New Reading Event in Cavan

Kate Ennals is the main organiser of a series of readings and open mics in Cavan with the aim of create a regular, popular, literary space in Cavan which is accessible and entertaining. There are numerous writers and poets, writers groups, and local workshops in Cavan, but there are few outlets for aspiring writers to read their material so following each of the readings will be an open mic session for local writers to perform their own material.

The inaugural session of At The Edge takes place on this Tuesday, 6 May 2014, in the Johnston Library, Farnham Road, Cavan  from 6.30 to 8pm. Each featured reader will read for 15 minutes and these will be followed by open mic readers.

Shane Connaughton, as a Cavan man, will open the proceedings. Shane was born in Kingscourt, and his teenage years were spent in Redhills where his father was the local garda sergeant. He has written screen plays, novels, memoir and short stories. His novel, A Border Station, (1989), deals with a boy’s relationship with his parents set along the Ulster border where his father is the local garda sergeant. Shane is also the author of The Run of the Country (1991) and Big Parts (2009).

Shane will be followed by June Caldwell. June worked for 13 years as a freelance journalist for the UK and Irish press. She has been shortlisted for the RTÉ Guide/Penguin Short Story Competition. In 2010 she received an Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) bursary for fiction. She is currently working on a collection of short stories themed around 'the city', and a novel set in the Blitz in Coventry and in 1980s Dublin.

I will be the third reader. This isn't the first time I've read at the library in Cavan. A couple of years ago some LitLab members read on a stage outside the library during the Fleadh Cheoil. RTE actually filmed some of us and Paddy Smith made the evening news reading one line (or was it two) of  The Old Woman of the Roads I think!

The following four events in the At The Edge series will take place on Tuesday 1st July, Tuesday 2nd September, Tuesday 4th November and Tuesday 2 December 2014.