Edinburgh Book Festival brings 600 events from 15–30 August

beehiveweb.co.uk editorial team 2026-08-14 19:32 Updated: 09:33 3 min read

People sit at wooden picnic tables and beanbags on a lawn outside historic buildings.

The Edinburgh International Book Festival will run from Saturday 15 to Sunday 30 August at the University of Edinburgh’s Edinburgh Futures Institute, with 15 Front List events also taking place at McEwan Hall. More than 600 events will explore the theme “Changing Your Mind”.

The programme will appeal particularly to readers interested in literature, translation, technology, Scottish history, healthcare and the forces reshaping work and culture. The university source does not provide event times, ticket prices, booking arrangements, venue addresses, transport guidance or accessibility information, so those details must be confirmed separately for each session.

“Changing Your Mind” connects books with technology

The Book Festival is returning to the Edinburgh Futures Institute for a third year. The University of Edinburgh is providing the main festival site, continuing as a major sponsor and supporting discussions connected to digital skills, data and artificial intelligence literacy.

Edinburgh Book Festival brings 600 events from 15–30 August

This strand brings several prominent technology voices together. Journalist Gabriel Gatehouse will chair a conversation between Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and technology activist Cory Doctorow about the online forces influencing everyday life. Financial Times journalist Sarah O’Connor and social innovator Hilary Cottam will examine how AI and changing working practices could affect employment.

The programme forms part of a busy citywide cultural calendar, with the Book, Art and Film festivals joining the wider Edinburgh festival season. University venues, academics, students and cultural partnerships are involved across several of those programmes.

Six festival dates with distinctive themes

Several university-supported Book Festival events already have confirmed dates:

Saturday 15 August: Scots poet Len Pennie and journalist Sophia Smith Galer will consider bilingual identity, disappearing languages and the cultural losses that can follow language erosion.
Monday 17 August: Jimmy Wales and Cory Doctorow will join Gabriel Gatehouse for a Front List discussion about the online forces shaping people’s lives.
Wednesday 19 August: Writers and translators Polly Barton, Daniel Hahn and Anton Hur will discuss what happens when a book travels between languages.
Friday 21 August: Sarah O’Connor and Hilary Cottam will explore technology, AI, employment and emerging ways of working.
Sunday 23 August: The Compassion Salon will bring healthcare academic Marti Balaam, GP Gavin Francis, poet Hollie McNish and Edinburgh Makar Michael Pedersen together to examine literature, empathy and wellbeing.
Saturday 29 August: Elif Shafak and Valeria Luiselli will discuss Future Library with Anne Beate Hovind and artist Katie Paterson. The event will also reveal the next author selected to contribute an original manuscript to the century-long public art project.

Scottish crime writer Val McDermid and Geographer Royal for Scotland Jo Sharp will also appear with journalist Allan Little. Their conversation centres on This Door of the Seas, a fictional retelling of an unexpected episode from Scottish history.

Edinburgh Futures Institute and McEwan Hall share the programme

The Edinburgh Futures Institute remains the festival’s main university base. Its involvement extends beyond hosting: its support is concentrated on conversations linking culture with data, digital knowledge and AI.

McEwan Hall will accommodate 15 events from The Front List, the strand containing some of the programme’s prominent public conversations. The university article does not identify the venue for every named session, making the individual event listing the necessary point of reference when planning a visit.

The confirmed campus arrangement places the main festival site at Edinburgh Futures Institute and the 15 Front List events at McEwan Hall, within an overall festival programme ending on Sunday 30 August.

Source: University of Edinburgh News

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Dates, venues, speakers and themes were checked against the University of Edinburgh’s published festival preview.

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