StAnza will reflect year’s big events

THE WAIT finally ended for poetry enthusiasts yesterday evening with the official launch of StAnza 2014.

Friends of the festival were treated to a sneak preview of performances featuring in this year’s international poetry event, as well as being able to feast their eyes on the much anticipated 2014 brochure.

The launch took place in Edinburgh’s National Library of Scotland and featured poetry readings and music.

The annual festival, which this year takes place between March 5 to 9 in St Andrews, is part of Homecoming Scotland 2014, a Scottish Government initiative to celebrate all that is great about Scotland in the year that we host the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup.

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “StAnza 2014 is an important event on Scotland’s literary calendar and it will be all the more special in this, Scotland’s year of Homecoming.

“It is exciting to see the festival celebrate themes that reflect the major events that will take place across the country as part of this very unique year.

“From the Ryder Cup to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow; from Culture 2014 to the Edinburgh Festivals — StAnza 2014 will not only bring these events into focus but also demonstrate how poetry has the ability to engage and build excitement for Scotland’s moment to shine.”

This year’s programme is centred on the festival’s two themes; A CommonWealth of Poetry and Words under Fire.

Festival director Eleanor Livingstone said: “StAnza 2014 reflects the magnitude of this year, with our themes inspired by the Commonwealth Games coming to Glasgow and the hundredth anniversary ofWorldWar One.

“StAnza is delighted to be part of the Homecoming celebrations in a year that is set to be hugely exciting for Scotland. “We have strived to make this year’s festival a literary feast which will appeal to audiences across every spectrum and we look forward to officially launching our dynamic line-up of contemporary poets at the National Library of Scotland.”

StAnza 2014 will be headlined by acclaimed novelist and author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernières, who leads an impressive and varied line-up of poetry talent including John Burnside, poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, Tishani Doshi and Paul Muldoon who is making his first appearance at StAnza.

The festival this year is inspired by art, sport and poetry from across the Commonwealth, in Scotland’s second year of Homecoming, bringing together poets from places as far ranging as Jamaica, Botswana, India and South Africa.

Over five days there will be 99 events featuring 65 poets as well as musicians, writers, actors, visual artists, and, for the first time ever, acrobats.