The Edinburgh International Book Festival is drawing big audiences online, but at least nobody needs to wait in the rain outside a tent in Charlotte Square.
And everyone can get in to see every author. Who is your favourite? Do tell us what you have seen as all of these events can be watched again on the Book Festival website. EXCEPT that you can only watch crime author, Val McDermid, and professor of geography, Jo Sharp, live at 8.30 tonight. There is no rerun, so tune in then to hear about the book that they have edited together called Imagine a Country. This came from the Book Festival theme last year of We Need New Stories, which prompted McDermid and Sharp to ask a selection of Scottish cultural folk to submit a piece of writing about their dreams for a better future. They will host acclaimed writers Doug Johnstone, Jo Clifford and Leila Aboulela, who read their contributions and discuss how we might create a better future for the greatest number of people.
This is a live event, with an author Q&A. 8.30pm
Wednesday 19 August 2020
5:30pm Maaza Mengiste: When Italy Invaded Ethiopia
To watch this event – click here
7:00pm Marian Keyes: Family Matters
To watch this event – click here
8:30pm Val McDermid & Jo Sharp: Shaping a Better Future
To watch this event – click here
Please note – this event will NOT be available On Demand
Programme for tomorrow: Thursday 20 August
9:30am Drawalong with Cressida Cowell – Facebook @edbookfest
10:00am Magical Moggies with Philip Ardagh & Rob Biddulph
Philip reads an exciting extract from The Nine Lives of Furry Purry Beancat: The Railway Cat, then draw along with illustrator Rob Biddulph as he shows you how to create your very own Beancat in this a-meow-zing event for curious cats everywhere.
This event is part of the Baillie Gifford Children’s Programme
To watch this event – click here
11:30am Gabriela Cabezón Cámara: The Female Gaucho
A leading figure in Argentine and Latin American literature, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara is one of the most prominent feminist intellectuals of the region. Her fourth novel, The Adventures of China Iron is shortlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize. Alongside her translators Fiona Mackintosh and Iona Macintyre, Cabezón Cámara discusses the challenges and delights of reimagining a classic work of literature with fellow Argentinian novelist and writer Mariana Enriquez.
This event is supported by the 2020 International Booker Prize
To watch this event – click here
1:00pm Yoko Ogawa & Stephen Snyder: The Memory of Forgetting
Shortlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize, Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police is a surreal and irresistible tale of a novelist and her editor, exploring the intangible, ephemeral nature of existence and remembering. Yoko Ogawa and Stephen Snyder join writer and Guardian critic Catherine Taylor to explore why a twenty-five year old vision of an imagined future remains so prescient and timely for readers today.
This event is supported by the 2020 International Booker Prize
To watch this event – click here
Please Note – This Event will NOT be available On Demand
2:30pm Tales of Two Planets: Making Climate Change Personal
In his new anthology Tales of Two Planets, writer and editor John Freeman brings together writers to tell us their personal stories of climate change and action around the world. Joining Freeman is Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat, Aotearoa poet Tayi Tibble and British-Malaysian photographer Ian Teh to share their stories.
This event is sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland
To watch this event – click here
Please note – This Event will NOT be available On Demand
4:00pm James Naughtie: The USA, from Reagan to Trump
On the Road is Naughtie’s compelling memoir of his American experiences during this period of change. In this event he discusses his adventures – and a rollercoaster half-century of USA life – with fellow BBC journalist Allan Little.
This event is sponsored by the Royal Bank of Scotland
To watch this event – click here
5:30pm Dean Atta & George Lester: Shine On
You will be hard-pushed to find two novels as gloriously unique, full of heart, and downright fabulous as Dean Atta’s The Black Flamingo and George Lester’s Boy Queen. Through the pages of their books you will be taken on journeys that are both lavish and moving, flamboyant and sensitive, feather-filled and triumphant – and in this unmissable event the pair discuss the soaring highs and profound lows of growing up and getting to know ourselves.
This event is part of the Baillie Gifford Children’s Programme
To watch this event – click here
7:00pm Suzanne Bonnar, Joy Harjo & Jackie Kay: Makar to Makar – Sonnets from Scotland
For her penultimate edition, staged as part of our 2020 online Book Festival, and supported by the National Theatre of Scotland, HOME Manchester and the University of Salford, Kay is joined by US poet laureate Joy Harjo, the first Native American to hold the position, for a poignant reflection on what it means to be the artistic voice of a nation.
This event is supported by British Council
To watch this event – click here
8:30pm Garth Greenwell: Intimate Truths
With spare, passionate language that revisits and builds on the world of his celebrated debut What Belongs to You, the author has created a sublime, glorious novel which unfolds over nine interlinking stories. In Cleanness, his unnamed narrator provides a searing examination of foreignness, intimacy, memory and desire as he reflects on his life in Sofia, Bulgaria.
To watch this event – click here
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
