A Look Back at Paper Trails

As summer approaches, the August Festival is just around the corner! But before we get into the full swing at Edinburgh Futures Institute, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the first year of our brand-new communities project Paper Trails with Edinburgh Libraries. Paper Trails is the Book Festival’s multi-year communities project partnering with five local libraries to support and expand their work as thriving cultural hubs, co-created with the communities they serve.  

Summer 2025 

Liberton High School Library: Creative Writing and Art Workshops 

Back in June last year, author Michael Lee Richardson and artist Fionnuala Doran facilitated creative writing and art workshops with S1 and S6 pupils. The workshops encouraged young people to reflect on their recent year and consider their hopes for the future and their new school building. The resulting insightful artwork and writing are currently displayed in the school and will be featured in an exhibition during the Book Festival this August.  

Official Paper Trails launch and opening of Ratho Library with Her Majesty Queen Camilla 

In July, alongside Edinburgh Libraries, we were delighted to welcome Her Majesty Queen Camilla to both launch Paper Trails and officiate the opening of the newly rebuilt Ratho Library. During the visit Her Majesty met with local children from Ratho as well as young people from the Book Festival’s writing group the Citizen Collective. Sir Ian Rankin and several other authors were also in attendance, for what was a very special day. 

Autumn 2025 

Mobile Library Service: Care Homes Writers in Residence 

October marked the start of our project with Mobile Libraries, bringing Writers in Residence to eight different Care Homes across Edinburgh. Along with writers Ellen Renton, Julie McNeill, Ken Cockburn, Xana Marwick, and trainee artists Lucy Lauder and Huw Turnbull, the groups at the Care Homes engaged in a five-week programme of creative writing, poetry workshops, podcast creation, and honestly anything that felt creative and relevant to the people involved. 

Read more about the sessions here! - Paper Trails: Autumn 2025 Residential Care Home Sessions | Edinburgh International Book Festival

Liberton High School Library: Zine Making Workshops  

Over the autumn illustrator Candice Purwin delivered a series of creative zine workshops, linked to the school’s ‘Back to Information Basics’ library activities. Working with first year pupils over a three-week period, Candice helped the young people to create zines focusing on what they care deeply about. The content of the zines was gathered utilising library resources to discover and select pieces of relevant information. There was also a chance for the pupils to learn about the history of zines and how they fit into the publishing industry today.  

Read more about these sessions here! - Looking back on three weeks of zine-making! | Edinburgh International Book Festival

Winter 2026 

Muirhouse Library: Author Events 

We had a busy February working with Muirhouse Library and North Edinburgh Arts to host a series of author events with Val McDermid, Doug Johnstone, Irvine Welsh, Claire Mitchell, Zoe Venditozzi, Joseph Coelho and Masie Chan. The events spanned across three weeks, evenings, mornings and afternoons, and one of the authors even brought their guitar and sang a few songs – you’ll have to guess who!  

Ratho Library: Intergenerational Storytelling Sessions 

In January, we delivered a series of Intergenerational Storytelling sessions, with storyteller Claire McNicol exploring the Gaelic word ‘Ceilidh’ as a social gathering to exchange of stories, jokes, poems and songs. We worked with P7 pupils from Ratho Primary School and Senior Residents of Ratho from the community over-60s club, bringing both groups together to exchange their experiences of living in the town. As the sessions developed, we got an insight into the skills and interests of the participants, including discovering several violin players and some incredibly talented poets. This led to our first ceilidh at Ratho Library, where songs were sung, instruments played, jokes told, and stories shared! 

Read more about the sessions here! - Intergenerational Storytelling Sessions at Ratho Library | Edinburgh International Book Festival

Streetreads Library: Exhibition Curation, Creative Writing and Illustration 

Over the Spring community members from the Streetreads Library joined forces with poet Hannah Lavery and illustrator Katie Quinn to create poetry and imagery exploring Edinburgh through their eyes, as people who have experienced homelessness in the city. The culmination of the project saw participants collaborate with Buildhollywood to curate a thought-provoking exhibition to share their bold, unfiltered take on the Edinburgh the tourists don’t see. The exhibition was displayed on street level poster sites in May, and the participants will also perform their work at this year's Book Festival. 

Liberton High School Library: Creative Career Pathways Project with S6’s 

We worked with Liberton High School librarian, Christine Babbs to design a ‘Creative Career Pathway’ project to give S6 pupils insights on creative careers from Book Festival staff through panel events and creative activity. Working with the whole S6 cohort the pupils were challenged to create their own (imaginary)Book Festivals in groups. The pupils took part in workshops that explored the elements of staging an international book festival including programming, marketing and fundraising. Additionally, the groups attended two special panel events featuring staff members from across the Book Festival team. The eight-week projected culminated in with each group presented their expertly crafted festival to an expert panel of judges. 

Spring 2026 

Muirhouse Library: North Edinburgh Community Festival 

Once again the sun was out at this year’s North Edinburgh Community Arts Festival, an event the Book Festival team has been participating in for four years. For the first time we shared a stall with our Paper Trails partner Muirhouse Library and spent the day talking to the local community, handing out free books and running creative activities. We also invited those who stopped by our stall to join a new steering group, to help us plan future activities and events at Muirhouse Library. 

Ratho Library: History and Author Events 

 At the end of May, we hosted a week-long series of author talks to celebrate local history month. Authors and historians Mary Paulson-Ellis, Alistair Moffat, Claire Mitchell, Zoe Venditozzi and Elle McNicol joined us across the week to talk all things history. In these fascinating events audiences heard the authors explore topics including what local history truly means; the importance of statues and symbols, and the power of rewriting history through a fictional lens.  

Summer 2026 

And suddenly, it’s summertime! Our Paper Trails projects will take pause for the time being, but all our community partners will be present for our August festival, whether it's through their attendance on site, or whether it’s on stage for their own events! Although Paper Trails is our flagship communities project, we work all year round with a variety of partners across Edinburgh. Check out our Exhibition Space at Edinburgh Futures Institute to learn more about our work throughout Edinburgh and beyond!