Thank you, Eleanor!

Now that Eleanor Livingstone’s stint as Director of StAnza is coming to an end, I’m sure there are many people who are better qualified than me to provide an overview of her long-term contribution to the festival’s development.

However, as a poet who read at StAnza in 2019, I just wanted to put on record my thanks to her. During my days in St Andrews, I was struck not only by the scale of the event and by the countless details that were required to ensure its smooth running, but also by Eleanor’s capacity to pause and treat every individual poet as a person. Moreover, her love of the genre shone through at all times. It’s no exaggeration for me to state that she played a huge part in making StAnza a magical experience.

In other words, thank you, Eleanor! I now hope you get to enjoy the festival from the other side of the fence (and without quite as much stress) in 2022…!

StAnza Festival 2018

If there's ever a chance to revive your belief in poetry, to remind you that spoken word and poems on the page can not only co-exist but feed off each other, to bring you back to old favourites and introduce you to exciting new names, it's StAnza.

The 2018 festival runs from 7th to 11th March, filling St Andrews with all things poetical. It's scheduled events, for example, that focus on the subject of "Borderlines", while "Going Dutch" concentrates on poets from the Netherlands and Flanders, all this alongside numerous other readings by poets from all over the world.

However, year after year, the overriding theme of StAnza is its inclusiveness, exploring and celebrating the whole range and spectrum of poetry today. You can find the catalogue of events, screenings and exhibitions at the festival website here.

StAnza is coming!

With a myriad of poetry events to suit every taste, fabulous venues and a terrific social scene, all in the lovely setting of St Andrews, StAnza has become one of the foremost poetry festivals around. This year, it's running from 1st to 5th March, and you can browse the extensive programme here. I wish I could make it up there myself. Maybe next year, Matthew, maybe next year...

Tasting Notes at Stanza 2014

Regular readers of Rogue Strands might recall that Tasting Notes was featured at Stanza 2014 as part of an exhibition titled Poem in a Bottle - Poet and winemaker Matthew Stewart's poems uncorked, whereby individual poems from Tasting Notes were available for the taking throughout the festival, straight from otherwise empty wine bottles, in various locations around The Byre Theatre.

Well, Eleanor Livingstone (the director of Stanza) has very kindly forwarded to me a series of photos of the exhibition that were taken during the 2014 festival but only reached her this year. Here's one of them:

There are some lovely artistic touches that have been applied by the photographer, Jacqueline Skelton, and I'm very grateful both to her and to Stanza for permission to publish her work here. It will also be appearing on the wall of my study, that's for sure!

In The Scotsman...

The Scotsman have published a glowing review of StAnza 2014, which was held in St Andrews last week. You can read the article in full here, but suffice to say I'm delighted that they should have given Poem in a Bottle such a prominent mention.

Poetry loops at StAnza

As mentioned in my post a few weeks ago, poems from Tasting Notes will be present at StAnza with Poem in a Bottle. At the same time, the film version of Tasting Notes has also been included in Poetry Loops. Extra background information about the short poetry films that are to be shown is now up at the StAnza blog here. Apart from my work, there will be excellent pieces from the likes of Alastair Cook, Edward O'Donnelly and Alessandro Tedde.


Poetry Loops will be showing in the Conference Room at the Byre Theatre from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Thursday 6th March to Sunday 9th March. It's all free and no ticket is required, so you can just drop in and watch a film or two whenever you like, recharging your batteries for the StAnza experience!.

Poem in a Bottle at StAnza

StAnza, Scotland's international poetry festival, will be taking place in St Andrews from 5th to 9th March. I'm delighted to report that my work will be present at the festival in two ways.

Firstly, there's Poem in a Bottle - Poet and winemaker Matthew Stewart's poems uncorked, whereby individual poems from Tasting Notes will be available for the taking throughout the festival, straight from otherwise empty wine bottles, in various locations around The Byre Theatre.

Secondly, the film version of Tasting Notes will also be showing as part of Poetry Loops in the Conference Room at The Byre Theatre, along with other short poetry films.

Why not have a look at the full programme here? StAnza 2014 promises to be a terrific poetry festival!

Tasting Notes and StAnza at the St Andrews Food and Drink Festival

I'm really looking forward to my next reading in St Andrews on 15th November. Here's the background to the event, taken from the St Andrews Food and Drink Festival website:

"Working with StAnza, Matthew Stewart, exporter and blender for the Spanish cooperative Viñaoliva, leads a guided tasting and talks about the blender’s art. Matthew is also a poet – his entertaining Tasting Notes were published by Fife’s HappenStance Press in 2012. There will be time for interaction and questions, as he introduces the wine of poetry, and the poetry of wine.  Guests will have the chance to taste four Zaleo wines (Pardina 2012, Rosado 2012, Tempranillo 2012 and Premium 2010) and food pairings of ham, bread and Spanish cheese."

£7.50 or £5.00 conc.
[To include tasting, copy of Tasting Notes, and tapas.]

Booking link - https://www.eventbrite.com/event/9010489617

If you're in the area, what could be better than four glasses of wine, a poetry pamphlet and gorgeous tapas alongside, all for less than a tenner? I hope to see you there!