Tomorrow sees the start of the Edinburgh International Book Festival – a two-week long public celebration of the written word.
This year’s festival takes place from 13-29 August, and brings together more than 800 writers and thinkers from all over the world.
This year’s highlight include:
Alongside the general programme is a children’s programme, which has grown to become a “leading showcase for children’s writers and illustrators”.
The book festival’s home is Charlotte Square Gardens, which is transformed into a tented village for the duration of the festival and will welcome some 220,000 visitors.
The book festival also runs its own independent bookselling operation, with all the proceeds from the sale of books invested in the running of the festival. The book festival is a charitable organisation which annually raises more than 80 percent of its own funds.
This year’s festival takes place from 13-29 August, and brings together more than 800 writers and thinkers from all over the world.
This year’s highlight include:
- Erica Jong talking about her coming-of-age novel, Fear of Dying
- Han Kang talking about the Man Booker prize-winning The Vegetarian, and writing fiction in translation with her translator Deborah Smith
- Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown talking about globalisation and the new populism
- Mark Thompson, formerly the Director General of the BBC, arguing why the internet and 24 hour news has failed to lead to better democracy
- Lebanese novelist Nada Awar Jarrar and Palestinian poet Ghassan Zaqtan discussing their fictional accounts of encounters with refugees
- And the newly appointed Scottish Makar, Jackie Kay, being interviewed by Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland
Alongside the general programme is a children’s programme, which has grown to become a “leading showcase for children’s writers and illustrators”.
The book festival’s home is Charlotte Square Gardens, which is transformed into a tented village for the duration of the festival and will welcome some 220,000 visitors.
The book festival also runs its own independent bookselling operation, with all the proceeds from the sale of books invested in the running of the festival. The book festival is a charitable organisation which annually raises more than 80 percent of its own funds.
