Since it began as a small gathering of poets and poetry lovers in St Andrews in 1998, the StAnza festival has gone from strength to strength. Preparing for its return this week, festival director Eleanor Livingstone describes its efforts to engage with new audiences.
“How we have always seen it is our audience comes in different shapes and forms. We have a dedicated poetry audience, but we also have a broader audience interested in arts events generally. Beyond that, we feel we might be able to reach people who wouldn’t have thought to come in the first place and food and drink is an excellent way to do this.”
Based in Fife and a graduate of St Andrews University, Eleanor is a poet, reviewer and editor in her own right and had work published in the UK, Ireland, Lithuania and the USA. Her publications include The Last King of Fife (2005), A Sampler (2008) and, last year, her latest book Even the Sea was shortlisted for the London New Poetry Award.
“That was a great experience, and my book was the only one to have a Scottish connection. I attended the announcement in London and, in November, I was invited to go back down and take part in a reading with all the shortlisted poets. It was quite a year. The book’s actually sold out and it’s going to a second printing, which is rather nice.”
The experience was not only invaluable for Eleanor as a writer, but also as director of StAnza, because she was able to hear other poets read. As a result, the winner of the London New Poetry Award Carrie Etter is coming to St Andrews along with Katrina Naomi, who was shortlisted for the prize.
Headline poets of the 14th annual event include Selima Hill, Marilyn Hacker, Paul Farley and Fiona Sampson. The legendary Bob Holman will be giving tips on how to slam New York-style, and the ever-popular Julia Donaldson is heading up the children’s programme.
To mark the centenary of the great Scottish Gaelic poet Sorley MacLean (Somhairle MacGill-Eain) there will be a range of themed events, including readings by StAnza’s first-ever Gaelic poet in residence Myles Campbell (Maoilios Caimbeul) and a concert in partnership with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra featuring new settings for some of MacLean’s poems.
“We always have Gaelic poets at StAnza but, this year, there is a real focus because of the Sorley MacLean centenary,” Eleanor continues. “We are quite fortunate in that these are some of the first events to mark the beginning of the year of celebrations. While we know there will be many events certainly within the Gaelic community we wanted to spread awareness of MacLean’s work to a wider audience.
“We collaborated with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and held a competition for young composers under 30 across the UK to compose new settings for three of Sorley MacLean’s poems. Our winners came from Cambridge, Leeds and Edinburgh and the pieces will be premiered at the concert.”
There will be early-evening open mic slots, events to showcase new talent along with workshops, exhibitions and talks over the course of the five-day festival.StAnza runs from March 16-20. For more information, visit www.stanzapoetry.orgPhoto by Flickr user Cast a Line.
“StAnza festival has always prided itself on being friendly and open and we deliberately don’t have a room where we keep the poets separate we very much encourage them to mix so people get the chance to talk to them.”
It’s an approach that underlines Eleanor’s commitment to the audience.
“A festival is about people enjoying themselves. When times are hard, there is even more need to have opportunities for people to step aside from their worries. The arts can offer more than just surface enjoyment. They also give some kind of interest and resource to take away and enjoy.”
Eleanor has been involved with the StAnza committee since 2003, becoming artistic director in 2005. Last year, she took over as festival director, after poet and founder member Brian Johnstone stepped down after a decade in the role.
Since then, there has been a bit of restructuring, with Eleanor keeping her old duties and taking on some new ones, too!
“We have adjusted things slightly as I am not giving up the role of artistic director yet. When it was Brian and me together, my responsibility was for the content of the programme choosing and inviting poets and working out events whereas Brian was responsible for the practical arrangements for venues, accommodation and travel, etc. I am now doing that, too, and we’ve got an administrative assistant to help out. I haven’t given up the artistic remit as yet, but I can see the day coming when I will!”
StAnza has been working alongside Event Scotland as part of its campaign Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink, which was launched in March 2010.
“We’ve got more than a dozen events with an enhanced food and drink element some are completely new and others we’ve had before, but have built on them,” Eleanor adds. “This means I have had to source all kinds of quality local and seasonal food and drink, and I won’t say that wasn’t nice! It was interesting and something very new for me.”
According to Eleanor, these kinds of partnerships could become more common to help the festival appeal to a wider range of people.
Continued…
“StAnza festival has always prided itself on being friendly and open and we deliberately don’t have a room where we keep the poets separate we very much encourage them to mix so people get the chance to talk to them.”
It’s an approach that underlines Eleanor’s commitment to the audience.
“A festival is about people enjoying themselves. When times are hard, there is even more need to have opportunities for people to step aside from their worries. The arts can offer more than just surface enjoyment. They also give some kind of interest and resource to take away and enjoy.”
Eleanor has been involved with the StAnza committee since 2003, becoming artistic director in 2005. Last year, she took over as festival director, after poet and founder member Brian Johnstone stepped down after a decade in the role.
Since then, there has been a bit of restructuring, with Eleanor keeping her old duties and taking on some new ones, too!
“We have adjusted things slightly as I am not giving up the role of artistic director yet. When it was Brian and me together, my responsibility was for the content of the programme choosing and inviting poets and working out events whereas Brian was responsible for the practical arrangements for venues, accommodation and travel, etc. I am now doing that, too, and we’ve got an administrative assistant to help out. I haven’t given up the artistic remit as yet, but I can see the day coming when I will!”
StAnza has been working alongside Event Scotland as part of its campaign Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink, which was launched in March 2010.
“We’ve got more than a dozen events with an enhanced food and drink element some are completely new and others we’ve had before, but have built on them,” Eleanor adds. “This means I have had to source all kinds of quality local and seasonal food and drink, and I won’t say that wasn’t nice! It was interesting and something very new for me.”
According to Eleanor, these kinds of partnerships could become more common to help the festival appeal to a wider range of people.
Continued…
“StAnza festival has always prided itself on being friendly and open and we deliberately don’t have a room where we keep the poets separate we very much encourage them to mix so people get the chance to talk to them.”
It’s an approach that underlines Eleanor’s commitment to the audience.
“A festival is about people enjoying themselves. When times are hard, there is even more need to have opportunities for people to step aside from their worries. The arts can offer more than just surface enjoyment. They also give some kind of interest and resource to take away and enjoy.”
Eleanor has been involved with the StAnza committee since 2003, becoming artistic director in 2005. Last year, she took over as festival director, after poet and founder member Brian Johnstone stepped down after a decade in the role.
Since then, there has been a bit of restructuring, with Eleanor keeping her old duties and taking on some new ones, too!
“We have adjusted things slightly as I am not giving up the role of artistic director yet. When it was Brian and me together, my responsibility was for the content of the programme choosing and inviting poets and working out events whereas Brian was responsible for the practical arrangements for venues, accommodation and travel, etc. I am now doing that, too, and we’ve got an administrative assistant to help out. I haven’t given up the artistic remit as yet, but I can see the day coming when I will!”
StAnza has been working alongside Event Scotland as part of its campaign Scotland’s Year of Food and Drink, which was launched in March 2010.
“We’ve got more than a dozen events with an enhanced food and drink element some are completely new and others we’ve had before, but have built on them,” Eleanor adds. “This means I have had to source all kinds of quality local and seasonal food and drink, and I won’t say that wasn’t nice! It was interesting and something very new for me.”
According to Eleanor, these kinds of partnerships could become more common to help the festival appeal to a wider range of people.
Continued…