Stanza

StAnza International Poetry Festival 2012 - round-up

Events at St Andrews festival encourage debate across artforms

23 Mar 2012

One of the two themes for this year’s StAnza International Poetry Festival in St Andrews was The Image, and on the last day of the festival this theme was pushed in very different directions to explore poetry’s relationship with classic film…

StAnza 2012 international poetry festival opens

Opening event explores Philip Larkin's relationship with jazz

16 Mar 2012

Stanza, the St Andrews-based international poetry festival, has opened its doors for the fifteenth year, bringing together poetry, art and music leavened with learning, humour and good performances. Having earned a reputation for tight adherence to…

StAnza 2012 international poetry festival highlights

Appearances include Jackie Kay and Joe Dunthorne

28 Feb 2012

It always helps a festival event to have some kind of theme in order to bring together many different strands and give the whole shebang a proper focus. Perhaps spoilt for choice, the organisers of StAnza (aka Scotland’s Poetry festival) have gone for…

StAnza 2011 - Kevin Young and Gawain Douglas

International poetry guests and a reading of a 20th century classic

7 Apr 2011

One of the international visitors to the 14th edition of the Stanza Poetry festival in St Andrews was Kevin Young, hailing from Georgia, US. His five published collections often take history and blues music as themes, but for this appearance he read…

StAnza 2011 – Festival round up

14th annual poetry festival combines both major and emerging talents

31 Mar 2011

The StAnza International Poetry Festival 2011, now in its fourteenth year, gathered together an array of major and emerging talents. The themes were Timepiece and The Poet’s Ark. Both themes which encompass history and community, and the sense of…

StAnza 2011 - New poetry showcases impress

New Poets Showcase and New Writing North Showcase

31 Mar 2011

Emerging poets had a chance to impress at Stanza 2011 with at the New Poets Showcase and New Writing North Showcase. Both of these small intimate readings provided a wonderful introduction to some inspiring and talented poets, many of whom we will…

StAnza 2011 poetry festival launches

US poet Kevin Young among programme highlights

17 Mar 2011

The five day StAnza poetry festival opened in St Andrews yesterday, launching its varied programme of verse, art and music. Always a luminous affair amid the dreich days of March, the festival, now in its 13th year, brings poetic talent from all over…

StAnza 2010 - An evening with Seamus Heaney

22 Mar 2010

Tickets for the highlight event of this years St Andrews poetry festival - StAnza - had been sold out for weeks, for Heaney has struck a populist chord with that minority group – poetry lovers. Ever since his first major collection in 1966 The Death of…

StAnza 2010 - Kei Miller interview

25 Feb 2010

In the historic surroundings of St Andrews resides one of the most interesting events in the literary calendar. The unassuming programme for StAnza sets out the expected author events, the star names like Seamus Heaney, the technique-polishing workshops…

StAnza 2010 Poetry Festival Programme Launch

20 Jan 2010

Ahead of the five-day event in March, StAnza’s poet-in-residence Kei Miller (pictured) hosts the launch of the 2010 St Andrews programme. Among those appearing this year are Seamus Heaney, John Burnside, Jen Hadfield, Ben Okri and Linton Kwesi Johnson…

StAnza 2009 - Patience Agbabi and Carol Ann Duffy

24 Mar 2009

Two contrasting women poets with a fondness for the sonnet form electrified the audience at their prime time reading on Saturday night at StAnza. Patience Agbabi on her third visit to the festival read from her collection Bloodshot Monochrome…

StAnza 2009 - Poets of the Scottish Enlightenment and 18th Century Gaelteachd

24 Mar 2009

The complexity of the title and the juxtaposition therein were neatly represented in the two speakers, a St Andrews academic, Prof Robert Crawford and a Gallic speaking poet and actor, Angus Peter Campbell from the far west. Angus Peter Campbell was…

StAnza 2009 gets off to a fiery start as Robert burns

19 Mar 2009

The launch of StAnza on the evening 19th March in the Byre Theatre, St Andrews was attended by those from seven to seventy. Festival Director Brian Johnstone reminded us of the modest start of StAnza in 1998, the distant Scots diapora was represented by…

StAnza

19 Mar 2009

Scotland’s International Poetry Festival sets out its stall in St Andrews with the usual brew of literary genius. This year’s highlights include Ian Rankin (pictured), Helen Dunmore, Carol Ann Duffy and First Minister Alex Salmond. Byre Theatre…