White House Poetry, Mar 3rd 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest Alan Garvey

When: Wednesday, March 3rd 2010, 9.30pm

Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

This week at the White House we bring you the return of Alan Garvey (not unlike Napolean's return from Elba) for the launch of his third and new collection, Terror Háza. The night will also have the regular open-mic session to which all comers may and will be encouraged to contribute. Bring your friends, make them bring poems, etc etc. Admission is free as always and finger food is provided as ever, compliments of the proprietor.

Garvey has published three chapbooks - Whoever (2001), The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (2003) and Play Dead (2006) - and two full collections - Herself in Air (2006) and Learning to Crawl (2008). Work of his has also been published in many journals and anthologies in Ireland and Canada.

A graduate of the Creative Writing M.A. at WIT, Garvey is an highly accomplished reader and performer of his work, receiving Travel and Mobility Grants from the Arts Council of Ireland to read at the University of Toronto and at the March Hare Festival, Newfoundland.

Born in Dublin, growing up in Naas, Garvey lives in Carlow with wife Tara and sons Keir and Alastair.

Terror Háza, published by lapwing Press in Belfast, will of course be available for purchase on the night, which the poet will happily sign with personalised messages for buyers.

"Alan Garvey is a meticulous poet whose oeuvre extends both near and far. As the poems in Terror Háza declare, Garvey is aligned with the new committed generation of poets for whom vacuous mythology and the tedium of theologised philosophy has become a shadow in the margins of modern art."

- Richard Montgomery

We hope to see you there for what will surely be a great event. Arrive early to ensure you get good seats.

White House Poetry, Feb 24th 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest Jaki McCarrick
When: Wednesday, February 24th 2010, 9.30pm
Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

The White House this week welcomes Jaki McCarrick as guest to its weekly reading series. She will perform a selection of her work and, of course, the night will have the usual open-mic session to which all comers may contribute and are encouraged to do so.

Jaki McCarrick is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. Her first play, The Mushroom Pickers, won the 2005 Scottish Drama Association's National Playwriting Competition, and premiered at the Southwark Playhouse in London in May 2006 and in New York in February 2009.

She has published poetry in Poetry Ireland Review, Revival, Boyne Berries, Southword, Cyphers, Cathach, Word on the Street, Stylus (Australia), The Pedestal (North Carolina), Ouroborus (New York), Atonal, and short stories in The Dublin Review, Verbal Arts Magazine, Cyphers, Brace, Random Acts of Writing, The Frogmore Papers.

She was Writer-in-Residence at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre for the Pushkin Trust in July 2007. She recently won first prize in the Northern Ireland Spinetinglers Dark Fiction competition for Blood and was selected for the 2009 Poetry Ireland Introduction series of emerging poets.

Her play, The Moth-Hour, has been nominated for a number of awards and her most recent play, Leopoldville, was this year short-listed for the Adrienne Benham Award as well as the 2009 Kings Cross Award for New Writing, taking runner-up. Playwright David Hare has just selected Leopoldville as a finalist in the 2010 Yale Drama Series Playwriting Competition. Leopoldville is to be staged in London in 2010.

Admission to the event is, of course, free and finger-food is served compliments of the White House proprietor. A word of advice, arrive early to get good seats!! See you then...

White House Poetry, Feb 17th 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest Catherine Phil MacCarthy

When: Wednesday, February 17th 2010, 9.30pm

Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

This week at the White House as part of the weekly reading series, special guest poet Catherine Phil MacCarthy will be launching her latest collection of poems, Suntrap (Blackstaff Press). As ever the night will be complete with an open-mic session to which all comers are welcome to contribute. Admission is free and finger food is provided compliments of the White House.

Of Suntrap, poet Tom McCarthy's review in The Irish Times stated:

"It is as a love poet that Catherine Phil MacCarthy triumphs... Suntrap continues this vein in its chronicling of the robust power of attachments, from the primal power of ”Dance” to the sexual intrigue of “Another Woman.” Here is a poet, then, who becomes stronger with each new collection, a poet who understands that furnace of love while longing for late winter ice to hold firm along the Shannon."

MacCarthy's other collections are How High the Moon (Poetry Ireland, Sense of Place Award, 1991), This Hour of the Tide (1994), the blue globe (1998), and a first novel, One Room an Everywhere (2003). She was awarded a bursary in poetry from the Arts Council in 1994, 1999 and 2007/8 and was Writer in Residence for Dublin City (1994) and University College Dublin (2002). She works freelance as a Creative Writing tutor and is a former editor of Poetry Ireland Review.

Copies of Suntrap will be available to buy on the night, which the poet will sign with personalised messages. It should be a great night - don't miss it!!

Over The Edge New Writer of the Year 2010

2010 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year competition sponsored by Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop.

In 2010 Over The Edge is continuing its exciting annual creative writing competition. The competition is open to both poets and fiction writers. The total prize money is €1,000. The best fiction entry will win €300. The best poetry entry will win €300. One of these will then be chosen as the overall winner and will receive an additional €400, giving the overall winner total prize money of €700 and the title Over The Edge New Writer of The Year 2010. The 2010 Over The Edge New Writer of The Year will be a Featured Reader at a reading to be scheduled in Galway City Library in Winter 2010/11. Salmon Poetry will read without prejudice a manuscript submitted to them by the winner in the poetry category.

Entries should be sent to Over The Edge, New Writer of the Year competition, 3 Carbry Road, Newcastle, Galway, Ireland with an accompanying SAE. Entries will be judged anonymously, so do not put your name on your poem(s) or story. Put your contact details on a separate sheet.

Criteria: fiction of up to three thousand words, three poems of up to forty lines, or one poem of up to one hundred lines. Multiple entries are acceptable but each must be accompanied by a fee. The fee for one entry is €10. The fee for multiple entries is €7.50 per entry e.g. two entries will cost €15, three entries €22.50 and so on. Fee payable by cheque or money order to Over The Edge. To take part you must be at least sixteen years old by September 1st 2010 and not have a book published or accepted for publication in that genre. Chapbooks excepted. Entries must not have been previously published or be currently entered in any other competition.

The closing date is Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010. A longlist will be announced in Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010. A shortlist will be announced at the Over The Edge: Open Reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, August 26th. The winners will be announced at the Over The Edge reading in Galway City Library on Thursday, September 30th, 2010.

This year’s competition judge is James Martyn. James is from Galway where he is a member of The Talking Stick Writing Workshop. James writes both fiction and poetry. He has had work broadcast on both RTE and BBC and won the Listowel Writers Week Originals Short Story Competition. His work has appeared in The Cúirt Journal, West 47, Books Ireland, Crannóg, TheSunday Tribune, The Stinging Fly and The Shop. He was shortlisted for a Hennessy Award in 2006. He was shortlisted for the Francis McManus award in both 2007 and 2008 and for The William Trevor International Short Story Competition in 2007. His first collection of poetry, Shedding Skin, has just been published by Arlen House.

For further details contact Over The Edge on 087-6431748, e-mail

over-the-edge-openreadings@hotmail.com

White House Poetry, 10th Feb 2010

What: Poetry reading with special guest poet Robin Parmar

When: Wednesday, 10th February 2010, 9.30pm

Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

After an excellent night with Mark Whelan, in which the crowd were treated to something very different to the usual, we welcome Robin Parmar, originally from Canada and now settled in limerick, next to the reading series. Here's a little bit about Robin, and a link to his website should anyone want to check out some of the projects he is involved with.

Robin Parmar is a composer, sound artist, writer, designer, curator, theorist and photographer. Recent credits include a paper on Doctor Who (Cardiff, Wales), the performance of "The Absence of Baudrillard" at "Die Gegenwart Von Jean Baudrillard" (Mainz, Germany), the premiere of the soundscape composition "The Garden Of Adumbrations" (Limerick, Ireland) and a chapter in the book "Framemakers: Choreography As An Aesthetics Of Change". His poetry has been published in Australia, Ireland and Canada. Robin was invited guest to the Brighton Poetry & Book Festival 2005 and was on the Irish team for the Hammer & Tongue International Slam Competition in Oxford. He was joint-editor for two anthologies and co-authored a study on hypertext fiction.

To find out more about Robin go to http://robinparmar.com/

As ever the night will be complete with the open-mic reading, for all and everyone. If you feel like reading, please do - we want to hear! If you come to listen then that's just fine too.

Admittance to the event is of course free, and compliments of the White House proprietor, finger food shall be provided.

Hope to see you all there - it promises to be a great night!!

What: Poetry reading with special guest Mark Whelan
When: Wednesday, 3rd January, 2010, 9.30pm
Where: The White House pub, O'Connell Street, Limerick

This week the White House welcomes Mark Whelan as its guest poet and the evening will be something very different to the typical reading, as Mark will be musically accompanied by friend and well-known White House personality Gerry. The night will of course be complete as always with the open-mic reading, to which all are encouraged to contribute.

Mark has been a tireless promoter of poetry in Limerick for many years, reviving The Stony Thursday Book founded by John Liddy and Jim Burke, of which he was editor for four issues. He was also instrumental in the establishment of what has become Cuisle Limerick City International Poetry Festival, which takes place in Limerick every October and has drawn some of the finest national and international writers, including American Poet Laureattes and Pulitzer Prize winners. Mark is an active Committee member since its inception.

He is author id two collection - Scarecrow Dyptich (2003), illustrated by artist and Aosdana member John Shinnors, and Always Pushing the Pull Door (2008), working with artist Thomas Delohery, and which is published by Limerick's own Revival Press, run by another tireless promoter of poetry in Limerick, Dominic Taylor.

He has read his work at many literary festivals, including Brighton and Murcia, and selections of Mark's work have been translated into Farsi, Spanish and French.

As always, admission to the event is free and complimentary finger food is provided by the White House. Hope to see you there for what will certainly be an evening to remember!!!