Claudia Rankine: 'Words Are Out of Order'

Captioned

We are delighted to welcome Claudia Rankine, author of the ground-breaking American Lyric trilogy, to discuss the Penguin Modern Classics reissue of her daring 2001 masterpiece, Plot. A standout work in Rankine’s stellar career, Plot is an engrossing meditation on pregnancy and its effects: the potential bodily cost, the loss of self, and the sense of impending stasis. In conversation with Marjorie Lotfi.

Photo: John Lucas

Book Festival News

Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024 Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024
Friday 13 December

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

John Kay: The Cost of Change John Kay: The Cost of Change If Scotland is to become an independent country, it has three options for currency: adopt the euro, keep the pound sterling or create a new Scottish currency – and each has its own limitations. Leaving a financial union and creating an entirely new system… Interview - Ella Frances Sanders & Dominick Tyler (2015) Interview - Ella Frances Sanders & Dominick Tyler (2015) Before they took to the stage to talk about their new books, language enthusiasts Dominick Tyler and Ella Frances Sanders joined us in Charlotte Square Gardens for a sneak preview. Also hear from some audience members to see what they thought about the… A C Grayling (2015 Event) A C Grayling (2015 Event) A Professor of Philosophy, A C Grayling believes that his subject shouldn’t float above in an ivory tower, but take an active role in society. His most recent published works have looked at the world in a time of war and perpetual conflict. Whether… Peter Ross: The Stories and Glories of Graveyards Peter Ross: The Stories and Glories of Graveyards How is it possible that a book about graveyards can be so full of life? The colourful characters who populate Peter Ross’s non-fiction book, A Tomb with a View, include a bisexual Italian Bohemian hedonist named Marchesa Luisa Casati, who is buried in… Raynor Winn: A Walk on the Wild Side Raynor Winn: A Walk on the Wild Side In The Salt Path, Raynor Winn told the story of a healing walk on the South West Coast Path with her unwell husband, Moth. Winn’s third book, Landlines, recounts Raynor and Moth’s most ambitious walk yet – an epic 1,000-mile journey starting with the Cape… Omar Robert Hamilton, Sanaa Seif & Ahdaf Soueif: A Decade of Resistance Omar Robert Hamilton, Sanaa Seif & Ahdaf Soueif: A Decade of Resistance Egyptian writer and political activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah's British citizenship was ratified in December 2021 while he was in an Egyptian prison, where he has been detained, almost continuously, since 2013. Today, his translators and family members Omar… Elizabeth Knox: The Political Force of Fantasy Elizabeth Knox: The Political Force of Fantasy In January 2020, an article appeared on Slate with the headline, 'This New Zealand Fantasy Masterpiece Needs to Be Published in America, Like, Now.' The article went viral with readers as they raced to order 'the majestic, brain-bending novel' from New… Anne Enright: Flying the Nest  Anne Enright: Flying the Nest  Anne Enright, one of Ireland’s most celebrated authors, returns to discuss her new novel, The Wren, The Wren. The possibility of freedom and the pain of separation affect mother and daughter differently when Carmel watches Nell go out into the world. Join… Arundhati Roy talks to Nicola Sturgeon at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Arundhati Roy talks to Nicola Sturgeon at the Edinburgh International Book Festival What did Arundhati Roy do between the publication of her Booker-winning debut The God of Small Things in 1997 and her extraordinary follow-up, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness two decades later? In a stunning new book of essays, we have the definitive… Kirstin Innes: Who is Clio Campbell? Kirstin Innes: Who is Clio Campbell? Rarely does a novel set the Scottish literary scene abuzz in the way Scabby Queen has. Sexy rock starlet, veteran political activist, symbol of a nation in decline — who really was Clio Campbell? In Kirstin Innis’s effervescent follow-up to her Not the…