Mary Hanlon and Deirdre Kearney Launch First Collections at Charlie Byrne’s Literary Jamboree

galway | arts and media | event notice Friday July 24, 2009 20:10 by Over The Edge

Galway Arts Centre Poetry Workshop Participants Mary Hanlon and Deirdre Kearney Launch First Collections at Charlie Byrne’s Literary Jamboree

Deirdre Kearney

Over The Edge presents the launch of two debut collections of poetry, Dear Beloved by Mary Hanlon & Spiddal Pier by Deirdre Kearney, both published by the Belfast based Lapwing Press, at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop on Thursday, August 6th from 6.30pm.

The evening will also see the Galway launch of Chora: New & Selected Poems by visiting poet Nigel McLoughlin, which has just been published by Templar Poetry and Transmorphosis & Other Short Story by Boris Belony (aka Stephen Hughes), which was recently published by Stitchy Press. And there will be a short reading by David Starkey, the Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara, California who is visiting Galway.

Mary Hanlon lives in County Mayo. She is a participant in the Advanced Poetry Workshop facilitated at Galway Arts Centre by Kevin Higgins. Her poems have appeared in a variety of magazines, including West 47 online, The Cúirt Annual and Revival. ‘Thirst’, her poem inspired by Hugo Chavez, was published on the Over The Edge website this March. Dear Beloved is Mary’s first collection of poems and is published by Lapwing Press in Belfast.

Deirdre Kearney is originally from Omagh, County Tyrone, but has lived in Galway since 1983. She has been a participant in the Advanced Poetry Workshop at Galway Arts Centre. Her poems have been published in West 47, Cúirt New Writing 2007, The Ulster Herald, Crannóg, Words on the Web, Tinteán, Australian-Irish Magazine- Treóir, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann magazine, the Over the Edge website & Galway Exposed. She was a Featured Reader (alongside Denis O’Driscoll) at the May 2008 Over The Edge: Open Reading. Spiddal Pier is Deirdre’s first collection of poems and is also published by Lapwing Press.

Nigel McLoughlin is a prize-winning poet, editor and teacher. His work is published in journals and athologies in Ireland, the UK, USA and Australia. He has read his work at most of the major poetry festivals in Ireland and the UK. He is Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire. His fifth collection, Chora: New & Selected Poems, has just been published by Templar Poetry.

Stephen Hughes began his writing career by putting out the highly popular zine Boris Belony which was one of best selling zines in Ireland in the early 2000's. He has read alongside such zinester greats as Al Burian (Burn Collector Zine) and Dave Roche (On Subbing). Ross O Carroll Kelly) says, "Franz Kafka meets Flann O'Brien meets John Kennedy Toole. Transmorphosis & Other Short Story reads like a collection of your worst cheese nightmares and the essays that persuade primary school teachers to call in social workers. Surreal, hilarious and very, very smart – and then, just when you're settling into a vein of laughter, unexpectedly, disquietingly, sad and touching. I loved every page."

David Starkey is the poet laureate of Santa Barbara, California, and director of the creative writing program at Santa Barbara City College. Among his poetry collections are Starkey’s Book of States (Boson Books, 2007), Adventures of the Minor Poet (Artamo Press, 2007), Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems (Artamo, 2006), David Starkey’s Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2002) and Fear of Everything, winner of Palanquin Press’s Spring 2000 chapbook contest. A Few Things You Should Know about the Weasel will be published by the Canadian press Biblioasis next year

Everyone is welcome to attend. For further details 087-6431748.

Over The Edge acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Galway City Council.

David Starkey

Nigel McLoughlin