StAnza, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, has unveiled its line-up of talent for the 21st anniversary event in March.
For five days and nights from March 7 St Andrews promises to come alive with outstanding poetry in all its forms.
The annual festival will open with a special gala performance featuring readings and performances, intertwined with music, film and art.
Among the headliners appearing at next year’s showpiece is Sinéad Morrissey, who recently won the prestigious Forward Prize for Poetry and is a former Belfast Poet Laureate and T.S. Eliot prize winner.
She will be joined by former Scots Makar Liz Lochhead and Scottish poet and jazz musician Don Paterson, who will be in conversation with Marie-Elsa Bragg, daughter of Melvyn Bragg.
Also on the programme for 2018 is Gillian Allnutt, who was awarded The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry earlier this year; Tara Bergin, winner of the Seamus Heaney First Collection Prize in 2014; and up-and-coming Scottish poet William Letford.
Other names include Rachael Boast, who won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, Michael Symmons Roberts, a previous winner of the Forward Prize, the Costa Poetry Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award, and the controversial prize-winning South Korean poet Ko Un.
Festival director Eleanor Livingstone said: “We are thrilled to be launching the programme for StAnza 2018 which will be our 21st anniversary festival.
“To mark this hugely exciting milestone we will be adding a few twists to the usual favourites on our programme.
“StAnza 2018 will showcase some of the biggest names in the literary world alongside some of the newest and brightest talent to celebrate poetry in all its forms.”
More than 80 events including poetry, music, film and art — many of which are free — will be held in St Andrews across the five-day period.
The festival traditionally focuses on two themes which interweave to give each event a unique flavour.
Next year’s themes are ‘Borderlines’, which will examine how poetry can respond to, and engage with, a world connected through culture but divided on maps, while the second theme of ‘The Self’ will consider issues around the presence or absence of ‘The Self’ in poetry.
Another highlight for 2018 will be a focus on languages of the Netherlands under the title Going Dutch.
This will see Dutch, Flemish and Frisian speaking poets taking part along with other events with a Dutch connection.
StAnza is supported by Creative Scotland and EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
Alan Bett, literature officer for Creative Scotland, said: “StAnza has firmly established itself as amongst Europe’s leading showcases of contemporary poetry, celebrating Scotland’s most acclaimed poets and emerging talent, performing alongside their international counterparts.
“Scotland is a nation replete with literary talent and this year’s programme once again reflects this, offering a range of voices that includes William Letford, Liz Lochhead, Miriam Nash and Don Paterson.”
