Programme Announced for Book Festival 2025
With close to 700 events featuring 641 writers from 35 countries, across 6 continents, the Edinburgh International Book Festival programme for 2025 is now live.
Taking place from 9-24 August in the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI), the Book Festival events inspire vital discussion of the cultural zeitgeist on a global stage. The Festival is also a space for play and creativity, with an imaginative feast in store – from stories around the world, to commissions of brand-new music and theatre, a Frankenstein themed cabaret, and a brand-new Kids Zone, as well as a dedicated Young Adults programme for the very first time.
The key theme this year is Repair and through it the festival seeks to explore the many things around us which feel broken, and how we might seek to fix them. Using informed insights from a range of experts, lessons learned from our ancestors, the richness and connection offered by the natural world, hands-on activities, and our own inherent humanity, they’re offering a wide range of active opportunities to rebalance the mind, reinvigorate the spirit, reconcile with others, and restore a sense of hope in the face of a world in chaos.
The programme themes outlined below lead audiences on a journey of discovery through fact, fiction, poetry, personal stories and world affairs:
- Hundreds of the world’s best fiction writers, including many of Scotland’s most exciting voices, dozens of debut authors, and voices from around the world, will share their new and most notable works in the Brilliant Fiction strand
- The recently announced The Front List series will return for the second year at McEwan Hall, in partnership with Underbelly, to present an expanded series of exciting events representing the breadth of the Book Festival’s offering
- Fascinating Non-Fiction will explore everything from moving memoirs to scientific excavations, family odysseys to travelogues
- Good Information brings together a host of trustworthy experts well versed in sifting out hard fact and cutting through murky algorithms to give you an honest account of a diverse range of topics
- New World Orders gathers the most authoritative voices across international and domestic politics, conflict, economics, and law to engage with and dissect current affairs
- Brainwaves holds up a magnifying glass to all things cranial, including mental health, neuroscience, and psychology
- How to Live a Meaningful Life, guiding audiences new and deeper ways of creating connection, resilience and hope, amongst the chaos
- An expanded Table Talk series, with top chefs and food writers taking to the stage – or rather around the table – in intimate gatherings with audiences to enjoy delicious food and make memories together.
- Poetry, Music, and Performance showcases the very best of poetry and spoken word in the Festival’s Spiegletent
- Special Editions also brings a selection of quirky and upbeat events including cabaret, live podcasts, and exclusive talks.
- And audiences will have the chance to take an in-depth look at the little details that make a writer’s work really sing or expand on their own creative skills with an exciting range of Workshops.
The Book Festival is also debuting a brand-new Young Adults programme with events tailored to audiences aged 30 and under (but open to anyone young at heart!). Highlights include Alice Oseman, creator of the smash-hit Heartstopper series, returning to the Festival, model and activist Munroe Bergdorf discussing everything from beauty standards to cancel culture, and Caroline O’Donoghue showcasing her new YA sci-fi fantasy romance.
And our youngest audience members can enjoy a brand-new Kids Zone, providing a much-needed hub for families amongst the hustle and bustle of Edinburgh’s festival landscape. This year’s children’s programme will also include more than 100 exciting events for young readers, including from legendary children’s authors such as Michael Rosen, Jacqueline Wilson, and How to Train Your Dragon’s Cressida Cowell. There are also dozens of free, drop-in events, including the return of the popular Are You Sitting Comfortably? and Bookbug storytimes, a chance to go wild with National Museums Scotland, and the opportunity to meet beloved characters including Pikachu, the Gruffalo, and Supertato.
For those who cannot attend in person, 100+ events will be livestreamed and available on demand to audiences across the world to watch wherever and whenever they prefer, including to libraries in twelve Scottish local authorities.