Since its inception in 2006 the New Writing Showcasehas grown to become one of the most important platforms for emerging writers in Ireland. This year’s Cúirt Over The Edge New Writing Showcase features three participants from the Over the Edge literary series in Galway – Aoife Reilly, Erin Fornoff, & Michelle Coyne – Kathryn Guille, the winner of the Cúirt New Writing Poetry Prize 2016 and John O’Donnell, the winner of the 2016 Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize. The MC for the event will be regular Over The Edge host Susan Millar DuMars. It takes place on Wednesday, April 20th, 3pm, at The Town Hall Theatre. Entry is free of charge. All welcome.
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| Michelle Coyne, Erin Fornoff, & Aoife Reilly |
Michelle Coyne lives in Galway with her husband and two small boys, and works with computer software. Michelle has had short stories published in Ropes, Crannóg, wordlegs and Silver Apples, and was Long listed for the 2014 Over the Edge New Writer of the Year Award. Her story ‘The Sniper’ came third in the 2015 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition. Michelle was a Featured Reader at the January 2015 Over The Edge: Open Reading.
Aoife Reillyis originally from Laois, but has been living in Galway since 2012. She works as a psychotherapist and teacher and has been attending Kevin Higgins’s poetry workshops at Galway Arts Centre since Autumn 2013. Aoife’s poetry has been published in Crannóg, Skylight 47, on the Poethead website, and in a wide variety of other poetry magazines recently. Aoife was a Featured Reader at the August 2015 Over The Edge: Open Reading.
Appalachian born, Dublin-based poet Erin Fornoffhas performed her poetry at Glastonbury, Electric Picnic, and dozens of other festivals and events across the UK and Ireland. She has been published in The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, New Planet Cabaret, Cyphers, and many others. In 2014 she was selected for the 2014 Poetry Ireland Introductions Series and became Artistic Director for Lingo, Ireland's first ever spoken word festival. She is also working on a novel. Erin was a Featured Reader at the February 2015 Over The Edge: Open Reading.
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| Kathryn Guille |
Kathryn Guille is an American writer and choreographer living in Limerick City. Her screenplay, Enemy of the Freak State, has won the David Dortort Prize for Screenwriting, and her play, Venla and Henry has won the Alice Stark Award for Playwriting. Kathryn is a founding member of the New York Time’s acclaimed Ateh Theatre Group. She was an Off-Broadway and regional fight director and actress for over ten years before moving to Ireland. Kathryn holds a BFA from NYU’s TISCH School of the Arts, and an MFA in Creative Writing from The City College of New York. Kathryn is the winner of the 2016 Cúirt New Writing Poetry Prize.
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| John O'Donnell |
John O’Donnell’s work has been published and broadcast widely. Awards include the Irish National Poetry Prize, the Ireland Funds Prize and the Hennessy Award for Poetry in 1998. His fiction has been published in the Sunday Tribune, the Sunday Independent, The Stinging Fly, and online in Books Ireland and the Irish Times. Promise, his first short story, was published in 2011 and was broadcast on RTE’s The Book On One. In 2013 his story Shelley won the Hennessy Award for Emerging Fiction. He lives and works in Dublin. John is the winner of the 2016 Cúirt New Writing Fiction Prize.
Over The Edge acknowledges the ongoing financial support of The Arts Council, Galway City Council, and Poetry Ireland, and our ongoing partnership with the Cúirt Festival of International Literature.
