Kevin Lavelle Over the Edge New Writer of the Year

national | arts and media | press release Saturday September 01, 2007 19:03 by Over The Edge

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

The winner of the inaugural Over the Edge New Writer of the Year competition is Kevin Lavelle, from Barna, County Galway, for his story Bury Me In The Garden. The winning story will appear in the Oct.-Dec. issue of the Galway Arts Centre's journal, West 47 online. Kevin will be a featured reader at the November 22nd, all-fiction Over the Edge: Open Reading.

Second place was taken by poet Cate Huguelet, while joint third place went to fiction writers Aidan Hynes and Claire Anderson-Wheeler.

A short-list of eight was chosen from the long-list of sixteen.

The short-listed writers were

Claire Anderson-Wheeler, Paris, France
Megan Buckley, Galway City
Paul Duffy, Dublin
Cate Huguelet, Cork City
Aidan Hynes, Dublin
Kevin Lavelle, Galway County
Alan McMonagle, Galway City
Grace Wells, County Tipperary

The writers who made the long-list were

Claire Anderson-Wheeler, Paris, France
Megan Buckley, Galway City
Evan Costigan, Co. Kildare
Philip Crymble, County Dublin
Paul Duffy, Dublin
Vincent Flannery, County Galway
Aideen Henry, Galway City
Cate Huguelet, Cork City
Aidan Hynes, Dublin
Maureen Kelly, County Galway
Miceál Kearney, County Galway
Kevin Lavelle, County Galway
Alan McMonagle, Galway City
J.K. Morrissey, Dun Laoghaire
Neil Ward, Dublin
Grace Wells, County Tipperary

The winner was announced at the first Over The Edge: Open Reading after the Summer break in Galway City Library this Thursday, August 30th, 6.30pm.

The competition judge was Alan Jude Moore, a Featured Reader at the reading on Thursday. His reading was sponsored by Poetry Ireland. The other Featured Readers were Margaret Faherty and Tom Lavelle.

The competition was a great success, yielding 116 submissions. We're very grateful to the contestants, our judge and Charlie Byrne's bookshop for their sponsorship.