Monthly e-news: March 2026 edition
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2026 Festival: 15 – 30 August
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Grab your diary, set your alarm: Key dates lie below!
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Hi friends. It’s March, and just like the spring flowers, Festival 2026 is about to erupt. It’s going to be bloomin’ marvellous.
In this month’s e-news we share:
Let’s go!
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Take note: Our 2026 announcement and on sale dates!
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It takes ten months to cook up the Festival, and you’re invited to the feast. We’re getting ready to reveal the nearly 600 events we’ve carefully lined up for you this August. So grab your diaries, mark the calendar, set your alarms… however you keep track of time, take note of these key dates now (plus, we’ll be dropping in to your inboxes at each stage juuusssst in case you somehow forget!).
It all begins in T-7 weeks… here’s the dates you need to know:
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First up: The Front List
In case you’re new to us or haven’t been to one of our Front List events before, this series welcomes the biggest names from the world of literature – and indeed beyond – to the stage of the spectacular McEwan Hall. These events will take place every day from Monday 17 August at a regular time of 13:00-14:00, with a few special evening events too… all will be revealed very soon:
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Announcement: Wednesday 29 April
On sale: Tuesday 5 May, 10:00
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Advance bookings: from Thursday 30 April
Members get early access. With membership starting at £60 per year (that’s just a fiver a month), join up now to join in early with these advance booking periods:
Champions: from Thursday 30 April
Friends Plus: from Friday 1 May
Friends: from Monday 4 May
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The main affair: Our full Festival Programme
We’ve got nearly 600 events lined up ready for reveal. But as well as scale, we’ve got range. From author interviews and panel talks to our special musical performances and commissions, you’re sure to find an event (and we bet more than one) that will sing to you.
All that’s left to arrange is for you to be there. Here’s when you can browse the full programme and book in:
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Announcement: Tuesday 16 June
On sale: Thursday 25 June, 10:00
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Advance bookings: from Friday 19 June
Be the first to secure tickets, enjoy access to our exclusive Members lounge during the Festival (for some Member levels) and a range of other perks this year as a Member. Advance Member booking periods for our full Programme begin:
Champions: from Friday 19 June
Friends Plus: from Monday 22 June
Friends: from Tuesday 23 June
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‘Life in a Scotch Sitting-room Vol.0’ heads on tour
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A highlight of last year for the Book Festival team was our sell-out Life in a Scotch Sitting-room Vol. 0 performances starring the inimitable (and thoroughly delightful) Hamish Hawk. An original Book Festival production commissioned for the 2025 Festival, we loved experiencing Hamish’s lyrical homage to Scotland’s pre-eminent poet-eccentric Ivor Cutler – as did many of you!
It’s always great when a good thing gets to keep going, so we’re over the moon that Hamish is taking the show on a UK tour! And since the joy of Cutler-past and Hawk-present shouldn’t be limited to Scotland, folk in Manchester, Bristol, and London will get the chance to witness Hamish’s magic live, as well as those closer to home in Glasgow.
Tickets for all dates are now on sale (and most dates have limited availability already), but you can see what’s available here (we’ll keep our fingers crossed for you!).
Psssst… If these cities don’t suit you, please don’t despair – we’ve a secret you might like… watch this space!
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Reading recs: Newly nominated works by global female writers
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Sunday, March 8, was International Women’s Day 2026. Plus, the last few weeks have enjoyed the annual flurry of literature award longlist announcements and shortlist reveals. We’ve mixed these two ingredients together and present to you here our five-course reading menu of recently nominated fiction works by international female writers. Delicious, if we do say. Dig in!
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Heart the Lover by Lily King
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Shortlisted for Fiction Book of The Year at the British Book Awards 2026 and Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2026
This latest novel from American Lily King fills in a missing chapter in the life of a character from another of her novels (we won’t mention which, no spoilers here!). It’s the story of a love triangle, but not how you might initially think. Witty and wise, tender but tense, prepare yourself for a few gut punches in this short but moving story.
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Small Comfort by Ia Genberg
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Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026
We’ve all heard the phrase ‘money makes the world go round’. In Small Comfort, Swede Ia Genberg explores the trappings of just quite how. In this collection of five short stories, we meet five vastly different scenarios populated by five markedly different people, threaded together only by money and the dynamics that spin off from it; comfort, precariousness, ambition, greed, fulfilment, and vulgarity.
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We are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
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Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026
Argentinian Gabriela Cabezón Cámara summons a story that is passionate and transformational on many levels. A reimagining of the life of 15th century explorer Antonio de Erauso, who escaped a convent as a young girl to adventure as Antonio, the vivid setting of the jungle serves as a magical space available not only for personal metamorphosis, but the transformation of narratives and values too.
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The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
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Longlisted for the Woman’s Prize for Fiction 2026
What words would turn your life upside down? In The Correspondent from American Virginia Evans, the main character of Sybil faces such a situation. She’s sent letters every day for decades as her way of making sense of the world, totalling hundreds over the years. Yet it takes just one to send this orderly life into a tumble. But it’s not one she’s sent… it’s one she’s received. We love a book about the power of writing!
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A Guardian And A Thief by Megha Majumdar
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Longlisted for the Woman’s Prize for Fiction 2026
This novel from Indian novelist Megha Majumdar takes place in a near-future dystopian Kolkata, where society is collapsing due to climate change. As one family prepares to emigrate to flee the worsening food shortages, another family’s fight for survival throws their plans far off course. Desperation and moral dilemmas permeate this story, exploring how even just one small act can have big and unexpected consequences.
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Catch up with our Communities showcases
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As a charity, we’re on a mission to spread the celebration of books, ideas and stories, and one of the most powerful ways we do this is through our year-round Communities projects.
We’ve been busy in the start of 2026. Busy planning projects, busy delivering them, and busy making sure you know all about them.
If you’ve somehow missed seeing us share some of the ways we connect books and writers with people who might not otherwise have regular access to them, here’s your chance to catch up!
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That’s all from us for now. Keep up with all the latest from the Book Festival on our social media (@edbookfest), and we’ll be back in your inboxes next month. See you then!
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