Tickets are now on sale for the seven-day, hybrid StAnza poetry festival, Scotland’s annual international poetry festival, which will take place in March from its festival hub in St Andrews, Fife. StAnza runs from 7-13  March, with a line-up that includes internationally acclaimed poets from all over the world. The festival, titled Stories Like Starting Points, is part of Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022. The festival’s website says: “This will be Scotland’s ‘Year of Stories’: our festival will interpret that in the widest sense, and not only with narrative poets and artists. StAnza 2022 will explore the opportunities and the pitfalls of stories, ranging over narrative poetry, prose poetry, re-writing old stories and imagining new ones, reportage, process / chance narratives, myth /epic; there will be poets who contest the power of narrative or of stories conventionally told, and those who experiment with it.

“Over the coming years, Stanza aims to become an ‘intervention’ in poetry, which annually explores questions that are fundamental to the writing and reading of poetry and will engage poets and audiences alike.”

Last year the festival was digital. This year will combine a live festival with livestreamed events for those who are unable to attend in person. The festival includes readings, workshops, masterclasses, discussions, open-mics, and many other activities. Among the poets reading will be Scotland’s makar Kathleen Jamie, Robin Robertson, Vahni Capildeo, Emily Berry, Pascale Petit, Kayo Chingonyi, Stephen Sexton, Daniel Sluman, Paul Muldoon, Wayne Holloway Smith, Glyn Maxwell, Fiona Benson, Gregory Leadbetter, Andy Jackson, Bill Herbert, David Constantine, and Luke Kennard.

Other events include a poetry walking tour through St Andrews, and a spoken word and beatboxing performance. More details https://stanzapoetry.org/festival/whats-on/