Scottish Books Events: April 2024

Let's start big: Paisley Book Festival is on this month, with a stunning programme of authors and bookish events for your (reading) pleasure running from 25-28 April. Check out the likes of Andrew McMillan on working class literature, poetry sensation Len Pennie, playwright and poet Imogen Stirling and Olumide Popoola launching her new novel Like Water Like Sea.

There're also more book launches in both Edinburgh and Glasgow: the former sees acclaimed rapper George the Poet launch their memoir Track Record: Me, Music and the War on Blackness at Assembly Rooms in association with The Portobello Bookshop (23 Apr), while the latter sees lauded poet Jackie Kay launch their highly anticipated new collection May Day at Glasgow Women's Library (23 Apr). Over at Lighthouse Bookshop, meanwhile, there's two excellent activist events: Shanice Octavia McBean discusses ideas from her book Abolition Revolution in a public meeting hosted at Augustine United (3 Apr), while writers Jenni Daiches, Colin Donati, Lizzie Eldridge, David Manderson and Mario Relich explore ideas of freedom in Scotland and Palestine in a solidarity event in association with Scottish PEN (5 Apr). 

If storytelling is your thing, meanwhile, acclaimed Kenyan-Scottish storyteller Mara Menzies is at the Scottish Storytelling Centre for a magical evening (10 Apr), while at the same venue there's also a Queer Folk Tales night (11 Apr) and an evening of readings and stories in celebration of their current Word of Mouth exhibition (5 Apr). And for something more hands-on, poet Annie Muir is running a series of six-week poetry workshops both online and off through April and May (16 Apr-23 May), and there's also drop-in zine making if you want to get super crafty (17 Apr).