The 2012 Over The Edge Poetry Book Showcase featuring Moya Cannon, Stephen Murray, Ndrek Gjini, Lorna Shaughnessy,  Jack McCann, Mae Leonard, Sarah Griffin,  Pauline Fayne, Pete Mullineaux, Susan Lindsay, Kate Dempsey & Sean Kavanagh will take place at The Kitchen @ The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway .

In this annual retrospective of the year just past, Galway-based poets who published a new collection of poems during 2011 are invited to read three poems from the collection in question. There will also be short readings from the anthologies Bicycles with Umbrellas (NUI Galway MA in Writing class of 2010), Monday Miscellany (Westside Writers) and Mosaic (Skylight Poets/Galway Arts Centre Advanced Poetry Workshop).

 All welcome. There is no cover charge. For further details phone 087-6431748.

Liz O' Donoghue poet and film maker, was born in North Cork in 1960. She lives in Cork City and has one son. Her first full collection Train to Gorey was published by Arlen House in 2008. Recent readings include Shanghai International Festival on St.Patrick’s Day, 2010 and with acclaimed war poet Brian Turner in Cork Central Library. Her film In the Hands of Erato was screened at the 2003 Cork Film Festival. Murphy’s wall was screened in the Cork Film Festival 2011.

The event is held upstairs in The Hayloft bar, above The Long Valley, one of Cork’s favourite and most established poetry venues. Entrance is free. Readings will last between 30-45 minutes after which there will be the usual open-mic session. Be sure to come early to get good seats. Full bar available.The night begins with a Poetry Challenge starting between 9.00pm and 9.30pm. Guest poets begin around 10.00pm

Cork poet James Cummins love miniatures. miniature villages, miniature trains, miniature bottles. you name it, if they made it smaller he loves them – because they make him feel like a giant. This piece of information has nothing what so ever to do with the fact that as a child his nickname was ‘small fry’, which he always assumed had something to do with having a similar boyish smile to that of Stephen Fry because why would anyone want to tease someone else about being short. he also writes poems, organizes stuff, edits things and plays computer games.

The event is held upstairs in The Hayloft bar, above The Long Valley, one of Cork’s favourite and most established poetry venues. Entrance is free. Readings will last between 30-45 minutes after which there will be the usual open-mic session. Be sure to come early to get good seats. Full bar available.The night begins with a Poetry Challenge starting between 9.00pm and 9.30pm. Guest poets begin around 10.00pm

Jill Battson is an internationally published poet and poetry activist who is Poet Laureate Emeritus of Cobourg, Ontario. She was responsible for creating and running the successful poetry reading series The Poets’ Refuge and has initiated and produced many poetry events including The Poetry Express – a BYOV at Toronto’s Fringe Festival; Liminal Sisters – a language poetry event; The Festival of the Spoken Word – a five day spoken word festival; Fightin’ Words – poets in a boxing ring; The Poetburo Slams and the hyper- successful Word Up – a series of interstitial poetry spots airing on MuchMusic and Bravo! which spawned a CD with Virgin Records and an anthology with Key Porter. She was the poetry editor for Insomniac Press from 1999 to 2001.

The event is held upstairs in The Hayloft bar, above The Long Valley, one of Cork’s favourite and most established poetry venues. Entrance is free. Readings will last between 30-45 minutes after which there will be the usual open-mic session. Be sure to come early to get good seats. Full bar available.The night begins with a Poetry Challenge starting between 9.00pm and 9.30pm. Guest poets begin around 10.00pm

A wonderful night of poetry and harp in the beautiful setting of Ballymaloe in association with Poetry Ireland.

Acclaimed poets Thomas McCarthy and Gerard Smyth will read from their work. Throughout the evening classical harpist Sarah Noonan will perform pieces by J.S. Bach, Grandjany, Weiss, Hasselmans, Tournier, Dussek, O' Carolan and Salzedo.

Tickets €15. Concessions €10.
To book tickets only call 021-4651511

Ballymaloe House are offering am excellent pacage deal of €60 for early 6pm dinner plus event or €140 for dinner, B&B and entrance to the event.

For more details please conact The Grainstore

Colm Keegan lives in Clondalkin, Dublin. Since 2005 he has four times been shortlisted for the Hennessey new Irish Writing Award, for both poetry and fiction. In 2008 he was short-listed for the International Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition. He won the All Ireland Poetry Slam in 2010. In 2011 he was nominated for the Absolut Fringe’s ‘Little Gem’ Award for the play he co-wroteThree Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About. He regularly reviews for and contributes material to RTE radio’s arts show Arena. His poetry collectionDon’t Go There will be published by Salmon in May 2012.

The event is held upstairs in The Hayloft bar, above The Long Valley, one of Cork’s favourite and most established poetry venues. Entrance is free. Readings will last between 30-45 minutes after which there will be the usual open-mic session. Be sure to come early to get good seats. Full bar available.The night begins with a Poetry Challenge starting between 9.00pm and 9.30pm. Guest poets begin around 10.00pm

Rita Ann Higgins has published nine collections of poetry. Five with Salmon publishing and four with Bloodaxe including Throw in the Vowels: New and Selected Poems in 2005, reissued in 2010 with audio CD. In 2010 Salmon published Hurting God (part essay, part rhyme). Bloodaxe recently published her new collection of poetry Ireland is Changing Mother. She is a member of Aosdána.

The event is held upstairs in The Hayloft bar, above The Long Valley, one of Cork’s favourite and most established poetry venues. Entrance is free. Readings will last between 30-45 minutes after which there will be the usual open-mic session. Be sure to come early to get good seats. Full bar available.The night begins with a Poetry Challenge starting between 9.00pm and 9.30pm. Guest poets begin around 10.00pm

Peadar O’ hUallaigh was born in Clonmel in 1950 and has lived for many years in Dun Chaoin. He spent his teenage years in sixties Dublin. During the seventies and eighties he performed traditional music, mostly on the Continent. Most of his poetry has been written since 2005 at home on the Dingle Peninsula, and has appeared in many periodicals and books. He has also won a number of prizes including at Strokestown and Listowel Writer’s Week. He won the The Rupert & Eithne Strong Award in 2010 for his début collection Tír Tairngire.

The event is held upstairs in The Hayloft bar, above The Long Valley, one of Cork’s favourite and most established poetry venues. Entrance is free. Readings will last between 30-45 minutes after which there will be the usual open-mic session. Be sure to come early to get good seats. Full bar available.The night begins with a Poetry Challenge starting between 9.00pm and 9.30pm. Guest poets begin around 10.00pm

Patrick Moran was born in Templetuohy, County Tipperary, where he still lives and works as a post-primary teacher. He has won the Gerald Manley Hopkins Poetry Prize; he has also been a winner at Listowel Writers’ Week and the 2008 Eist Poetry Competition. In 1990, he was shortlisted for the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Poetry Award.His poems have appeared widely in the major Irish outlets: Poetry Ireland Review, The Irish Times, Cyphers, The Honest Ulsterman, Cork Literary Review, THE SHOp, Irish Pages and The Stinging Fly; and also in the British magazine, Orbis. His work is featured in anthologies, including the inauguralForward Book of Poetry (UK), The Stony Thursday Book, as well as The Best of Irish Poetry 2007 andBest Irish Poetry 2010. Patrick has published two collections of poetry: The Stubble Fields (Dedalus Press, 2001) and Green (Salmon Poetry, 2008).

The event is held upstairs in The Hayloft bar, above The Long Valley, one of Cork’s favourite and most established poetry venues. Entrance is free. Readings will last between 30-45 minutes after which there will be the usual open-mic session. Be sure to come early to get good seats. Full bar available.The night begins with a Poetry Challenge starting between 9.00pm and 9.30pm. Guest poets begin around 10.00pm

Kerrie O’Brien has been published in various Irish and UK literary journals including Southword, Orbis, two issues of Crannóg, Revival, Icarus, The Cathach, College Green, Ropes, Daydreamer, Wordlegs, Minus 9 Squared, The First Cut, Boyne Berries, Stony Thursday and Raft Magazine. She will also have poems appearing in the forthcoming editions of The Poetry Bus, Outburst and Burning Bush II.

Her poem Blossoms has been chosen as the winning entry in the Emerging Talent category of the 2011 Yeats Poetry Competition. She has also been highly commended for the Over the Edge New Writer of The Year Competition 2011. Her chapbook Out of the Blueness is now available.

The event is held upstairs in The Hayloft bar, above The Long Valley, one of Cork’s favourite and most established poetry venues. Entrance is free. Readings will last between 30-45 minutes after which there will be the usual open-mic session. Be sure to come early to get good seats. Full bar available.The night begins with a Poetry Challenge starting between 9.00pm and 9.30pm. Guest poets begin around 10.00pm