There are events for just about every age and interest at the Book Festival, bringing readers and writers together for inspiration, entertainment and discussion. Over 900 authors appear in around 800 events, including novelists, poets, scientists, sportsmen, illustrators, comics creators, historians, musicians, biographers, Nobel and Booker prize-winners and many more besides.
A professor of creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nigerian writer Chigozie Obioma is a novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Join him for a masterclass on writing compelling stories. Obioma’s first novel, The Fishermen,...
Two bold novels use age-old literary tricks to get inside the heads of characters and readers alike. Laird Hunt’s In the House in the Dark of the Woods follows a woman lost in a dangerous wood and creates a shapeshifting story you’d be wise not to...
Free your mind with a book beautifully illustrated by Syrian-born Gulnar Hajo. Nour’s Escape follows a little girl with no family, no home and seemingly no escape. But as the story criss-crosses fantasy and reality, you’ll discover how freeing a...
Goethe’s West-Eastern Divan, the poet’s personal attempt to broaden European horizons by exploring the concept of the Other and creating a poetic dialogue between East and West, marks its 200th anniversary this year. Persian academic Narguess Farzad...
ROARRRR! Drop in and join Big Cat author Emma Lazell to help her create a very big Big Cat. Make sure you place him in his natural surroundings with lots of green and leafy collaging – and be sure to remember to give him his stripes.
Former Labour MP and writer Chris Mullin returns to the murky political world of his bestselling classic A Very British Coup, in new novel The Friends of Harry Perkins. Brexit is complete, yet the nation remains divided. Fred Thompson, former aide to...
Two prolific European poets come together. Edinburgh Makar Alan Spence adds to his illustrious career of novels, short stories and poems with two new pamphlet collections Zenscotlit and Thirteen Ways of Looking at Tulips. Prague’s City Poet Sylva...
What is the process of turning an idea into a book? How can the same idea appear as very different stories? Meet two Edinburgh authors, each putting their spin on the legend of the Loch Ness Monster. Lari Don’s The Treasure of the Loch Ness Monster...
Scotland’s history has been told many times, but never exclusively by its women. Rosemary Goring’s powerful anthology Scotland: Her Story, draws on court records, treasurer’s accounts, diaries, chapbooks, newspapers and eye-witness statements,...
Chef Joudie Kalla’s new book Baladi is more than a recipe collection – it’s a tribute to a homeland; an exploration of Palestinian culture through its overlooked cuisine. Kalla, a graduate of Leith’s School of Food and Wine, has long been...
2019 Programme Launched: We Need New Stories 
