Nicola Sturgeon, her former chief of staff Liz Lloyd, new Scottish Greens MSP Q Manivannan, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin will appear at Scotland’s biggest literary celebration alongside best-selling authors John Grisham, Juno Dawson, Mark Haddon, Matt Haig and Ann Patchett.
Global conflicts, the rise of the far right, online conspiracies, immigration and the growth of artificial intelligence will be among the major issues tackled at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which will be staged under the banner of “Changing Your Mind".
Festival director Jenny Niven said the 2026 theme was designed to be “both an invitation and a provocation” at a time when “opinions seem increasingly polarised and online debate is so divisive”.
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Writing in the official programme, she said: “In a fast-changing world, the ability to rethink may be more important than ever.”
Special festival guests include Facebook whistle-blower Sarah Wynn-Williams, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, online safety activist Baroness Beeban Kidron, broadcasters Lyse Doucet and Lewis Goodall, The New Yorker journalist Fergus McIntosh and former Conservative Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Other star attractions in the 2026 line-up are expected to include UK poet laureate Simon Armitage, Diana Gabaldon, the creator of the Outlander series of novels, the historians Tom Holland and David Olusoga, whose co-star in The Celebrity Traitors, Edinburgh-born Harriet Tyce, will be launching her new book, Witch Trial, broadcaster-turned-author Lorraine Kelly, and Andrew Lownie, biographer of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson.
Leading Scottish authors discussing their latest books include Jenni Fagan, Douglas Stuart, Irvine Welsh, Maggie O’Farrell, David Keenan, Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre and Graeme Armstrong.
Q Manivannan, who was appointed culture spokesperson for the Scottish Greens at Holyrood after the election, will be appearing in a celebration of poets from around the world who are currently living in Scotland, which will be led by the Scots Makar Peter Mackay, the first Gaelic poet to take on the role.
Nicola Sturgeon, who launched her memoir Frankly at last year’s book festival, is due to publish the paperback edition with a “chunky new chapter” in August. She will be returning to the event to discuss “how to lead a country” with Sanna Marin, who became Finland’s youngest Prime Minister in 2019.
Ms Sturgeon will also host a conversation about “principles and power dynamics in a divided world” between the Sudanese-Australian writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied and the Indian poet and writer Meena Kandasamy.
Liz Lloyd, who was one of Ms Sturgeon’s key advisers while she was First Minister, joined the board of the book festival ahead of last year’s event.
Now working as a political analyst and adviser, she will be appearing with polling guru John Curtice and journalist and author David Torrance at this year’s event to explore the new post-election landscape in Scotland, and also host a discussion between Jeremy Hunt and journalist John Kampfner on what Britain has to offer on the world stage in the 21st century.
Gordon Brown will be interviewed about his new book, The Future Starts With Us - which explores the links between global instability and the breakdown of civic life - by Lyse Doucet, who will discuss her own broadcasting career covering conflicts around the world in a separate event.
A year on from controversy over a lack of gender critical writers in its programme, the festival will be hosting a “good faith discussion” which will feature a panel of legal experts looking at the impact of last year’s Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman.
The festival will also feature special events exploring the future of feminism and the legacy of inspirational women, featuring social justice campaigner Talat Yaqoob, historian Helen O’Shea, broadcaster Gemma Cairney, novelist Natsuo Kirino, author Candice Carty-Williams and actress Natasha Cottriall.
Darren McGarvey, the award-winning author, rapper and social commentator, has been invited to appear this August a year after he suggested that his books had been excluded, and discriminated against, by the festival.
The festival programme promises that the event will create space for "conversation, discovery, challenge and new perspectives".
Discussing this year’s Changing Your Mind theme, Ms Niven told The Herald: “We wanted to look at how polarised public conversation seems to have become and the idea of people taking very fixed positions on social media.
“A lot of it is down to how we now consume information on the internet, how the internet has developed and changed how we absorb information, and how we are being fed stories and narratives.
“We think the festival can provide a real antidote to all of that, where people can sit down and have longer, more nuanced conversations about pressing issues.
“We have a lot of events looking at the political landscape under this year’s theme, but we also wanted to explore the latest discoveries in neuroscience and psychology, and delve into the impact of the rise of AI on human beings.”
Scotland’s punk rock origins, as well as the music of The Beatles, David Bowie and Simple Minds will all feature in the festival.
The singer-songwriters Kathryn Joseph, Emmy The Great, Corinne Bailey Rae, Hamish Hawk and Dave Hook are all due to make appearances.
Comedy stars venturing into the literary world for the event include Nish Kumar, Mark Watson, Tim Key, Sara Pascoe, Fern Brady, Sanjeev Kohli, Marjolein Robertson, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.
Justin Currie, frontman of the Scottish pop-rock band Del Amitri, will be among the special guests appearing in a special event recalling the life and legacy of David Bowie, 10 years on from the death of the iconic rock star.
The Rezillos singer Fay Fife will be performing in a specially-formed supergroup at an event which will mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival of punk rock in Scotland, which is celebrated in Grant McPhee’s new book Caledonia Screaming.
The BBC will be taking over the event’s Spiegeltent venue for a week of live and recorded broadcasts, which will be hosted by the likes of Kirsty Wark, Clive Anderson, Des Clarke, James Naughtie, Grant Stott and Arlene Stuart from the festival’s main site at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.
However axed Radio Scotland arts presenters Nicola Meighan and Len Pennie will be making a number of prominent appearances across the festival months after being taken off the airwaves.
Two years after the festival controversially parted company with long-time sponsor Baillie Gifford, organisers have unveiled a new partnership with rail operator LNER.
Sir Ian Rankin, who will be interviewing John Grisham when the multi-million selling American writer makes his debut appearance at the event, will be financially backing the event for the second year, along with fellow Scottish author Jenny Colgan.
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