STANZA: SCOTLAND'S POETRY FESTIVAL

The only regular festival dedicated to poetry in Scotland, StAnza is international in outlook.

Founded in 1998, it is held each March in St Andrews, Scotland's oldest university town.

The festival is an opportunity to engage with a wide variety of poetry, to hear world class poets reading in exciting and atmospheric venues, to experience a range of performances where music, film, dance and poetry work in harmony, to view exhibitions linking poetry with visual art and to discover the part poetry has played in the lives of a diverse range of writers,musicians and media personalities. The simple intention of StAnza is to celebrate poetry in all its many forms.

Each festival focuses on two themes which weave around each other to give every StAnza its own unique flavour.

In the first, mindful of the famous Valéry quote that ‘a poem is never finished…’, the focus will be on poetry as a creative process, including editing, translation, collection, selection and collaboration in traditional and experimental poetics, as well as poetry engaged with the unfinished business of daily life.

The second theme embraces poetry which is coastal, tidal and ‘insular’, while also considering how as poets and festivals or organisations, we exist not only as individual islands, but rather as part of an Archipelago of Poetry.

Where? St Andrews, Fife, Scotland

When? 2 - 6 March, 2016

Who? 2016- 60 poets from around the world, including:

Pascale Petit
Don Paterson
Lemn Sissay
Nora Gomringer
Jane Yolen
Thomas Lynch
Jo Bell
Jo Shapcott
Matthew Sweeney
Sean O'Brien
Andrew McMillan
Fiona Benson
John Burnside

Venues? The Byre Theatre – Auditorium, Studio Theatre, Conference Room and foyers, St John’s Undercroft, Parliament Hall, St Mary's Hall, The Town Hall - Supper Room & Council Chamber, The Public Library, the Preservation Trust Museum, The Green Room, Zest, Fraser Gallery and others to be announced

How much? Some free other £2 -£8

Website; Festival Website for full programme

Twitter? @StAnzaPoetry

Facebook? https://www.facebook.com/stanzapoetry

Past Festivals? Established 1998

Themes for StAnza 2015 was Unfinished Business, and an Archipelago of Poetry.- Simon Armitage-Sinéad Morrissey - Carolyn Forché- Bill Manhire- Alice Notley- Ian Duhig- Helen Mort- Ilya Kaminsky

2014 - Full 2014 Programme

Headline poets the UK’s Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, making a very welcome return after five years, and Paul Muldoon in his very first appearance at StAnza. Other headliners include John Burnside, Brian Turner, Tishani Doshi, Sujata Bhatt and Menna Elfyn, and Carol Ann will be performing with her regular stage partner, musician John Sampson. Also taking part will be poets from the Netherlands, Croatia, the US, and from Scotland and across the UK, as well as visual artists, musicians, actors, film-makers and other writers.

Liz Lochead, Gillian Clarke, Se an Borodale, Ron Butlin and many more 2013 Programme

John Akpata | Moniza Alvi | Tiffany Atkinson | John Bellany | Jill Bennett | Mary Bergin | Jay Bernard | Tony Bonning | Colette Bryce | Al Buntin | Elizabeth Burns | John Burnside Kevin Cadwallender | Catriona Lexy Campbell | Moya Cannon | Brigid Collins | Swithun Cooper | Elizabeth Cordiner | Anna Crowe | Cahal Dallat | Christine De Luca | Dordán | Dry Island Buffalo Jump | Douglas Dunn | Vicki Feaver | Kate Fox | Anne-Marie Fyfe | Eddie Gibbons | John Glenday | Jen Hadfield | Stephen Halliwell | Seamus Heaney | Richard Ingham | Paula Jennings | Linton Kwesi Johnson | Brian Johnstone | Julie Johnstone | Emma Jones | Frank Kuppner | Grevel Lindop | Gerry Loose | Kathleen Loughnane | Rob A. Mackenzie | Lewis MacKinnon | Valerio Magrelli | Louise Major | Peter McCarey | Gordon McInnes | Angela McSeveney | Kei Miller | Edwin Morgan | Esther Morgan | Chloe Morrish | Luis Muñoz | Alistair Noon | Dennis O'Driscoll | Rachel Pantechnicon | Past Poets | Don Paterson | Mario Petrucci | Poetry Theatre Actors | Jacob Polley | Tom Pow | Phiona Richards | Dr Louise Richardson | Monika Rinck | Sam Riviere | Victor Rodriguez Núñez | Susan Rosser| Rebecca Seiferle | Lise Sinclair | Karen Solie | Jean Sprackland | Dearbhaill Standún | Alexander Stoddart | Will Stone | Mario Susko | Alix Swan | Matthew Sweeney | Trio Verso | Andreas Unterweger | Tony Ward | Hamish Whyte | Colin Will | Christie Williamson Ian Rankin, Helen Dunmore, Dilys Rose, Sophie Hannah, Alan Gillis, , Bill Manhire, Jay Parini, Alan Riach, Patience Agbabi, Simon Armitage, Neil Astley, Elisa Biagini, Jenny Bornholdt, Ros Brackenbury, David Campbell, Stuart B Campbell, Kate Clanchy, Thomas A Clark, Julia Copus, Robert Crawford, Carol Ann Duffy, Cralan Kelder, Kerry Shawn Keys, Roddy Lumsden, Màrtainn Mac an t-Saoir / Martin MacIntyre, Elvis McGonagall, Hamis Whyte, Ben Wilkinson, Nancy Somerville