Poetry seems to be turning up the temperature this winter to beat the cold. When Rob Mackenzie realised that the first Poetry at the ...   of 2010 was due to fall on Sunday 14^th February, his initial thought was to cancel, but his second better one was to commission a couple of dozen poets to produce a Valentine’s Day feast of new love poetry.

Originally Poetry at the Great Grog when it all began in a Rose Street bar a few years ago, since then Poetry at the... has not only presented a great range of poets but has also taken its regulars on a pub crawl around Edinburgh. During its recent sojurn in the kitsch gothic basement of the New Town’s ‘Jekyll and Hyde’, the readers were overseen by skeletal remains and dusty bottled potions in glass cases. Now Poetry at the … has pitched tent in ‘The GRV Bar’ in a dark Victorian close in the Old Town. Each session has three booked readers, and Rob now invites people to apply for several quickie three minute slots, so there’s plenty of variety and a nice democracy about it all. Though the welcome is warm, and it’s a nice bright venue inside, the heating at the GRV can be a bit on the chilly side, so over the winter months it’s a good idea to dress for the weather.

Before February’s love fest, Shore Poets’ programme for the new decade gets underway. Their regular sessions take place on the last Sunday of each month at The Lot in the Grassmarket where a relaxed mix of poetry, music and nibbles has seen the regular audience expand, and each month the famous Shore Poets lemon cake is raffled. Meantime across town at the Jazz Bar, Jenny Lindsay, former co-organiser of the Big Word, is starting up Is This Poetry, a new spoken word/performance poetry night. For the first session on 7^th February, she’s arranging a slam. It will be interesting to see if Jenny follows VoxBox, who last year tried out a range of alternative slams in Edinburgh, including for over fifties and sotto voce.

Another likely venue for poetry and spoken word is the Forest Café (pictured above), where they’re planning a Golden Hour tie-in with the city’s Carry a Poem project. Not surprisingly, the Scottish Poetry Library,  always movers and shakers in Edinburgh literary matters, are one of the partners in this. They also have their own programme of readings – John Hegley and Rab Wilson are early highlights this year – and other events include a poetry pub quiz at the Waverley Bar on Tuesday 16^th February. The SPL just off the Canongate should be a first stop for anyone interested in poetry, and their blog, Our old sweet etcetera presided over by the inimitable Peggy Hughes, offers a lively mix of news and gossip – all that’s fit to print about the Scottish poetry scene, and much more.

StAnza, Scotland's International Poetry Festivalhas also been active in things virtual over the last year, with recent our first one-day digital festival bringing more than 40 poets to St Andrews from a dozen cities worldwide – with Mumbai the furthest east and Sacramento the westmost – streaming them in then webcasting worldwide, thanks to the wonders of Skype and the internet. It was a white knuckle ride on the day as we pushed the available technology as far as we could, but ultimately it worked. We received wonderful feedback from those who took part and others who tuned in online, and many commented on the amazing range of voices and types of poetry they’d seen and heard from all round the world.

We’ll be using that technology again, but meantime we have our main festival coming up fast. This year, the start of StAnza on 17^th March happens to coincide with St Patricks Day. Irish poets have always been popular at StAnza and this seemed too good a chance to miss, so we’ve turned the opening evening in St Andrews into a regular celebration of Irish poetry and music. Poets Moya Canon and Matthew Sweeney (the latter making a very welcome return to StAnza after 7 years) will share the stage with Dordán, a traditional/baroque musical trio from Galway, and there will even be some Yeats poetry theatre on offer in the Byre foyer beforehand, by way of lyrical hors d’oevres. That’s all after a free festival launch which includes poetry from Anne-Marie Fyfe and music from Cahal Dallat.

And as if that opening night wasn’t enough, we’ve given the whole festival a decidedly Irish focus. Seamus Heaney heads the line-up which includes an array of talent from Ireland, as well as newer voices from Europe and acclaimed poets from Canada, the USA, Cuba and the length and breadth of the UK, such as Lise Sinclair who’s coming from Fair Isle in the Shetlands, Tiffany Atkinson from Aberystwyth and Will Stone from Suffolk. The performance circuit is well represented with lunchtime cabaret poets featuring Kate Fox and the unique Rachel Pantechnicon, then on the Saturday night, Canadian slam star John Akpata shares a stage with the legendary Linton Kwesi Johnson.

The full programme has 80 events packed into the five days, pretty much from dawn to until well past dusk. Start the day with a Poetry Breakfast panel discussion over coffee and pastries (topics this year include Myth & Legend, and Poetry Beyond the Page), take in a workshop or reading – including maybe one of our Round Table intimate events – enjoy some cabaret poetry with a pie and a pint thrown in at lunchtime, and then in the afternoon choose music, an In Conversation, or Linda Marlowe’s acclaimed one woman show based on Carol Ann Duffy’s The World’s Wife, on the very same stage from which the poet laureate herself read these poems to us last year. In the evening, after Poetry Centre Stage readings from some of the biggest names in poetry, round off the day at our relaxed late night sessions in The Byre. One of the new events for 2010 is our first ever Ceilidh Slam – maybe the first ever  –  and there’s still time to sign up for that.

With music, films and a dozen exhibitions, installations and projections, there’s plenty of choice, as well as the chance to network with other poets from all over the world, not to mention publishers and other event organisers. We pride ourselves on being the friendliest of festivals, people come and then come back again. Audiences mingle with each other and with poets in the café bar at The Byre, great fun is had and beautiful friendships made. We always say that StAnza is much more than the sum of its parts, and what happens between the events is also very much part of the festival. And many events are free, so this is one festival people can enjoy on a budget (there’s even a backpackers hostel in town), and our venues, which range from the modern Byre theatre auditorium to a mediaeval undercroft, are all conveniently situated within a few minutes walk of each other.  

St Andrews is a beautiful old town and makes a great backdrop to the festival. For those who can tear themselves away from the poetry, there are castle and cathedral ruins to explore, sea views to inspire and plenty of shops and galleries, pubs and coffeehouses to visit. There’s even golf, for those so inclined. And with a lively University presence - many students volunteer for the festival – our team are young not only at heart, and ready to welcome everyone to StAnza. It’s an experience not to be missed.

Eleanor Livingstone is the Artistic Director of the StAnza Festival - Scotland's international poetry festival.

Full details of this years StAnza festival are on the website, www.stanzapoetry.org, and brochures will be available from early February by emailing mail@fcac.co.uk.