The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Poet patter:
Stanza
When visitors come to a quality and well-run festival, its smooth operation can seem almost seamless to the point where audiences may take it for granted. But laying on a series of daily events, exhibitions and installations in one location is a complex and fluid beast that requires detailed planning not far short of a military campaign.
For Stanza (Scotland’s International Poetry Festival) and its festival director Eleanor Livingstone, it’s all about establishing solid foundations: “The first challenge we face every year is getting funding and venues in place, as without these, nothing is possible. Beyond that, we want to make each year’s festival challenging and innovative but to deliver a festival that our regular visitors will trust and that is enjoyable for them.
“At Stanza, what helps us is having themes and a focus. That gives us a scaffolding to create a new festival each year. There’s always more poets we’d like to invite but having themes and a focus helps to concentrate our mind on who will work best in that context.”
And so for 2020, the themes come under the umbrellas of Coast Lines and Due North, and wonder, respectively, how culture is influenced by and engages with the seas and rivers, and why the north has long been a place of fascination by celebrating poetry from the most northerly parts of Scotland and beyond. Among the events tackling those dual themes are those on the Berlin waterways, sea poetry from Tentsmuir, a coastal writing workshop, a digital installation from Shetland, and verse from North Uist.
Meanwhile, big names and rising stars of poetry are converging on St Andrews in their handfuls including Luke Wright, Birdspeed, Wendy Cope, Michael Longley, Sabrina Mahfouz, Daisy Lafarge, Jay Bernard and Jen Hadfield, while there’s also a tribute to folk revivalist Hamish Henderson, a Gaelic writers showcase, and a typically strong programme for children.
Eleanor said: “Poetry festivals are a way to keep people who are already interested and give them new ways of engaging while at the same time attracting new audiences. We aim to deliver a festival which is exciting and diverse but also inclusive.”
The world of poetry seems to be thriving in this often fractured world, and Eleanor is keen for it to carry on in that upward trajectory.
She added: “Poetry is dynamic and reaching new audiences at the moment, but the challenge is always that there’s enough support for poetry which is not in itself an artform that can generate its own income.
“It is very dependent on support from funders and private and public money, so finding a way to make it less so would be an improvement.”