In Conversation with Ryan Van Winkle, Artistic Director of StAnza Poetry Festival

The first words I exchanged with Ryan Van Winkle, the Artistic Director of the StAnza Poetry Festival, had little to do with the St Andrews-based poetry festival. He instead asked me about our newspaper. “You guys are still doing print? And do people actually pick it up?” Every other Thursday, I told him. “That’s a great feeling,” he said, then began talking about how he started in journalism before venturing into poetry. 

Over the years, the StAnza poetry festival has maintained a focus on the interdisciplinary nature of poetry, highlighting the importance of sense, hearing, and feeling. Upon my asking why, Van Winkle said: “Emphasising feeling is one of the primary things you can get out of poetry, a strong feeling. You're not turning to poetry for a narrative, necessarily, you’re turning to it for something else. And I think one of the things that people turn to it for is that punch-you-in-the-gut feeling, that makes your hairs on the back of your neck stick up. It doesn’t happen every time. I don’t want to lie to anybody and say that you’ll feel this in every poem you read. But when a poem hits you, it really hits you.”

“I think it’s just an interesting way to play with space and different formats of delivering poetry, besides just putting a person on a microphone, and letting them stand there and talk to an audience.”

“But certain poems come out and grab you at certain times, you know? A lot of it is about timing. I’m partly trying to create opportunities for people to be in a different headspace. With concerts, for example, you spend a load of money to go see something, you’re in a venue, and then suddenly you’re doing your grocery list, or thinking, ‘I gotta call my mom.’ So I just want to try, during a poetry reading, to give something else, another stimulus to keep you in the room.”

I asked Van Winkle which events in the festival he would most recommend. “Oh, you can’t make me do that! Which article in your newspaper would you most recommend?” I kept quiet, refraining from telling him that I have my favourites, and am perhaps not as kind-hearted as he is. “They’re all great, they’re all my babies. There’s a ‘Poetry as Protest’ event, which is fantastic, it’ll be taking place on the street and then some poets will all be reading a protest poem of their own on any subject matter, and reading a poetry protest poem from history that they gravitated towards. We’re going to set it up outside on the street so people can listen in a public setting.”

“There’s RJ Hunter’s masterpiece, the Stupid Sexy Poem Show. I think it’s just a tour de force. I saw it in Edinburgh, it’s done a Fringe run. It’s a very, very good piece of performance poetry, it’s a one-woman show. It hits all it does, everything it says in the title — it is funny, and it’s sexy, and it’s also incredibly poignant. It’s a different way of presenting poetry than people might have seen before. It feels more raucous and engaged.”

“If you’re interested in some fantastic Scottish poetry, you can check out Jackie Kay and Hannah Lavery, who are going to be on stage together. Our newest Scottish Makar, our poet laureate Peter Mackay and Jen Hadfield are going to be on stage talking to each other.”

“Sorry, did you say Peter Mackay will be part of the festival?” I asked. 

“Yeah. Hometown hero,” Van Winkle responded.

“He was my English tutor last year.”

“He’s good, right? He’s a good friend, and what a great choice for our poet laureate [Makar]. His poems are fantastic. You want to put people like Peter in a room where they could just be chatting and break down a little bit of the formality. You know, I certainly spend a lot of time with poets, and maybe there’s a bit of a reputation around poetry, but they just like hanging around and having a chat, and laughing, just like anyone else. I think Peter is a great person to do that with, and I’m sure you know that from studying with him.”

As a last question, I asked Van Winkle what has been the most rewarding part of organising the festival. He didn’t hesitate. “Oh, finishing it. The end. The end of it is the most rewarding because then I can sleep.” 

“Well, one of the most rewarding things is the audience. I’ll bump into somebody after an event, or I’ll hear them talking, and we’ll have a chat. Watching that happen, watching those connections get made between poet and audience. That, for me, is really the award, and the true, true delight of putting a festival together. Putting people together through art. It keeps me coming back to creating things like this.”

Photo provided by StAnza