The countdown is on – just one week to go!
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| As we speak (…or type), the Book Festival courtyard is being built by our amazing site team. If you wander up Middle Meadow Walk this weekend, you might notice that the Spiegeltent has popped up in the Edinburgh Futures Institute courtyard, along with a lot of picnic benches for reading and chatting between events, and the Festival Bookshop & Signing Tent (our friends at Waterstones tell us there are roughly 19,000 books arriving shortly with many, many thousands more to follow).
Before we kick off next weekend (remember that the Festival runs from 9 to 24 August), this week’s e-news brings you another rundown of some amazing events you won’t want to miss:
Okay, let’s go! |
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Genius author-chair pairings* we know you’ll love
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| *if we do say so ourselves 😌 |
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| The Book Festival is all about great conversations and we’re pretty sure the following events are going to bring you just that:
…to name just a few. Who are you most excited about? |
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Booker Prize for Fiction longlist announced
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| Congratulations to all the authors on this year’s Booker Prize for Fiction longlist, announced earlier this week. Did you know that FIVE authors from the ‘Booker dozen’ are appearing at the Festival this August?
Click the names below to find out more about each author’s event/s:
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| We’re also joined by last year’s winner Samantha Harvey, author of Orbital, this year’s International Booker Prize for Fiction winners (Heart Lamp author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi) and a host of previous winners as well as some long- and short- listed authors including:
📙 Richard Flanagan (2014’s winner with The Narrow Road to the Deep North)
📘 Ben Okri (1991’s winner with The Famished Road)
📗 James Kelman (1994’s winner for How Late It Was, How Late)
📕 Madeleine Thien (shortlisted for Do Not Say We Have Nothing in 2016)
📙 A L Kennedy (longlisted for the Man Booker in 2016 for Serious Sweet)
📘 Mark Haddon (longlisted for 2003’s Man Booker for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)
📗 Rachel Kushner (shortlisted in 2024 for Creation Lake, longlisted for 2018’s Man Booker for Mars Room)
📕 and Amitav Ghosh (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008 for Sea of Poppies) |
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A Day Out at the Book Festival: Thu 21 Aug
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For the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing you some specially curated ‘days out at the Festival’ from the Programme Team to inspire you to make a day of it. First up we’ve got Programme Manager Lilidh Kendrick’s picks for Thursday 21 August. |
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🕙 10:00-12:00 | The Work of Translation: A Workshop with Daniel Hahn
If you’re like me and find your creativity hits its peak in the morning (post caffeine), start your day with an interactive session diving deep into the art of translation, guided by renowned literary translator Daniel Hahn. |
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🕒 15:30-16:30 | The Women’s Prize for Fiction at 30
With your mind newly attuned to the power of language, it’s time to celebrate the storytellers who have blazed a trail. Look back on three decades of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and then head straight to the Festival Bookshop to pick up some former winners… |
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🍽️ 16:45 – 17:10 | Downtime and Checking Out the Repair Sheds
Take a little break before your next event and grab something to eat from one of our onsite suppliers – Lebanese halloumi wrap, anyone? – and a drink from the bar. Then wander over to our Repair Sheds for a relaxing (and free!) drop-in session on Japanese textile repair techniques (more on Repair Sheds next week). |
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🕕 17:45-18:45 | Deborah Frances-White: A Little More Conversation
From powerful storytelling to the art of conversation. Stroll over to the Courtyard Theatre where the guilty feminist herself, Deborah Frances-White, will be serving her signature wit and wisdom in a masterclass on navigating tricky conversations, zoning in on six highly charged topics. |
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🕗 20:00-21:30 | From Aotearoa to Alba: A Literary Exchange
As the sun begins to dip, see out your day in the Spiegeltent with a celebration of cross-cultural creativity. Let music, poetry, and performance carry you across oceans and back again, as Scotland and New Zealand come together in a high-energy finale (including a DJ set!). Your weekend starts now. |
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Fantabulous fun for families and young people
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| Needing some inspiration as the school holidays stretch on (and on, and on)? Here are some great events for children, families, and young people, for that last weekend before term begins. |
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Choosing a Name with Yasmin Hanif | Sun 10 Aug, 11:15-12:15, Ages 3-5
🧸 Join author Yasmin Hanif for interactive storytelling and games based on her debut picture book Abdullah’s Bear Needs a Name! Come and learn how important names are, and that while there are thousands of names across different cultures and languages, each one is very special. |
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War of the Worlds with Chris Mould | Sun 10 Aug, 12:15-13:15, Age 12-14
👽 Award-winning author and illustrator Chris Mould brings his latest graphic novel The War of the Worlds to this year’s festival. Based on the H G Wells original classic this is an intriguing re-telling for a brand-new audience. Hear him chat about how he illustrated, updated, and adapted this incredible sci-fi story. |
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| 💖 And remember that Monday 11 August is a full day of amazing YA events before schools are back! |
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And finally… events about AI
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| With it becoming increasingly rare to go a full day without AI coming up in casual conversation – never-mind the news – it’s no wonder that this year we have a range of events exploring the power, pitfalls, and promise of the world’s most unpredictable new industry. Check them out (or, if you’d rather avoid thinking about AI, enjoy this unrelated picture of the Gruffalo at last year’s Festival). |
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| 🎨 Explore how AI could support the next generation of young creatives with illustrator-author Chloë Savage and Tibo Torelli from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (Sun 10 Aug).
🧠 Hear Jenny Kleeman, Emily Postan, and Ben Alderson-Day talking about research into the potential benefits and moral considerations of tech solutions for mental health conditions (Fri 15 Aug).
✍️ Delve into the thorny issues around AI, copyright, and creative livelihoods and futures with a panel of speakers including Ewa Luger, Pip Thornton, and Heather Parry (Mon 18 Aug).
🔥 Uncover the recklessness, data sweatshops, and environmental impact behind the scenes with Empire of AI author, Karen Hao (Thu 21 Aug).
🤖 Hear Everyday Sexism Project’s Laura Bates talking about how misogyny is getting a chilling modern makeover with the emergence of things like deepfakes, cyber brothels, and AI girlfriends (Thu 21 Aug).
💡 And hear Richard Susskind cutting through the still-unfolding maze of uncertainty to show us how to think responsibly about our technological future (Sun 24 Aug). |
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| Okay, phew! That’s all… for now!
Keep up with all the latest from the Book Festival on our social media channels (@edbookfest) and we hope to see you in August!
2025 Book Festival dates: 9 – 24 August |
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