Explore the Festival programme

The Edinburgh International Book Festival takes place from 15-30 August 2026. The programme will be available in June 2026. Sign up for our ebulletins or follow us on social media to hear announcements and updates.

In the meantime, you can enjoy watching nearly 150 events from the 2025 Festival on our website. 

2024 Book Festival Highlights

EIBF - Phographer- Aly Wight - Sun 11-08-24 - File-07200
EIBF_2024-08-13_image by Mihaela Bodlovic (17)
EIBF - Phographer- Aly Wight - Sat 10-08-24 - File-6708
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2030-MarkDrakefordJohnSwinney by Roberto Ricciuti
BT6A0513 - Marian Keyes by Sally Jubb

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Look, Listen & read

The Front List: Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Front List: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an award-winning, uncompromising commentator on race relations, truth, and justice, especially in America. He’ll discuss the urgent need for the West, and particularly America, to free itself from the myths it tells itself…

Ian Rankin: A Rebus for the Dark Times (2020 Event)
Ian Rankin: A Rebus for the Dark Times (2020 Event)

We have all become familiar with living through these strange times but for Ian Rankin 2020 was unusual in more ways than one. For starters, even though the number one bestselling…

Paul Mendez & Derek Owusu: Thorny Intersections (2020 Event)
Paul Mendez & Derek Owusu: Thorny Intersections (2020 Event)

How do you get the upper hand on a world you don’t yet understand? That’s the burning question at the heart of two striking debuts that scrape away the coming-of-age clichés…

Libertad, palabra delgada, cáscara vacía / Freedom, fragile word, empty shell
Libertad, palabra delgada, cáscara vacía / Freedom, fragile word, empty shell by Juan Tomás Avila Laurel

Cuando todavía éramos ingenuos, y porque creíamos que el mundo era bueno y que había gente buena interesada en practicar el bien, la palabra libertad la asimilábamos a algo físico, real. / Back when we were still naïve, and because we thought the world…