7 highlights at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2026
Bookish big names are set to chat about family, community, and the healing power of the arts
Oyinkan Braithwaite
Her Lagos-set debut that mixed crime, love story and family saga brought Braithwaite to readers’ attention in 2019, and she has followed up My Sister, The Serial Killer with Cursed Daughters, the tale of a family curse, reincarnation and female rivalry.
Edinburgh Futures Institute, 15 August, 3.15pm.
Simon Armitage
The UK Poet Laureate teams up with his Welsh equivalent Hanan Issa and our own Makar Peter Mackay to discuss whether poetry has a national identity. For his second gig, Armitage muses on a new graveyard which has opened up near his West Yorkshire home.
Edinburgh Futures Institute, 17 August, 3.15pm & 18 August, 8.30pm.
Kae Tempest
Michael Pedersen hosts this event with the poet, playwright and songwriter whose new novel Having Spent Life Seeking took a decade to complete. Chat and performance will merge as we hear about family, forgiveness and the all-conquering power of love.
McEwan Hall, 18 August, 1pm.
Daisy Fancourt & Wayne McGregor
The author of Art Cure discusses the science of how the arts can improve our physical as well as mental health with the acclaimed choreographer who put his own thoughts on the subject into print earlier this year with We Are Movement: Unlocking Your Physical Intelligence.
Edinburgh Futures Institute, 22 August, 10.15am.
Kiran Desai
The Booker-winning author of The Inheritance Of Loss reflects on the two decades which passed without another novel until last year’s The Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny. And back at the Book Festival’s base, she talks about The Book That Changed My Mind alongside Fiammetta Rocco and Claudia Rankine.
McEwan Hall, 25 August, 1pm; Edinburgh Futures Institute, 25 August, 8.30pm.
Hamish Hawk
Edinburgh lad Hawk channels the eccentric Ivor Cutler for the Book Festival-commissioned Life In A Scotch Sitting Room, Vol 0, featuring his very own take on some of the Govan-born iconoclast’s writings.
Edinburgh Futures Institute, 26 August, 9pm.
Douglas Stuart
The Booker winner will be part of a line-up hosted by Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen (he gets about) while Jackie Kay hosts the special Front List event in the big Bristo Square hall.
Edinburgh Futures Institute, 29 August, 8.30pm; 30 August, 7pm; McEwan Hall, 30 August, 1pm.
Edinburgh International Book Festival, various venues, Edinburgh, Saturday 15–Sunday 30 August.