Scottish Books Events: August 2023

You know it’s August when there are officially Too Many good things to fit into a column, even when your word count gets extended. So without further ado – book events! There’s so many!

And where better to start than the Edinburgh International Book Festival (12-28 Aug), which boasts even by its own standards an incredibly, ridiculously, packed programme. Find the likes of Nikesh Shukla (22-24 Aug), Bernadine Evaristo (25 Aug) and Leïla Slimani (22-24 Aug) dropping by the festival’s home at Edinburgh College of Art.

There’s also the festival’s star-packed and timely Climate Strand with the likes of Ben Okri (13 Aug), David Farrier (14 & 21 Aug), and The Greta Thunberg (13 Aug), close reads where you can delve into works by the likes of Saidiya Hartman and Joni Mitchell with the likes of Jess Brough (14 Aug) and Amy Key (17 Aug), and gorgeous gorgeous events with gorgeous gorgeous local authors (we can’t wait for Eleanor Thom and Wiz Wharton (20 Aug), Heather Parry, K Patrick and Camila Sosa Villada (21 Aug), Amber Husain and Daisy Lafarge (19 Aug), and Hannah Lavery and Marjorie Lotfi (16 Aug)). And don’t forget their newly brought-back lates strand, including a celebration of Scotland’s arts scene curated by Arusa Qureshi (26 Aug).

For more Edinburgh book festivals, head to Book Fringe (12-28 Aug) – this year organised by indie bookshops Lighthouse Bookshop, Typewronger, and Argonaut Books. They have a gorgeous radical programme of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry – our highlights include Harry Nicholas of A Trans Man Walks Into a Gay Bar, and Akwugo Emejulu's Fugitive Feminism. There’s also non-festival events (gasp), including T.L. Hulchu launching the third book in the spellbinding Edinburgh Nights series, The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle at The Portobello Bookshop (2 Aug), and a new Lovecrumbs Reading of poetry (11 Aug).

While Edinburgh does get all the limelight in August, that doesn’t mean the rest of Scotland doesn’t have things going on (we promise). Jenni Fagan and John Niven launch their new memoirs (Ootlin and O Brother, respectively) in Waterstones Argyle Street (22 Aug). Govanhill International Festival (1-13 Aug) has a book strand including authors such as Harry Josephine Giles, while Glasgow Zine Library hosts Boxing Day, an hour-long poetry performance by William Keohane exploring dissociation, anxiety and the mental health impact of indefinitely waiting for gender affirming healthcare (6 Aug).