John Burnside and Jon Kalman Stefansson (2015 Event)

Pankaj Mishra: The Personal is Always Political A prolific, award-winning writer, Pankaj Mishra has kept us waiting two decades for his second novel; this event, with one of our bravest and most insightful contemporary writers, is not to be missed. Seeking a way out of his small railway town, Arun… Chris Riddell (2016 Event) Award-winning author Siobhan Dowd died in 2007, bequeathing her royalties to a trust which aims to bring the joy of reading to those who need it most. In 2016, the Book Festival's Siobhan Dowd Trust Memorial Lecture was delivered by Children's Laureate… Sabrina Mahfouz: Notes on the British Empire Sabrina Mahfouz has often experienced the sly questioning underneath much of British society’s treatment of her: as someone of Middle Eastern heritage, can she be trusted? Confronting what’s at play here, These Bodies of Water takes us to the Middle… Patricia Lockwood: Postmodernism for the Internet Generation Priestdaddy memoirist, poet, editor and Twitter sensation: Patricia Lockwood has assumed many mantles in her career yet is not defined by any of them. Her debut novel has achieved this same feat. No One is Talking About This is the story of a perennially… Eliza Anyangwe & Emmanuel Iduma: Outriders Africa – Deconstructing the Travelogue As part of the Book Festival's Outriders programme exploring the shifting landscapes of contemporary Africa, writers born in two neighbouring countries interrogate what means to be the 'other' in pan-African society. Originally from Cameroon and raised in… Scottish BAME Writers Network: Afrofuturism - Present Realities, Possible Futures How can Afrofuturism help the African diaspora in Scotland engender a better future for today? Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to reimagine the history of the African diaspora, while invoking hopeful… R-Words: Infectious Poetry for Everyone  As we navigate the pandemic we have all learned more medical terminology and nothing has been more important than the ‘R number’, explaining the rate of infection. Yet for writer and theatre director Ross Mackay, the R number is the inspiration behind his… Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? In 2018, The Panic! Arts report found that working-class people are dramatically under-represented in the arts, and it is – as many have long-known – a culture dominated by the white middle class. So how do you make your own way, and bring people along… Chris Brookmyre: One Island, Seven Secrets How much can really go wrong at a hen party? Bride-to-be Jen is about to find out. A private island provides a getaway for the celebrations, but it quickly becomes the backdrop to chaos, a disappearance and an anonymous blackmailer demanding that one of… Joshua Wong: Hong Kong’s Champion for Democracy ‘Hong Kongers will never surrender, because we have nowhere else to turn.’ At age 14, Joshua Wong co-founded the student activist group Scholarism, protesting the enforcement of Chinese National Education in Hong Kong. He went on to become a very public…