Word Alliance goes from strength to strength

Word Alliance goes from strength to strength

The PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature has joined the ground-breaking Word Alliance of literary festivals. Initially formed by the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2010, the Word Alliance is a collaborative venture which aims to present the very best authors to audiences across the globe. New York is the sixth festival to join the Alliance.

Thanks to the Word Alliance, which is supported by Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund, within the last year talented Scottish authors have been showcased at events in Berlin, Jaipur, Toronto, New York and Beijing.

Irvine Welsh, who attended the Pen World Voices Festival in New York as well as the Jaipur Literary Festival through the Alliance, said “Both festivals were highly positive experiences for me. As always, most significant are the intangibles - writers are like everybody else, they need to feel they belong to a broader community of fellow writers and readers.”

In addition to sending Scottish writers abroad, we are looking forward to welcoming a host of world class international names to Charlotte Square Gardens later this month including Bi Feiyu from China, Shaun Tan from Australia, Judith Schalansky from Germany and Rahul Bhattacharya from India. 

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