Saturday 9 August 15:00 - 16:30
Join Marjorie Lotfi and Claire Urquhart from Open Book, a charity organising shared reading and creative writing groups, as they lead a warm, lively discussion on a selection of poems that chime with our 2025 Festival theme of Repair…
Saturday 9 August 16:00 - 18:00
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Returning for a third year, the highly anticipated Loud Poets Grand Slam Final promises to be a Festival highlight, combining music with fist-thumping, side-tickling poetry. Having qualified through a series of nationwide Slams, 12 poets compete for a £3……
Sunday 10 August 16:00 - 17:00
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Hear Darwish - described as one of the foremost contemporary Arab poets - discuss what it means to survive, how to avoid bring desensitised by conflict, and the incredible tenacity of the human spirit…
Sunday 10 August 18:15 - 19:15
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Join Kirsty Logan as she chats to a warm and lively panel of queer writers, including Harry Josephine Giles and Alan Hollinghurst, as they share the books which inspired them as writers and the stories they wish they could have read sooner…
Monday 11 August 14:00 - 15:00
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'Like Dante entering hell through a rip in the universe, Makoha enters history.' So wrote the Guardian about Nick Makoha, winner of the Ivan Juritz and Poetry London Prizes. He joins us to discuss how his latest collection was partly inspired by his time……
Monday 11 August 18:00 - 19:00
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To celebrate his inaugural year as Makar, Peter Mackay brings together poets working in Scotland today who showcase the range of languages being spoken and written in across the country…
Monday 11 August 19:15 - 20:15
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We believe that everyone has a story to tell and that stories help us make sense of our world. We’ve challenged local writers and poets, this year, to respond to 2025’s Festival theme: Repair. Join us as we bring them together to perform their work: a……
Tuesday 12 August 13:30 - 14:30
This workshop with Scotland’s Makar, Peter Mackay (Pàdraig MacAoidh), is a playful exploration of translation (especially of poetry) and the kinds of practical, ethical, and comedic difficulties that arise: false friends, disappearing cases, and the…
Tuesday 12 August 18:00 - 19:00
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At this unique event, we introduce this trailblazing poet, academic, and broadcaster, and discovers how a son of the Western Isles became the fifth incumbent in this totemic Scottish literary role. Tha fàilte air càch!…
Wednesday 13 August 10:15 - 11:15
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In an effort to decolonise the art of nature writing, Faber's Nature Matters anthology draws together work by nearly 80 different poets from the African, Asian, and Caribbean diaspora, on themes encompassing climate crisis, protest, Indigenous wisdom and…
Full 2025 Book Festival programme is announced with key theme of Repair 
