Having a pause after visiting the pamphlet sale or poetry market - curated by Alan Gay - in the town hall here in St Andrews and I can report that StAnza is every bit as good as people say - maybe the streets aren't paved with poets (not even after kicking out time at the pubs as Ian Duhig naughtily suggested on Twitter) - but the population density is certainly high.
This is heightened by the fact that the festival venues are close together in the three streets - with the result that you can mix fantastic and imaginative events with the constant joy of running into old friends.
I went straight into a great reading on arrival last night- the place is packed out - and I was lucky to pick up a returned ticket for Helen Mort and J L Williams (replacing Liz Berry) and then on into a (not so quiet) open mic (Colin Will reading in the picture) at Zest - where, yes, I read my first poems at StAnza. Fab.
Tonight it is Ian Duhig, Kei Miller, Ilya Kaminsky, the slam and Simon Armitage.
This is heightened by the fact that the festival venues are close together in the three streets - with the result that you can mix fantastic and imaginative events with the constant joy of running into old friends.
I went straight into a great reading on arrival last night- the place is packed out - and I was lucky to pick up a returned ticket for Helen Mort and J L Williams (replacing Liz Berry) and then on into a (not so quiet) open mic (Colin Will reading in the picture) at Zest - where, yes, I read my first poems at StAnza. Fab.
Tonight it is Ian Duhig, Kei Miller, Ilya Kaminsky, the slam and Simon Armitage.
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