Edinburgh International Book Festival reveals The Front List line-up
The literary festival’s headliners include Cory Doctorow, Jackie Kay, Douglas Stuart and many more
Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) has announced the headline acts for its The Front List strand, which invites major names from the literary world to talk at McEwan Hall. Taking place from Saturday 15–Sunday 30 August, tickets for this year’s events go on sale at 10am on Tuesday 5 May, with a presale for EIBF members at 10am on Wednesday 29 April.
Tackling some of the most pressing issues of the day, headline acts include a discussion between Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales and the journalist Cory Doctorow (pictured above), whose new book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse And What to Do About It has provoked widescale debate about the relationship between capitalism and the internet. They’ll consider the future of the internet and discuss the problems created by its powerbrokers.
Reflecting on the global success of Outlander, Diana Gabaldon will mark 35 years since the publication of its first entry with a discussion on its origins, its ubiquitous television adaptation, and its impact on the Scottish tourism and the film and television industry. Also in fiction, McEwan Hall will play host to Pulitzer-winning Colson Whitehead, who’ll be joined by journalist, broadcaster and poet Samira Ahmed; Booker-winning Douglas Stuart, in conversation with former Makar Jackie Kay; Kiran Desai, who’s also won a Booker; Ann Patchett, the Pulitzer‑winning and PEN/Faulkner‑winning novelist; and the best-selling writer and globally respected intellectual Elif Shafak.
In contemporary journalism, BBC’s Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet will talk about her decades reporting from conflict zones and geopolitical fault lines, while Edward Wong and Lewis Goodall will examine the US-UK ‘special relationship’ in an era of global insecurity and President Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic behaviour.
On the history front, Tom Holland will dive into his enduring fascination with the Roman Empire, David Olusoga will uncover the difficulties of Britain’s unacknowledged past, and Val McDermid and Jo Sharp discuss their new work on the Darien scheme and Scotland’s early forays into colonialism.
Finally, Kae Tempest will look at their relationship with ‘language, identity and creativity across a body of work spanning poetry, fiction and performance’; Charlie Mackesy, the writer of the global phenomenon The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse will appear in a family-friendly event; and Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins will reunite for a discussion on comedy, fiction and reinvention.
Now in its third year, EIBF’s The Front List strand has become the festival’s way of corralling its more populous events into one announcement, and has previously welcomed the likes of Salman Rushdie, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Mark Kermode and other leading lights of art and literature.
Edinburgh International Book Festival, various venues, Edinburgh, Saturday 15–Sunday 30 August; main picture: Paula Mariel Salischiker.