(Bill Manhire)
StAnza officially came of age in 2015, and we partied in the eighteenth year of the festival in style. The opening night was just one case in point, with audience members mingling – and dancing! – with Dylan Thomas and ee cummings on the stage of the Byre Theatre. Over the following four days more than a hundred poets, artists and musicians filled the streets and stages of St Andrews.
From intimate readings in the Fraser Gallery via a lyrical journey with Ryan van Winkle and Dan Gorman in the confines of the Byre’s Box to poetry coasters in cafes throughout the town: we endeavoured to fill every nook of the town with poetry – and we think we came close to succeeding… (Reports that reworking poems became a topic discussed in the ladies’ toilets certainly gave us the sense of a task well done!) And in case good food, good company and good poetry became too much for anyone, we were delighted to have the Emergency Poet on hand, with all kinds of rhyming remedies.
The success of the festival can perhaps be judged the fact that everyone had their own favourites – but a few of these might include: Carolyn Forché’s moving reading of her poetry of witness; Toby Campion’s glorious lambasting of train announcements in our opening Poetry Café of the festival; and Kei Miller’s lively performance at our Saturday Poetry Centre Stage. And that’s without mentioning the wealth of exhibitions, workshops, digital installations…
We’re thrilled to be able to present a gallery of photographs to recapture the atmosphere of the festival. (Thanks to our wonderful team of photographers for this!) And there are also links to reviews and more – as well as the text of Glyn Maxwell’s witty ode to the stanza (yes, stanza, not StAnza!) from the festival’s annual lecture. Whether these bring back favourite memories or give you a taste of the festival for next year, we hope you enjoy!
2015 Gallery
2015 Videos, Podcasts and Installation PDFs
StAnza 2015 opening night video by Alistair Kerr
Podcast of Alice Notley Round Table In Conversation event
PDF version of digital installation An Archipelago of Poems
PDF version of digital installation Bridging the Time Divide
2015 Lecture
The Stanza, by Glyn Maxwell.pdf [PDF]
2015 Reviews and Interviews
Some of the online articles and blogs:
The inspiring StAnza poetry festival: The Scotsman review by Susan Mansfield
Review of StAnza 2015: Scotsman review by Susan Mansfield
Why we need more poetry events like StAnza, by Charlotte Runcie in The List
StAnza 2015 Information
StAnza 2015 took place from 4-8 March, 2015
2015 Festival Themes
Each festival focuses on two themes which weave around each other to give every StAnza its own unique flavour.
Our themes for StAnza 2015 were Unfinished Business, and an Archipelago of Poetry.
In the first, mindful of the famous Valéry quote that ‘a poem is never finished…’, we focused 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.
For our second theme we embraced 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.
2015 Headline Poets
Simon Armitage
Christine De Luca
Ian Duhig
Paul Durcan
Carolyn Forché
Ilya Kaminsky
Bill Manhire
Glyn Maxwell
Kei Miller
Sinéad Morrissey
Alice Notley
Sheenagh Pugh
Anne Stevenson
2015 Participants
Funding for 2015
StAnza 2015 was funded by Creative Scotland, Fife Council and EventScotland.