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Hundreds of events for adults, teenagers and children feature authors, illustrators, musicians, poets, policians, thinkers, prize-winners and rising stars every August.
My Struggle was the six-volume autofictional project that established Karl Ove Knausgaard among the world’s most respected writers. Now, the Norwegian author embarks on a new literary odyssey. The Morning Star is a novel steeped in the uncanny,...
Everyone has a story to tell; through stories we can make sense of our world. Earlier this year writers Andrew O’Hagan, Eleanor Thom, Ryan Van Winkle, Mae Diansangu, Roseanne Watt, Bea Webster and Siân Bevan collaborated with community groups across...
Two gripping novels full of insight and empathy explore the complexities of family life and parenthood. Alex Hyde’s Violets is about two mothers: one who decides to give her baby up for adoption and another who chooses to adopt. Claire Keegan’s...
Book Festival regulars need no introduction to Richard Holloway: he has spoken at the Festival every August for the past 23 years. He joins us this time to discuss The Heart of Things – a collection of his favourite poems and quotations, knitted...
In Let Down Your Hair, bestselling author and journalist Bryony Gordon draws on her experiences of alopecia to retell the story of Rapunzel. In Rapunzella, Or, Don’t Touch My Hair, Ella McLeod merges poetry and prose in a lyrical genre-bending...
Emily St John Mandel’s newest book, Sea of Tranquillity, spans several centuries and the breadth of the universe. From a teen in British Columbia to a detective in a black-skied city, the sound of a violin shakes the world of all those who hear it....
Join us to welcome back two of the most gifted writers of their generation. Kathleen Jamie is the virtuosic poet and essayist named as Scotland’s fourth Makar last year. Working in English and Scots, Jamie’s work spans the personal and the natural...
The historian and political theorist Michael Ignatieff began writing a book about consolation before the first lockdown. Now, our lives changed by Covid-19, and with over 80 million refugees fleeing conflicts worldwide, On Consolation feels...
As the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah is riding a wave of new interest in his writing. Gurnah emigrated from his native Zanzibar in his youth and his stories are infused with issues of identity and displacement....
The Scots language imprint Itchy Coo was launched at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2002. 20 years and many much-loved titles later, it’s time to party! Join co-founding authors Matthew Fitt and James Robertson and special guests in this...
Announcing our Communities Programme and Citizen events this August 
