open mic session where visiting writers will read or perform their work.  The only stipulation is that the piece has to be funny. Anyone interested in taking part is invited to attend on the night. Bring along your funniest pieces to Claremorris Library and share the fun. The event is sponsored by the McWilliam Park Hotel and a prize of a mid week break in the hotel will be awarded to whomever the audience on the night decide gave them the most enjoyment. Workshop facilitators, Susan Millar DuMars and Helen Falconer, will both read on the night also.

Workshops 

The Festival programme includes workshops on Saturday, Sept 27th, on Short Fiction and Poetry.  

Short Fiction with Helen Falconer 10-4 Clár IRD Ballyhaunis Rd Claremorris Saturday 27th September 

Novelist Helen Falconer was born and brought up in London. She was educated at Camden School for Girls, Dartington School, Devon, and St. Anne's College, Oxford. She works as a book reviewer for the Guardian newspaper. 

Her first novel, Primrose Hill, the story of a group of North London teenagers, was published in 1999. Her second, Sky High: A Novel (2003), depicts love, sex and violence in a forbidden relationship set against an urban landscape.

Poetry with Susan Millar DuMars Dalton Inn  Hotel 1-0-4 Saturday 27th September 

Susan Millar DuMars is an American born writer living in Galway.  Her first collection of poems, Big Pink Umbrella, was published by Salmon in April, 2008. A mini-collection of her short stories, titled American Girls, was published by Lapwing in 2007.  Susan and her husband teach creative writing, and organise the Over the Edge literary events that take place in Galway
 
Each workshop costs €25 and money with name and contact details must to sent to: Mayo Writers Block, c/o Clár IRD, Ballyhaunis Rd, Claremorris, Co Mayo. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Booking essential.
 
Information on the festival is available on the website www.mayowriters.org or by calling Margaret 087 958 2004 or John 0879843900. Booking for the workshops cannot be taken over the phone, as they must be accompanied by the relevant fee to be considered for a place. MWB wish to thank the following for their support of the event; Mayo County Council, The McWilliam Park Hotel. The Dalton Inn, Clár IRD.

Bookings To: Mayo Writers Block, C/o Clár IRD, Ballyhaunis Rd, Claremorris, Co Mayo. 
 
Check out the The Mayo Writers' Block Website at:
www.mayowriters.org - Ink All-Ireland Writers Group of The Year 2008

Over the edge reading with Orla Higgins, Des Kavanagh & Colette Bryce

Acclaimed Derry poet for September Over The Edge: Open Reading

 

Over The Edge in association with Poetry Ireland presents the September Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library, St. Augustine Street, Galway on Thursday, September 25th, 6.30-8pm. The Featured Readers are Orla Higgins, Des Kavanagh & Colette Bryce.

 

Orla Higgins lives in Galway, loves to travel and wants to be a writer when she grows up. She works as a Business & Communications Consultant, primarily with arts and non-profit organisations. She also lectures part-time at NUIG with both the Department of Marketing and the Huston School of Film. Her first love is fiction but she has recently collaborated on writing a play titled 'For Pete's Sake'. She has been a serial attender of Susan DuMars’s creative writing classes and is now a student on the MA in Writing at NUIG.

Des Kavanagh hails originally from the Inishowen peninsula in Donegal. He has been writing for four years and is a regular participant in Kevin Higgins’s advanced Poetry Class at Galway Arts Centre. He also takes an active interest in folklore and local history and has chaired the McGlinchey Summer School in Inishowen for most of the past ten years. He recently co-edited the Irish language version of his father’s book, The Last of the Name. He has read his poetry at Westside Library and Clifden Arts Week.

Colette Bryce is originally from Derry; she now lives in Newcastle upon Tyne where she held the North East literary fellowship from 2005-2007. She has published three poetry collections with Picador, The Heel of Bernadette, The Full Indian Rope Trick and, this month, Self-Portrait in the Dark. The Observations of Aleksandr Svetlov, a pamplet, appeared in 2007. She was the winner of the UK National Poetry Competition in 2003 and of the Cardiff International in 2007.  

 

As usual there will be an open-mic when the Featured Readers have finished. This is open to anyone who has a poem or story to share. New readers are always especially welcome. The evening will also see the announcement by competition judge Celeste Augé of the winner of this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year. MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.

 
Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of Poetry Ireland, Galway City Council and The Arts Councilhttp://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com/

 

Moloch showcase update

An Evening of Poetry and Music

We are pleased to announce that Noel Harrington will also be joining us tomorrow night, July 31st, to read at the Moloch showcase.    

The showcase will start at 7pm, in The Winding Stair, Ormond Quay, Dublin 1.  We will have music and poetry from a few of our lovely talented crew, namely Kevin Higgins, Alan Jude Moore, Noel Harrington, Stephen Kelly, and The Perfect Consonants. 

Drinks, cake, poetry, and music are all free but we do encourage you to leave a small contribution (if you can) so we can afford to bring you more nights like this, and more editions of the journal.

A recap of the line up

Kevin Higgins will be joining us from Galway. Kevin’s first collection of poems, The Boy With No Face, was published in February 2005. The collection was shortlisted for the 2006 Strong Award for Best First Collection by an Irish Poet. The Boy With No Face was Salmon Poetry’s bestselling book of that year and has recently been reprinted. Kevin’s second collection of poems, Time Gentlemen, Please, was published this year.

“His is a committed, engaged poetry, shot through with both humour and melancholy.”

– Juliet Wilson, in New Hope International Review.

http://www.myspace.com/poetkevinhiggins

Alan Jude Moore is a Dubliner whose poetry has been published in a wide range of journals here and abroad, including Poetry Ireland Review, The Stinging Fly, Kestrel (USA), Jacobs Ladder (USA), Pelagos (Italy) – and, of course, Moloch. He took part in the Poetry Ireland Introductions readings in 2001.

Alan’s collection, Black State Cars, was published by Salmon Poetry, and was the recipient of a Salmon Poetry Publication Prize for a first collection.

 "What is necessary is to seek new forms and new language to express new ideas and experience. Moore is doing so, and that is what makes Black State Cars an important and essential collection."

- Michael S. Begnal, in Poetry Ireland Review.

http://www.myspace.com/alanjudemoore

Noel Harrington lives in Tulla, Co Clare. The White House Poets published a chapbook of his poems 'Trio' in 2007. He has also been published in The Stinging Fly, Revival, Moloch.ie, The Stony Thursday Book, Crannóg and the joint Limerick/Newcastle publication, Two Rivers Meet. A prose piece was short-listed for the Flosca Short Story Prize, appearing in the 2008 Anthology, and another was published by Mike Scott on the Waterboys website. He has been writing a novel for five years now and will let you know when it's finished.

http://www.myspace.com/noelharrington

Stephen Kelly is a talented poet and songwriter from Drimnagh, Dublin. He has been published in Watermarks and entertained the masses with wonderful readings in a variety of Dublin venues. His poem 'Ladybird' featured in the first issue of Moloch. One of his songs 'David' is currently featured on the Moloch myspace pages

http://www.myspace.com/molochjournal

The Perfect Consonants consist of Mark Noonan, Darran Kelly and Aoife McGrane. The band have been writing and playing songs together for the past two years. The Moloch night will be their last blast for the summer season. You can download a couple of their songs at

http://www.myspace.com/theperfectconsonants

Mark's series of City poems makes an appearance in the current issue of Moloch, while Darran's plays have been hailed by Irish play-writing legend Frank McGuinness

 "that rarest of theatrical joys - the real thing!"

The Open Wall

creative writing workshop,

Cassidy's on Westmoreland street,

July 30th @ 7.30pm.

The Open Wall






Spoken word begs for an audience to receive and participate in it, and with a good performer, the result can be wonderful.

The written word, however, is a solitary being. It is silently digested, there is no direct interaction with the author, and the voice is imagined.

While most writers workshops offer writers the floor after exercises so that they can read pieces aloud, writing intended for the page loses something essential.

The Open Wall is a creative writing workshop which offers a forum for writing and sharing words bound in ink. After each exercise participants are invited to stick any work they are happy to share onto 'The Wall'.

'The Wall', a simple notice board with simple pins, is a medium for presenting work to others, and it is open to everybody.

The Open Wall begins it’s creative writing workshops tomorrow night in Cassidy's on Westmorland Street.

Wednesday the 30th of July, at 7.30pm.

Workshops will take place every second Wednesday at 7:30pm, i.e. August 13th, August 27th…

Do check out their myspace pages for more information http://www.myspace.com/theopenwall

2008 Cuirt Festival Over The Edge Showcase Reading

The 2008 Cúirt Festival

in association with Ireland’s leading literary reading series presents the 

OVER THE EDGE, Emerging Writers Showcase

• Mary Madec
  
• Megan Buckley
  
• Fergal McNally
  
• & Mary Mullen
  

11.00am, Thursday 
April 24th
Town Hall Theatre

Mary Mullen is an Alaskan-born writer who has lived in south County Galway for a decade. Her work has been published in We Alaskans, Sunday Miscellany 2003-2004, The Stinging Fly, the Cork Literary Review, Galway Now, West47online, the Anchorage Daily News, and the chapbook The Whole Building Could Be On Fire. She is working on a collection of personal history essays and short stories. Mary is a graduate of NUIG’s MA in Writing programme. She is currently facilitating a memoir writing class at Galway Arts Centre. She was a Featured Reader at the January 2007 Over The Edge: Open Reading.


Fergal Mc Nally is originally from Navan. He enrolled at N.U.I.G in 2003 where he studied English, political science and sociology. In 2007 he graduated with a first from the university’s M.A. in Writing programme. He has twice had poetry published in ROPES magazine. His one act play Spilt Milk won best production in the 2007 Muscailt Festival one act play series. His work was displayed during Cúirt last year as part of DOCUMENT, a collaborative project between writers and artists. He is currently working on his first novel. He was a Featured Reader at the May 2007 Over The Edge: Open Reading.


Mary Madec was born in County Mayo. She started writing poetry about four years ago and since then has published in Crannóg, West 47, The Cúirt Annual, the SHOp, The Sunday Tribune, WOW and Iota among others. In Spring 2007 she was chosen for the Poetry Ireland Introductions; in July she was runner-up in the Raftery competition and chosen for the WINDOWS showcase and anthology. Last autumn she started up a community-writing project Away with Words for people with intellectual disabilities. Mary has just been short-listed for this year's Hennessy Literary Awards for New Irish Writing in the Emerging Poetry category. She was a Featured Reader at the November 2005 Over The Edge: Open Reading.


Megan Buckley is a Doctoral Teaching Fellow in the English Department at NUI, Galway, where she teaches seminars on nineteenth-century women's poetry. Her poems have been published in the US, the UK, and Ireland, in publications such as The Ledge (US), The Pedestal (US), eclectica. org (US); the Dazzle and Attract Project in Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK, in which one of her poems was projected onto the wall of a building (UK); Crannóg, ROPES, TribeVibes, and others. She collaborated with visual artists in DOCUMENT, 2005 and 2006, and she was shortlisted for the Over The Edge Writer of the Year Award in 2007. She was a Featured Reader at the November 2007 Over The Edge: Open Reading.


Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing support of the Cúirt international festival of literature, Galway City Library, Sheridan's Wine Bar, Galway City Council & The Arts Council.

http://overtheedgeliteraryevents. blogspot. com
http://www. galwayartscentre. ie

Galway, Ireland: Over The Edge presents An Evening of Polish Poetry

Friday April 11th is the date for an evening of Polish poetry organized by Over the Edge at Sheridan’s Wine Bar, opposite St. Nicholas’s Church, Galway, with the help of Galway-based Polish journalist Magalena Szulc. Also reading on the evening will be Loughrea-based Polish writer, Kinga Cybulska. The evening is being supported by the Polish Embassy in Ireland. The reading will start at 8pm.

There will be readings from the work of the great Polish poets Halina Poswiatowska, Wislawa Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert and Czeslaw Milosz and more. Verses will be read by volunteers in both Polish, and English. On top of that, some of Galway’s Polish residents will present their own poems to the audience. Galway’s Writer-in-Residence Michael O’Loughlin will also read some of his favourite Polish poems. Kevin Higgins will MC the evening. All are welcome.

http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com

Launch of Story Tellers Unlimited

Rab kindly sent this to us...

Launch of Story Tellers Unlimited
www.storytellersunlimited.com

Saturday 5th April at 4pm in Galway City Museum.

You are warmly invited to the international launch of www.storytellersunlimited.com. Funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaion the website contains a video archive of stories researched and performed for Galway City Museum by acclaimed storytellers Rab Swannock Fulton and Clare Muireann Murphy. It also includes information on Rab and Clare's teaching work, up and coming performances and shows that can be booked.

The launch is on Saturday 5th April and begins at 4pm in Galway City Museum. Rab will host the Irish launch, along with guest speaker Fionnuala Gallagher, the Arts Officer of National University of Ireland, Galway. At 5pm the launch will then be handed over to Clare in America. The American launch takes place in the Children Museum of Denver and begins at 11am,
Denver time.

As well as www.storytellersunlimited.com Rab and Clare are busy working on new projects. At present Rab is finishing a new collection of short stories and essays for his American fanzine www.geygallus.com, and putting together a show of 'Dark Tales' for the Town Hall Theatre studio, Galway. Clare recently finished a highly praised three-week tour of England, and is
currently touring in the U.S.A.

For more details contact: 00353 (0) 87 654 5411

Poetry Upfront

Here's something exciting we got in the post:

Hello all,

Poetry Upfront returns to its regular open-mic format with a session on Thursday 20 March. Our venue is Trax Cafe & Wine Bar on Station Street, Balbriggan and start time is 8pm. Admission, as always, is free, and everyone is welcome. See our website at www.freewebs.com/poetryupfront.

Christodoulos & Jane
Poetry Upfront