Belfast writer Danny Morrison for Over the Edge reading

Danny Morrison, John Valters Paintner and Scotty Ishmael are the featured writers in this month’s Over the Edge Open Reading which will take place in Galway City Library next Thursday, February 25, from 6.30-6.30pm

Danny Morrison, a former National Director of Publicity for Sinn Féin and one-time Republican political prisoner, lives in Belfast. He is the author of four novels, the most recent of which is Rudi – In The Shadow of Knulp (2012). The others are 1997’s The Wrong Man, 1994’s On the Back of Swallows, and West Belfast (1989).

Morrison’s work also includes a prison journal/letter collection – Then The Walls Came Down from 1999. There’s a memoir – All The Dead Voices from 2002; a play – The Wrong Man (2005); and he wrote some scenes for the 1998 play Binlids. In addition, he has penned a collection of political writings – Rebel Columns – and edited a literary anthology – Hunger Strike: Reflections on the 1981 Hunger Strike (2006).

Morrison’s short stories have appeared in a number of publications and have been broadcast on BBC, RTÉ and Lyric FM. He is currently working on a fifth novel, provisionally-titled Band On The Run, and a play, The Mental.

As well as being a writer, he is the secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust and was for many years, until 2014, chairperson of Féile an Phobail, the community festival founded in West Belfast in 1988.

American-born Scotty Ishmael is a full-time restaurateur and part-time writer of fiction and short stories. He has owned and operated Scotty’s in Galway City since 1991 with his wife Jenny.

John Valters Paintner was born in Sacramento, California. After completing his degree in education and theology, John taught in the States for 12 years. Taking part in a film-making course at Washington’s Seattle Film Institute reignited his passion for writing and storytelling.

John, who now lives in Galway City with his wife Christine, has completed a screen writing course at NUIG and several Over the Edge courses. His work appeared in Pukka Print Magazine’s inaugural issue. John writes short plays for The Theatre Room, Galway where he won the Best Original Writing award.

As usual there will be an open-mic after the featured readers have finished. New readers are always particularly welcome. The MC for the evening will be Susan Millar DuMars. For further details phone 087-6431748.