Festival is promising to bring poetry into motion on internet

Stanza, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, is set to go live with its online format this weekend.

The annual St Andrewsbased celebration of poetry, due to open tomorrow, will take the form of a digital festival for the first time due to Covid-19, with dozens of local, national and international poets taking part in the festival over nine days

Stanza 2021 will open with a first night extravaganza showcasing a selection of poems, film, art and music with readings from Saili Katebe and Jane Longhurst as well as music from folk singer, songwriter and ukulele player Claire Hastings.

This year’s programme features talent including Naomi Shihab Nye, winner of the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Book Critics Circle, Raymond Antrobus, winner of the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry in 2019 and poet, playwright and translator Sasha Dugdale, a previous winner of the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem.

Renowned poet Roger Mcgough will also host a special event for children, Poetry Pie.

Mcgough is known and loved for his playful and witty poems, as well as for bringing poetry to the nation with Poetry, Please.

They will be joined by Imtiaz Dharker, winner of the Queen’s Gold Medal along with Desree, Tim Liardet, Maria Stepanova, Rab Wilson, Valzhyna Mort and Christopher Whyte.

Festival director Eleanor Livingstone said: “We are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm with which people have embraced our new online format and delighted that we are able to deliver a festival despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

“Stanza will of course be very different to previous years but we have stayed true to our usual format and look forward to bringing festival favourites such as readings, round tables and open mic events, along with a virtual festival cafe, to audiences via our online platform.”

Other poets on the Stanza programme include Jonathan Edwards, Jennifer Wong, Inua Ellams, Nabin K Chhetri and many more.

Over nine days the festival will celebrate live poetry online around this year’s two themes ‘Make It New’ and ‘No Rhyme nor Reason’. The programme will also include a series of installations which can be enjoyed by those with little or no access to the internet.

All the details are available via the festival website stanzapoetry.org

Roger Mcgough will also host a special event for children

Poetry festival director Eleanor Livingstone.