Hi there!
Sasha here, back for a second run! Ever since the end of June I’ve been itching to get back into a festival state of mind, and tomorrow morning, it all starts again. I know the festivals have been going for almost a fortnight now, but for me, the Edinburgh International Book Festival is where it’s at.
In comparison to the rest of the city, Charlotte Square Gardens is like a sanctuary, where flyerers are stopped at the door, and they have two whole bookshops open until late into the evening. For a bookworm like me, it’s heaven.
This year’s line up has some big names, as always, however, I reckon it’s the smaller events that are going to cause a stir.
Here are the events to keep an eye out for:
A book festival first comes with Elsewhere Stories, a series of new works, commissioned by the Book Festival, from a raft of today’s newest and most influential authors. The best bit though, is that fact that all of these stories are up on the festival website, to download for free! Authors include the excellent Michel Faber, A L Kennedy, Roddy Doyle and the incredibly talented Jen Hadfield.
You can find a full list of events here, and the stories themselves here.
Unbound is the festival’s hip new venture for 2010, where the Spiegeltent plays host to a nightly letting loose of pages in Charlotte Square. Aimed at encouraging Book festival-ites to get a little brazen after the main events tie up for the night, Unbound is very shiny and very new, but also cleverly working in collaboration with Edinburgh literary stalwarts, The Golden Hour, and sexy lit-cabaret newbie, Canongate’s Irregular. Add a Twitter based flash fiction evening, and a Dragon’s Den style literary talent spot to the pile and you’ve got a programme of events worth sticking around for.
For a full list of events, see The Skinny’s Unbound Supplement, here.
Though I’m signing off for now, I’ll be checking in with EIBF coverage regularly over the coming fortnight. You can count on me for top festival tips, picks and allsorts to keep you entertained.
If Twitter is your thing, then you can keep up with me here, and be sure to use the #edbookfest hashtag.
P.S. I’m also covering the festival for Creative Boom Edinburgh, so if you want a different take on the proceedings, check them out here.
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