This year the Edinburgh International Book Festival runs between 15th and 30th August at their welcoming home of the Edinburgh Futures Institute, which you’ll find on the edge of the city’s Old Town. The site becomes a literary oasis as the rest of Edinburgh rages all around. And well worth a visit for that alone.
This year’s programme has almost 600 writers from 41 countries and is arguably more diverse than ever before, with the overarching theme of ‘Changing Your Mind’ suggesting and encouraging a welcome openness and candour.
Here’s SNACK’s guide to 10 things to see at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival.
Tariq Ashkanani & Kirsty Lockwood: Breaking the Silence
17th Aug | 13:30 – 14:30
Venue NW
Scottish crime fiction continues to go from strength to strength, often defying and subverting genre assumptions and stereotypes. This event does just that, bringing together 2025 McIlvanney Prize winner Tariq Ashkanani, to talk about his new novel The Hollow Boys, and Kirsty Lockwood, whose debut We Know What You Did has been shortlisted for this year’s Bloody Scotland Debut Prize on the first all-female shortlist. With such a critical pedigree, if crime fiction is your thing then this is a must-attend event.
Tariq Ashkanani & Kirsty Lockwood will be in conversation with Bryan Burnett.
The Front List: Kae Tempest
18th Aug | 13:00 – 14:00
McEwan Hall
Kae Tempest made his name as a spoken-word poet of some note, renowned for electric live performances and personal and powerful poetry. Also a well-regarded playwright and musician, this event will focus on the new novel Having Spent Life Seeking which focuses on family, forgiveness, redemption, and the power of love.
With the promise of performance, as well as what is bound to be an entertaining and insightful conversation with chair Michael Pedersen, this promises to be a highlight of this year’s festival.
Graeme Armstrong: Raveheart
19th Aug | 17:30 – 18:30
Courtyard Theatre
For many, the most eagerly-awaited book of this year, and in many years, is Graeme Armstrong’s Raveheart, the follow up to his feted debut novel The Young Team. Already one of Scotland’s most acclaimed writers – named one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2023 – this is the chance to hear all about the new novel and the inspirations behind it, which include politics, identity, class, and musical obsession, but also to discuss Armstrong’s extraordinary career to date, and perhaps get his own take on the incredible reception given to The Young Team.
Graeme will be talking with fellow author Ali Millar.
Jem Calder & Derek Owusu: New Masculinities
21st Aug | 17:00 – 18:00
Venue NW
Discussions on and about masculinity have never been more prevalent and relevant. Jem Calder and Derek Owusu will discuss the subject through the lens of their latest novels I Want You to Be Happy and Borderline Fiction, respectively considering what the concept of masculinity means in a digital age.
This has the potential to be among the most thought-provoking and contemporary discussions of this year’s festival. Add in contributions from the chair Andrés N. Ordorica, who has also written widely on the subject, and this could be an unforgettable event.
Jenni Fagan: The Delusions
21st Aug | 18:45 – 19:45
Venue T
Every new Jenni Fagan publication is to be welcomed and celebrated, whether it be poetry or prose. This year saw the publication of her latest novel The Delusions which addresses universal concerns through the prism of the intensely personal, bringing social realism to science fiction, blending the heavenly with the humdrum.
One of the most honest and artistic writers around, Jenni Fagan has an extraordinary ability to dig deep into what it means to be alive, and this is the opportunity not only to hear about her work, but discover what fires her writing.
Jenni will be chaired by Zoe Venditozzi.
Celebrating Zoë Wicomb: Writing Between Worlds
25th Aug | 15:45 – 16:45
Venue B
The late, great, Zoë Wicomb was a familiar face in and around the Edinburgh Book Festival over many years. This event will celebrate and honour the life and work of a writer and educator who was central to two national literatures: her native South Africa and that of Scotland.
Whether you were aware of Zoë Wicomb’s writing or not, this will be a warm and welcoming event, led by friends and colleagues including the writers Louise Welsh and Chitra Ramaswamy. There is no better place to discover your new favourite author and help commemorate a figure who so deeply affected the lives of many.
Hannah Lavery, Jennifer Wong & Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe: Migratory Patterns
27th Aug | 15:45 – 16:45
Venue B
Hannah Lavery’s latest collection of poetry Everything Everyday: A Year of Empty Promises is one of the most radical and righteous, and relevant, books of the year, setting the intensely personal against a backdrop of global events and what can seem like everyday tragedy.
At a time where we scroll all too easily past terrible news and views, these are poems which demand to be read and carefully considered. Hannah will be joined by fellow writers Jennifer Wong and Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe to examine themes of home, migration, and exile.
This event will be chaired by Catherine Wilson Garry.
Steve Mason: Failure is Always an Option
27th Aug | 18:00 – 19:00
Spiegeltent
Despite a rightly celebrated solo career, to many Steve Mason is still best known as a member of The Beta Band; they are back on tour after 20 years apart, something many music fans thought they would never see. Mason’s memoir Failure is Always an Option details the great highs, and terrible lows, of life on the road and off.
Mason is a compelling and witty storyteller in song, and this is a biography which promises to be well above the average rock’n’roll confessional and half-forgotten anecdotes. And who better to talk all about it with than broadcaster and journalist Nicola Meighan?
Put Your Records on with Corinne Bailey Rae
30th Aug | 14:00 – 15:00
Spiegeltent
Age recommendation 6 to 9
There will be over 150 events for children and families at the year’s festival, alongside the Schools programme. A stand out will be musician Corinne Bailey Rae’s Put Your Records On. If the name of both artist and that title sound familiar, then you are likely to have been listening to the radio around the mid-2000s when Bailey Rae had a number of hits, a number one album, and the single ‘Put Your Records On’ seemed to be everywhere.
It is now the name of a children’s picture book, and this promises to be a musical delight for kids and their parents.
Cal Flyn & J C Niala: The World Beyond Ourselves
30th Aug 2026 | 15:15 – 16:15
Venue NW
Cal Flyn is an award-winning author based in the Scottish Highlands who has become one of the leading commentators on, and chroniclers of, the changing state of the natural world. Previous publications, Thicker Than Water and Islands of Abandonment, were widely praised and acclaimed for being both insightful and accessible.
The latest The Savage Landscape continues to examine the complex relationship between humanity and the wilderness. Cal is joined by award-winning nature writer J C Niala whose book The New Eden looks at the ways nature survives, and even thrives, in our cities.
This event will be chaired by David Farrier.
Edinburgh International Book Festival 2026 will run 15th till 30th August
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source snackmag.co.uk ’
