StAnza has been bringing poets and poetry lovers to St Andrews for more than 25 years.
St Andrews-based poets Gavin Bowd, Anna Crowe, and Brian Johnstone founded the international celebration of poetry in 1998.
Since then, the event has attracted some of the biggest names in poetry. Seamus Heaney, Alice Oswald and Jackie Kay have packed out venues and attracted visitors from all over the world.
In 2021 StAnza rose to the challenge of the pandemic by taking the whole event online. The offering was named Saboteur Award for Best UK Literature Festival for that year.
Who StAnza’s artistic director Ryan Van Winkle?
Current artistic director Ryan Van Winkle wants to share his love of poetry beyond the town’s literary and academic communities.
Ryan made the journey across the Atlantic from his native Connecticut in 1999.
“I came because I heard that Hogmanay was a really good party,” he laughs.
He must have liked what he saw, as he stayed on, establishing a cafe/arts centre called the Forest in Edinburgh and studying for a Masters Degree in creative writing.
Ryan has been involved in StAnza from its very early days and can’t quite believe that he is now the guy in charge:
“I felt terrified when I got the job as artistic director for the 2024 festival,” he admits.
“It’s a small team with a big history and it was really built on a lot of goodwill and volunteer power.”
Why do some people avoid poetry?
“I think poetry is one of those artforms like jazz, ballet or opera, that people see as a challenge and not necessarily enjoyable,” says the affable American.
“It has a bit of an ‘eat your veg’ vibe.”
“But it’s OK not to like things,” he points out.
“No one really knows much about what a cinematographer is doing,” he maintains, “but we still watch movies and feel qualified to say whether they are good or bad.”
He agrees that there is a: “preciousness around poetry but you have got to give confidence to the audience.
“If you don’t like it it’s probably not very good!
“I want people to feel welcome [at poetry events] so that might mean bringing in UV posters, playing around with colours or putting games on tables.”
For Ryan, the aim is for people to feel comfortable to come and listen to and talk about poetry.
2025 StAnza theme: How We Feel
Each year StAnza’s events are inspired by a theme. This year the idea is How We Feel.
Ryan says: “The goal is to try to hit some of those big feelings that poetry can bring and also to play with the idea of sensory feeling – touch.”
Sometimes the best descriptions of tricky ideas come from unexpected places. Ryan was giving a talk to high school children in Istanbul when he was blown away by one student’s definition of poetry.
“I asked the kids what the different between a story and a poem is,” he explains.
Ryan Van Winkle, StAnza artistic director
“You usually get answers like ‘poems are short.’ That’s usually the one I’m looking for. Poems are short and stories are long, and I’m lazy, so that’s why I write a poem. That’s the joke that I’m trying to get to,” he confesses.
“Anyway, one student raised their hand and was like: ‘A poem is a concentrated moment of feeling.’
“And that’s always stuck in my head. That is a big difference between poems and stories, it’s just this burst of feeling.”
On a personal level, Ryan says: “I’m attracted to the poems that are really sad. The ones that really punch you in the stomach or just take your breath away or bring a tear to your eye.”
Who is coming to St Andrews for StAnza 2025?
Joelle Taylor is delivering the StAnza lecture this year. The award winning poet is: “Just a great performer and a great talker,” enthuses Ryan.
“We’ve got Jackie Kay and Hannah Lavery just being poets in conversation. These are just two people who get along, who are fantastically funny, creative and inventive.
“So we’re just going to put them on stage and let them talk to each other.”
Ryan is also looking forward to the StAnza opening night, which will see seven poets put on a Colourful Cabaret.
Performers including CD Boyland, Hannah Copley and Tim Tim Cheng will read poems which conjure up the ‘feeling’ of a different colour.
What else is happening around St Andrews?
From March 14 to 16 StAnza events will run in venues all over the historical town of St Andrews. From open mic nights to book-binding events and writing workshops there is an incredible range to choose from.
The Byre Theatre is the festival hub and will also host an exhibition called Please Touch! by Gaelle Chassery and Dominika Jackowska.
Fife Contemporary have curated the exhibition, which features work designed to be touched and interacted with.
There will be performances and workshops in the Laidlaw Music Centre, Town Hall and many events online.
Or why not visit the North East Fife Community Hub for a free, drop-in poetry sharing event.
Host Stewart Kerr is planning a relaxed afternoon where people can bring along a favourite poem or two to share.
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