Arcadia Scotland

Art and Culture

Workshop: Edit, Draft, Edit [Repeat]: 7 March, 10:30am, St Andrews Library
Ahren Warner, the poetry editor for Poetry London, a leading international poetry magazine, has been praised by the Sunday Times for his 'pizzazz, wit and – astonishing at his age – both technical assurance and a genuinely integrated humanity.’ His books have been shortlisted for major prizes and have twice been named as Poetry Book Society Recommendations. In this intensive writing workshop on the practice, process and publishing of poetry, he offers an editor’s insight into the importance of effective editing. Please bring copies of one of your poems.

Bridging the Time Divide: 4-8 March, Byre Theatre
Latin was Scotland’s third language 400 years ago and has been dubbed Scotland's literary 'lost continent’ by poet Robert Crawford. The Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum is an anthology published in 1637 by John Scot, Lord Scotstarvit. Poems from this Scottish anthology have recently been translated into English for the first time as part of the project ‘Bridging the Continental Divide’, which recognizes that Latin was then a language shared by poets across Europe, with other countries possessing similar anthologies. We have commissioned Scottish poets including Rab Wilson and J.L. Williams to provide their own versions of the original neo-Latin poems for exhibition at StAnza 2015 in this digital installation which presents the poems alongside images of the Delitiae Poetarum Scotorum.

Five O'Clock Verses: 5 March, Parliament Hall, 5pm
This year’s series of Five O’Clock Verses events will be opened by poets Anne Stevenson and Sheenagh Pugh. Anne Stevenson is an American-British poet. In addition to numerous collections of poetry, she has written literary criticism and essays. She gained a Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan. Sheenagh Pugh is known to thousands of poetry readers for 'Sometimes', her much anthologised 'poem on the underground'. She has published many collections, most recently ‘Short Days, Long Shadows’ (Seren, 2014), and has won numerous prizes for her work.

An Archipelago of Poems: 4-8 March, Byre Theatre, 10am
In March 2014 we launched our project to Map Scotland in Poetry. Since then hundreds of poets have submitted poems about specific Scottish locations which have been pinned to our online Poetry Map of Scotland and poems from the map are published one at a time on the StAnza Blog. As part of our Archipelago of Poetry theme for StAnza 2015, some of the shorter island poems from the map feature in a free digital installation and on postcards available for purchase from the StAnza Desk. Poems will also appear in the windows of shops and businesses in St Andrews.

Bedazzled: A Welshman in New York: 4 March, Byre Theatre, 8pm
Bedazzled - A Welshman in New York' is a celebration of the special relationship Dylan Thomas had with the United States, in particular New York, and of the enduring influence of his life and work on both sides of the Atlantic. 'Re-imaging' his favourite watering hole, The White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village, audience members are invited to join Dylan for a drink and be transported back to the heady bohemian world of New York in the early 1950s, where Thomas' charisma and his dramatic and lyrical use of language left all around him spellbound. It was there that Thomas drank and debated with other luminaries such as ee cummings, Maya Deren and Allen Ginsberg. This production imagines yet more meetings to look at who Dylan Thomas really was, what he meant to America, and what America really meant to him.

Music, Comedy and Dance

The Royal Ballet: Swan Lake: 17 March, Cineworld Dundee, 7:15pm
The classic ballet about a prince who falls in love with a swan maiden, filmed live at the Royal Ballet.

Aleksander Kudajcyk: 4 March, St Andrews University Music Centre, 1:10pm
Discovered working as a cleaner in the University of Glasgow, now a world-renowned concert pianist.

Chloe Hanslip & Danny Driver: 12 March, Younger Hall, 7:30pm
Lavishly talented young violinist Hanslip and Driver (piano) in recital.

Edinburgh Quartet: 7 March, St Salvator's Chapel, 8pm
Scotland's premier string quartet was founded in 1960 and maintains close relationships with composers all over the UK, as well as playing dozens of concerts a year in venues all over the world.

Festival Finale with the Black Cat Jook Band: 8 March, Byre Theatre, 10pm
Come and party along as we play out the festival in style with the Black Cat Jook band. They have a long history on the Scottish blues scene and in previous lineups have supported such visiting US artists as Otis Grand, Jook Boy Bonner, Larry Johnson, Stefan Grossman and the legendary Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup.

Daimh: 26 March, Inchyra Arts Club, 7pm
Taking its name from the Gaelic word for 'kinship', Dàimh includes members from Canada, the US, Ireland and Scotland.

Lectures, Sports and Local Festivals

Stanza: Scotland's International Poetry Festival: 4-8 March, Various venues and times