Scottish Books Events: May 2023

You’ll be pleased to hear that May’s a bumper month for books! Start your summer early with a trip to the Isle of Arran for the McLellan Poetry Fringe Festival (11-14 May). There’ll be appearances from William Letford, Magi Gibson, Kevin P. Gilday and last year’s winner of the McLellan Poetry Competition Annaliese Broughton. Or, if you’d prefer to be loch-side, head to Ullapool Book Festival in the northwest Highlands (5-6 May). Writers Alan Bissett, Kirstin Innes, Michael Pedersen and Don Paterson will be among those in attendance.

For those wanting to stay closer to the central belt, why not pop along to Portobello Bookshop on Edinburgh’s North Sea coast. Events this month include Kae Tempest launching their new collection Divisible by Itself and One at Assembly Rooms (4 May); Heather Parry is discussing her debut short story collection This Is My Body, Given For You (16 May) in the shop. Also premiering a short story collection is comedian Josie Long – her book Because I Don’t Know What You Mean and What You Don’t will be launched at Freemason’s Hall on 22 May. Rounding the month off is Nadine Aisha Jassat, who is releasing her debut middle-grade novel The Stories Grandma Forgot (and How I Found Them) on 30 May, also in the book shop.

Elsewhere in Edinburgh, Chris Carse Wilson’s debut Fray will launch at National Library of Scotland (4 May). Toppings & Co will host nearly twenty writers this month, including broadcaster Sally Magnusson with her latest novel Music in the Dark and some viral TikTok BookTok faves – Olivie Blake (author of The Atlas Six) will launch One for my Enemy alongside fellow YA writer Susan Dennard with The Luminaries (23 May), and Rebecca F Kuang will be discussing her book Yellowface on 31 May.

Glasgow too will be packed with writers over the course of the nine-day Aye Write Festival (19-28 May). There’ll be appearances from Ruby Wax, Darren McGarvey, Leila Aboulela, Val McDermid and Janey Godley, among dozens of others.