Organisers of the StAnza poetry festival have unveiled some of the headline acts for next year’s event in St Andrews.
Each year, the event attracts poets from around the globe to the historic Fife town.
This year is no exception with award-winning Jamaican poet and essayist, Ishion Hutchinson, confirmed to be on the programme.
Also appearing will be Pakistan-born Scottish poet, artist and film-maker Imtiaz Dharker, who was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for poetry in 2014.
Welsh poet, playwright, columnist, and editor Menna Elfyn has also been confirmed as one of the performers, along with Caroline Bird, who was last year shortlisted for both the TS Eliot Award and the Ted Hughes Award.
As usual, there will be a host of talent from Scotland and elsewhere in the UK.
Next year’s event takes place from Wednesday March 6 to Sunday March 10 at venues across the town.
StAnza festival director Eleanor Livingstone said: “It is fantastic to be revealing such a diverse and talented line-up of headline acts, creating a programme which is fresh and diverse for next year’s festival.
“We look forward to revealing further details of our exciting 2019 programme over the coming months.”
Mairi Kidd, interim head of literature, languages and publishing at Creative Scotland, added: “StAnza’s strong programming has won it a place at the forefront of Europe’s contemporary poetry scene, bringing poets from all across the world together with well-loved and emerging Scottish voices for a hugely exciting festival with cultural exchange at its heart.”
She said that next year’s themes of Off the Page and Another Place “perfectly capture what makes StAnza special”, adding: “Live literature is hugely powerful way of bringing people together and StAnza has really taken that role to heart.”
StAnza traditionally focuses on two themes. Next year’s themes are Off the Page and Another Place.
Dozens of poets will be taking part in StAnza, along with musicians, visual artists and filmmakers.
