Scottish Books Events: August 2024
There's two book festivals in town this month, as Edinburgh International Book Festival and Book Fringe take over Edinburgh. In Glasgow, meanwhile, the likes of Helen Charman and Emily Wilson launch books
Books fight it out with theatre (and art, and music, and comedy, and film) in August, with multiple festivals dedicated to all things literature and poetry to fill your days. Plucky grassroots festival Book Fringe makes a return, run once again by Edinburgh bookshop stalwarts Lighthouse Bookshop, Argonaut Books and Typewronger Books, with a gorgeous programme of fiction, nonfiction and poetry events to fill your lunchtime slots (and they’re all free? Crazy). Events we’re particularly excited for include Chitra Ramaswamy and Leah Hazard in conversation about motherhood and pregnancy at Argonaut Books (9 Aug), K Patrick and Rachael Allen in conversation at Typewronger (23 Aug), and poets Nat Raha and Harry Josephine Giles talking all things trans poetics at Lighthouse Bookshop (12 Aug).
Meanwhile, Edinburgh International Book Festival also makes a splash with a packed programme of events at their new home of the Edinburgh Futures Institute. Find the likes of Palestinian author Adania Shibli talking about her remarkable novella Minor Detail (11 Aug), video game writer turned novelist Holly Gramazio running a workshop on rules-based writing (10 Aug), Tommy Orange on the wealth of Indigenous literature (14 Aug), incredible translator Emily Wilson on her follow-up to The Odyssey (The Iliad, natch, 14 Aug), and critic, poet and academic Helen Charman on her blazing non-fiction book Mother State (24 Aug). There’s also some big names taking over McEwan Hall, from Salman Rushdie (17 Aug) to Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson (10 Aug).
And while Edinburgh definitely gets the bulk of the bookish glamour this month, Glasgow also has some gems on: Emily Wilson also appears at Waterstones Sauchiehall Street (15 Aug) and Helen Charman also launches her book at Glasgow Women’s Library (29 Aug). Also at Waterstones is Jen Hadfield launching her memoir Storm Pegs (14 Aug), and Rachelle Atalla launching her new book The Salt Flats (28 Aug). And for something delightfully DIY, Glasgow Zine Library are launching three publications by Osmosis Press authors – Jac Common's wetbulb, David Gaffney's Whale, and Saskia McCracken's Common Name – in a gorgeous celebration of DIY poetics and small presses.