StAnza is celebrating its 21st festival with an ambitious programme.
Opening on Wednesday March 7 Scotland’s International Poetry Festival gets under way with Fife singer-songwriter and Olivier Award winning actress Barbara Dickson.
It traditionally opens with a show stopping first night performance and this year is no exception, celebrating 20 years since the first event back in 1998 and featuring a selection of headline poets reading and performing, intertwined with music, film and art.
Taking part in the St Andrews festival, which runs until March 11, are former Belfast Poet Laureate Sinéad Morrissey, Scottish poet and jazz musician Don Paterson, Gillian Allnutt, Tara Bergin and up and coming Scottish poet William Letford.
Festival Director Eleanor Livingstone said: “We’re thrilled to be opening StAnza’s 2018 festival this week.
“It’s always an exciting time for us as we prepare to welcome the world to Fife to share our love of poetry and celebrate the spoken word in all its forms.
“This year’s ambitious programme demonstrates the incredible talent within the poetry world.
“From our headline acts to some of the newest voices on the stage, our line-up is a vibrant and exciting mix of performance poets and artists who will no doubt make our 21st year, a year to remember.”
Over five days St Andrews comes alive to celebrate live poetry in all its forms around this year’s two themes, Borderlines and The Self.
Another highlight for 2018 will be a focus on languages of the Netherlands and Flanders under the title Going Dutch.
StAnza is also part of Scotland’s Year of Young People with his year’s children’s programme featuring Scotland’s former Makar, Liz Lochhead sharing her favourite poems.
Paul Bush, director of events at EventScotland, said it had been a pleasure to watch StAnza develop into a cornerstone of its cultural events calendar.
“We are looking forward to another exceptional line-up of local, national and international poets helping to reaffirm Scotland’s position as the perfect stage for events as part of this world-class festival,” he added.