St Andrews: Tickets on sale as Fife town prepares for Scotland's poetry festival

The full programme is now available online, and the box office at the Byre Threate is open for the much-anticipated event in St Andrews.

The seven-day, hybrid festival will launch with a Scottish poetry and music extravaganza, featuring artists and speakers from every corner of the country.

StAnza runs from March 7-13, with a line-up including internationally acclaimed poets from all over the world.

The festival, titled Stories Like Starting Points, is part of Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022, a year in which stories inspired by, created or written in Scotland will be showcased and celebrated.

Festival director Lucy Burnett said: “It’s so exciting to be only weeks away from welcoming the world to Fife to explore the widest diversity of poetry.

“We’re delighted StAnza is returning in full live format but with the addition of an online programme, all under the title Stories Like Starting Points.

“As part of Scotland’s Year of Stories, the festival will be exploring the role of narrative in contemporary work as we look to redefine StAnza as an intervention in poetry, which neither poets nor audiences feel that they can miss.”

Among the headline voices performing at the festival is winner of the prestigious Costa Book Prize, Hannah Lowe. She will be joined by Scotland’s national poet Kathleen Jamie, a previous winner of the Forward Prize, the Costa Prize and Scotland’s Book of the Year; and Luke Kennard, last year’s winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection.

Other poets performing include Vahni Capildeo, Mona Arshi, Ian Duhig, Testament, Nadine Aisha Jassaet, William Letford and J.O. Morgan.

The festival will feature over 150 poets and artists taking part in 110 events with a further 60 available online. The programme includes traditional StAnza favourites – Poetry Centre Stage, the StAnza Lecture, the Slam, Poetry Cafes and Past and Present.

In addition there will be a number of new events for 2022 including Dinner Dates: In Conversation, a Poetry Golf Workshop with Luke Kennard and Round the World events from StAnza’s pre-festival poetry tour.

StAnza is supported by EventScotland as part of the Year of Stories 2022 and by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland.

For updates and to buy tickets online, go to the StAnza website.

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