]Good morning, and my very best wishes for 2021. I hope it proves kinder to us all than the year just past. January has opened here with several days of sunshine, which has been encouraging, and I hope you‰’ve enjoyed the same wherever you are.  As we begin this new year in these difficult times, I thank each and every one of you for your continued interest and support in StAnza which is always encouraging and very welcome.
 
This is not my usual January email about our festival tickets going on sale. Most of StAnza 2021 – and given how things are at present, quite possibly all of StAnza 2021 – will take place online. All the online exhibitions, installations, games, films and digital and sound installations will be free and un-ticketed, as will many events, and the good news is that you will not need to book tickets for these, just make sure you put them in your diary and’turn up‰’ at Tickets for Zoom Workshops and Round Table events, our only paid/ticketed events for 2021, as well as tickets for other Zoom events will be available early in February, and of course I‰’ll let you know in plenty of time to book these.
 
We have provisionally programmed a few in-person outdoor events, and a few actual exhibitions, and have hoped additionally to be able to stream lots of the free online events to small and socially distanced live audiences in our usual hub venue at the Byre Theatre. Of course this all
depend on Covid-19 regulations and it’s not possible to know how things will be in March. Accordingly tickets for these in-person and outdoor events and exhibitions will only be available later in February when it‰’s clearer whether it will be possible for these to take place. However, almost all of them will also have an online version, ensuring you can enjoy them virtually in any event.
 
You can find more information about ticket sales online at https://stanzapoetry.org/how-book
 
Meantime, even though ticket sales are postponed one other important deadline will come round much sooner this year, in only a few weeks‰’ time, and that‰’s for submissions to this year‰’s Masterclass led by Colette Bryce.
 
The Masterclass submission deadline this year is 20 January. This is to allow a Zoom session to take place in mid-February with Colette Bryce and those whose poems have been chosen, at which she will comment on the poems in a virtual’round table‰’ discussion with the selected poets.  This discussion will be recorded and screened free online during the festival on Sunday 7 March, followed immediately by a live Zoom public discussion.
 
You can find all the information you need about how to submit online here at the 2021 Masterclass listing page. https://stanzapoetry.org/festival/events/stanza-masterclass-5