StAnza

Founded in 1998, StAnza brings together poets and audiences from around the world for an international poetry festival every spring in St Andrews, Scotland. The festival has an exploratory focus, and aims to provide a platform for not only celebrating poetry, but also engaging with cutting edge issues related to the form and its wider cultural relevance. Festival programming includes readings, lectures, discussions and cross-art events, including a significant strand devoted to foreign language poetry and translations. StAnza’s last in-person Festival in 2019 featured 150 poets from 17 countries, writing in 11 different languages; the Festival’s schools programme engaged over 400 local students and teachers. When StAnza was held entirely online in March 2021, over 24,000 virtual attendees joined 129 events. Funding will go toward StAnza 2022 which will explore what role narrative plays in negotiating (and renegotiating) meaning in contemporary poetry.