GALWAY: September Over The Edge Open Reading

Thursday, September 27th, 2012, 6.30-8pm, FREE

Galway City Library

The Featured Readers are Michael O’Loughlin, Ndrek Gjini and Stephanie Brennan. There will as usual be an open-mic after the Featured Readers have finished. The evening will also see the announcement of the winners in this year’s Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition, which received a record number of entries.

Stephanie Brennan has been living on the Aran Islands since 2000. While she has always written, she has only begun to do so seriously in the last two years. She has contributed to open mic readings at Over the Edge, Galway and at Ó Bheal in Cork. Her poems have been published in Island Writings, Crannóg, and ROPES. In February 2011, she won first prize for a love poem in the Tigh Neachtain Sonnet and Love Poem Competition and was shortlisted for the 2011, Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition.

Ndrek Gjini was born in Albania in the 1960s. From 1984 to 1988 he was a student at the University of Shkoder in Albania. After graduation he worked first as a teacher and then as a journalist. During these years he published poems and many newspaper articles in the Albanian language. In 2002, Ndrek moved to the West of Ireland. In 2004, he undertook a course that led to a National Certificate in Print Journalism; at GMIT he earned a BA honours in Heritage Studies. He is a graduate of the MA in Writing at NUI Galway and his poems have been published in Cyphers magazine. Ndrek’s first collection of poems in the English language, The Death of Night, was published last year by EMAL. Ndrek is currently working as Assistant Arts Officer with Galway City Council.

Michael O’Loughlin was born in Dublin in 1958. His poetry collections are Stalingrad: The Street Dictionary (Dublin, Raven Press, 1980); Atlantic Blues (Dublin, Raven Arts Press, 1982); The Diary of a Silence (Raven Arts Press, 1985); and Another Nation, New & Selected Poems (Dublin, New Island Books, 1994/UK Arc Publications, 1996). He has also published a collection of short stories, The Inside Story (Raven Arts Press, 1999); a critical essay, After Kavanagh: Patrick Kavanagh and the Discourse of Contemporary Irish Poetry (Raven Arts Press, 1985); and his translation of the Dutch poet Gerrit Achterberg’s selected poems, Hidden Weddings (Raven Arts Press, 1987). He lived for many years in continental Europe and now lives in Dublin. He has been Writer-in-Residence with both Galway City Council and Galway County Council. Michael’s most recent poetry collection, In This Life, was published by New Island in 2011.

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. http://overtheedgeliteraryevents.blogspot.com