Brilliant Fiction
About our events
“Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own…” says the magnificent Ann Patchett. Join her, and a constellation of fiction stars, as we bring you brilliant, visionary, and inventive storytellers spinning tales of history, fantasy, romance, and more. Featuring Scottish greats and visiting writers from over 40 countries, encompassing household names and first-time novelists, we invite you to see the world anew this August.
From Scotland, award-winning novelist Ali Smith shares her exuberant new anti-war novel, Glyph; Maggie O’Farrell arrives fresh from Hamnet’s incredible awards streak with her new title, Land; Fern Brady joins us with a special preview of her debut novel, High Energy Unpleasant; and Jenni Fagan’s hugely anticipated The Delusions imagines an afterlife run by cosmic (and comic) bureaucracy.
Evelyn Clarke (AKA Cat Clarke and V E Schwab’s writing partnership) discuss sinister thriller The Ending Writes Itself, Louise Welsh returns to Glasgow’s seedy underbelly in The Cut Up, and Tom Newlands’ Something Like Happiness confirms him as a name to watch after Scottish Book of the Year-winning Only Here, Only Now.
From further afield, Daniyal Mueenuddin’s debut novel, This is Where the Serpent Lives, transplants the great Russian novel to modern Pakistan; Colm Tóibín regales us with The News from Dublin in his new collection of short stories; Claudia Rankine explores truth, art, and fiction in Triage; and Matt Haig boards The Midnight Train towards the past mistakes we’d like to erase.
Ben Lerner explores the failures of technology and memory in Transcription; Candice Carty-Williams’ vibrant Queenie returns 10 years older and no wiser in Queenie is Working on It; and million-copy-selling fantasy author Samantha Shannon unpacks her newest title, Among the Burning Flowers.
Sales of fiction in translation in the UK are booming: celebrate with literary royalty from around the world, including two of Japan’s bestselling sensations – Mieko Kawakami (Sisters in Yellow) and Nao-Cola Yamazaki (Don’t Laugh At Other People’s Sex Lives); Spain’s Javier Cercas; cult French author Édouard Louis; and a trio of 2026 International Booker Prize nominees: Yáng Shuāng-zi with Taiwan Travelogue, Germany’s Daniel Kehlmann with The Director, and Shida Bazyar with The Nights are Quiet in Tehran.
List of Events
Donal Ryan: Where are the Kings
Donal Ryan is fast becoming an Irish national treasure. Full of heart, his writing tackles the moments that make up a life with compassion…
Ashley Hickson-Lovence & Matthew Rice: Art/Work
Ashley Hickson-Lovence and Matthew Rice push the limits of form to explore the tension between work and ‘the work’ of a writing life. Set…
Graeme Macrae Burnet: Benbecula
Graeme Macrae Burnet’s Benbecula, part of Polygon’s acclaimed Darkland Tales series, explores a forgotten, real-life triple murder in the…
Kate Foster: The Repentants
Betrayal flows through Kate Foster’s chilling new novel: the story of two women, bonded forever in their exile to the world’s most desolate…Fresh Words: Northern Writers’ Awards
It’s lunchtime, but there’s no need to doomscroll over your meal deal. Be the first to discover the literary stars of the future instead.…Polly Barton, Daniel Hahn & Anton Hur: In Other Words
How does a book survive a journey between languages? Three exciting literary translators and writers join forces for a lively chat about…
Callum McSorley: Rat Race
DCI Alison McCoist is Glasgow’s most unpopular detective, and the thrillers starring her are the filthiest, funniest crime novels in…
Jane Harper: Last One Out
Australia’s Crime Queen, Jane Harper, is internationally renowned for her atmospheric thrillers. In fact, her 2016 smash hit, The Dry,…
Mohammed Hanif: Rebel English Academy
Mohammed Hanif – the Booker-longlisted author of A Case of Exploding Mangoes – brings his fierce combination of incendiary wit and…
Chris Brookmyre: Quite Ugly One Evening
Chris Brookmyre is an icon of Scottish crime fiction and a regular Festival favourite. This year, he returns with Quite Ugly One Evening: a…
Tice Cin & Jacqueline Crooks: City Soundscapes
Big city life is equal parts exhilarating and gruelling in these lyrical, inventive novels from Tice Cin and Jacqueline Crooks. In Safe…
Graeme Armstrong: Raveheart
Named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2023, Graeme Armstrong is back with his hotly anticipated second book Raveheart.…
Imani Thompson: Honey
It’s not every day that a debut novel sparks a ferocious 10-way bidding war, but Imani Thompson’s Honey is that dazzling. In a conversation…
Margaret Drabble: The Great Good Places
Childhood homes, cherished libraries, coastal sanctuaries – how do the places we remember shape who we are? Drawing on decades of writing…
Dan Jones: The Green Man
A learned monk. A town in turmoil. A mystery that may destroy faith itself. Dan Jones' The Green Man is a gripping medieval mystery set in…
Francis Spufford: Nonesuch
To read Francis Spufford’s literary fantasy Nonesuch is to be grabbed by the hand and pulled, screaming with delight, through a version of…
Frances Crawford & Jennie Godfrey: Community Secrets
We all love a good secret, especially when they’re as gripping as they are wildly entertaining. In Frances Crawford’s A Bad, Bad Place, a…
Alexander McCall Smith: Perfectly Prolific
From the Georgian splendour of Edinburgh's New Town to the sunlit plains of Botswana, Alexander McCall Smith conjures incomparable worlds…
Polly Barton & Aea Varfis-van Warmelo: Lies, Crushes, and Karaoke
Obsession and karaoke. Lies and self-sabotage. In What Am I, A Deer? and Attention-Seeking Behaviour, Polly Barton and Aea Varfis-van…Meet the Winners: International Booker Prize 2026
Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, a Japanese novelist in 1930s Taiwan falls for the interpreter hired to guide her. Yáng…
Sally Magnusson: The Shapeshifter’s Daughter
As the host of Reporting Scotland, Sally Magnusson became known as one of our most trusted journalists – now she’s also a beloved (and…Fresh Words: Gutter Magazine
It’s lunchtime, but there’s no need to doomscroll over your meal deal. Be the first to discover the literary stars of the future, instead.…Nao-Cola Yamazaki, Polly Barton & Charlotte Goff: Writing the Interior
Nao-Cola Yamazaki is a name you’re about to hear everywhere. Their intimate novellas, Beautiful Distance and Don’t Laugh at Other People’s…