Scotland’s biggest literary celebration will bring together almost 600 writers when the event returns in August.
Guests from 41 countries will appear across more than 600 events during the 16-day programme, which will be staged across the Edinburgh Futures Institute, the McEwan Hall and new venue Greyfriars Kirk.
Stars of stage, screen and stand-up comedy will join best-selling novelists, broadcasters, academics, activists and thinkers from August 15-30.
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- Edinburgh International Book Festival expands into 17th century venue
- My pick of the Scottish shows to look out for at the Edinburgh Fringe
As the dust settles on the festival’s line-up launch, here are my early picks of the programme, including likely hot tickets, one-off occasions and festival surprises, ahead of tickets going on sale on June 25.
Emma-Lee Moss, Spiegeltent, August 15.
The new book from the singer-songwriter, who has released four critically acclaimed albums as Emmy The Great, recalls her upbringing in Hong Kong, the pop stars she idolised as a child and the impact of her family moving to London when she was 11.
Moss, whose book My Cantopop Nights explores her attempts to reconcile the different sides of her heritage, will be performing some of her songs at her main event and also hosting a songwriting workshop the following day.
Hip-Hop Wallace, Spiegeltent, August 16.
Ahead of its forthcoming tour in the autumn, book festival audiences will be given a taste of a new hip hop musical exploring whether the celebrated Scottish knight William Wallace, the freedom fighter who inspired the blockbuster movie Braveheart, was “a hero, a rebel or simply a myth”.
Playwright Rob Drummond, singer-songwriter Dave Hook and director Orla O’Loughlin will be discussing their collaboration offering a new take on one of the most celebrated figures from Scotland’s history books.
Irvine Welsh, Venue T, August 16
Thirty years on from the release of the screen adaptation of his debut novel Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh will introduces a brand new set of characters in his next book.
A blisteringly hot Las Vegas provides the backdrop for his latest novel - Can Nothing Save Us? – which will focus on a wealthy, divided family engulfed by paranoia, drug-fuelled excess and explosive reckoning.
Val McDermid and Jo Sharp, McEwan Hall, August 17.
It is 16 years since the ambitious but ultimately doomed attempt to found a new Scottish colony in Central America inspired a major new theatre production premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Now best-selling crime writer Val McDermid and geographer Jo Sharp have collaborated on This Door of the Season, a “fictional retelling” of how the collapse of the late 17th century Darien scheme set an independent Scotland on a path towards a political union with England.
How To Lead a Country, Venue T, August 18.
A year on from the publication of her eagerly-awaited memoir at the festival, former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will return for an in-conversation event with Sanna Marin, the former Prime Minister of Finland, who has published her own account of her trailblazing political career.
The festival says the event, which will be staged in the wake of the paperback edition of Ms Sturgeon’s book Frankly, will explore how the pair balanced “hope with pragmatism” and “a personal life with a public one”.
Nonomiya/Song of Rona Island, Greyfriars Kirk, August 24 and 25.
Scottish and Japanese folklore, myths and music will be explored in two special performances at Greyfriars Kirk, the book festival’s newest venue this summer.
Japanese musical theatre performers will bring to life a piece based on the world’s oldest novel as well as new music inspired by the Scottish writer Kathleen Jamie’s essay on Rona, an abandoned Hebridean island.
Sound and Visions, Spiegeltent, August 23
Ten years on from the death of David Bowie, the writer and broadcaster Nicola Meighan will lead a celebration of the life and legacy of the iconic rock star.
Singer-songwriter Justin Currie and crime writer Val McDermid will be among the special guests, with Glasgow indie outfit Lung Leg lined up as the house band for the night.
John Grisham, McEwan Hall, August 25.
The lawyer-turned-author has sold more than 500 million books around the world since his debut novel A Time to Kill was published in 1989.
Festival favourite Sir Ian Rankin will be interviewing “the godfather of the legal thriller” about his career in the American writer’s debut appearance at the event.
The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark, Venue B, August 26
Twenty years on from the death of one of Edinburgh’s most celebrated authors, there has been a revival of interest in the writer and her work.
Ahead of a new National Theatre of Scotland production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the planned creation of a new statue earmarked for a site in Princes Street Gardens, author James Bailey will discuss his new biography of Spark.
Caledonia Screaming, Spiegeltent, August 28
Half a century on from the birth of punk, author Grant McPhee’s new book Caledonia Screaming charts the explosion of the scene in Scotland.
Hosted by broadcaster Nicola Meighan, the book festival’s celebratory event will climax with a one-off performance by a specially formed Scottish supergroup involving Fay Fife, Ken McCluskey, Alex Fergusson and James King.
Seasonal Quartet, Greyfriars Kirk, August 28
Scottish author Ali Smith’s acclaimed series of novels named after the four seasons have inspired the creation of four new pieces of music by a Netherlands-based collective.
The Inverness-born writer will be joining the New European Ensemble to bring to life her books, which were published between 2016 and 2020, and their themes of interconnectedness, migration and the “unique context of the modern world”.
Fern Brady, Venue T, August 28
The Scottish stand-up comedy star has already won widespread acclaim with her memoir Strong Female Character, which saw Brady explore her experiences of being autistic.
Now she will be previewing her debut novel, High Energy Unpleasant, which is billed as an exploration of “bodily autonomy, medical misogyny and the repercussions of what happens when your internal world is suffocated”.
Michael Pedersen and Friends, Spiegeltent, August 29
The festival has promised a “glorious, riotous, chat show-style evening” in the company of the Edinburgh Makar.
Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart, whose new novel John of John has just been published, Edinburgh-born indie-folk singer Iona Zajac, and wildlife photographer Gordon Buchanan will be among the poet and novelist’s special guests.
Corinne Bailey Rae, August 30.
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter pops up in the children’s programme to discuss the picture book she has created, inspired by her best-known hit.
Put Your Records On focuses on Bea, a young girl who discovers that her great aunt Portia’s attic is stuffed full of songs to suit every mood and emotion.
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