Filtering by: Sunday
It's Complicated with S.T. Gibson, Sydney J. Shields and Georgia Summers
Jun
1
3:15 PM15:15
Fantasy, Sunday, Saturday

It's Complicated with S.T. Gibson, Sydney J. Shields and Georgia Summers

Friends, lovers, parents, siblings - relationships are rarely easy!

 

S. T. Gibson is a literary agent, author, and village wise woman in training. A graduate of the creative writing program at the University of North Carolina at Asheville and the theological studies program at Princeton Seminary, she currently lives in Boston with her partner, spoiled Persian cat, and vintage blazer collection.

Sydney J. Shields is a swamp creature who evolved to hold a pen. She is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Columbus State University where she majored in Communication. She currently lives in Savannah, Georgia with her partner and their dog. When not writing, Sydney can be found playing chess in the park, savoring afternoon tea, or doing any other activities that an 84-year-old soul trapped in a 25-year-old body would enjoy. You can find her across social media @SydneyJShields.

Georgia Summers is a half-British, half-Trinidadian writer. She spent most of her life living across the world, including Russia, Colombia, the USA, Scotland, and briefly Switzerland. She is still bad at languages. She has previously worked as an editor, a bookseller and rare books student librarian, so you could say she’s seen the entire lifecycle of a book. When she’s not doing bookish things, she enjoys embroidery, playing piano, and painting, among various other crafts. She currently lives in London, but she dreams of one day living in a haunted château with cats and a ghost that cleans.

This event will be chaired by Kaite Welsh

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes followed by a book signing

Venue: Pleasance Theatre

Price: £11/£8 concession - In Person - or £5.50 Live Stream - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

 

Find out more about ACCESS to our events here, and for information about TICKETS, click here.

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

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Workshop: Drawing Fantasy Characters with Hannah Kelly
Jun
1
4:00 PM16:00
For Writers, Sunday, Workshop, Saturday

Workshop: Drawing Fantasy Characters with Hannah Kelly

Pictish symbols carved into rocks. Boats hewn from the trunks of trees. Amulets, crowns and gravestones. Come and use artefacts from our Scottish history to springboard ideas for a fantasy character or creature. I'll start us off with some silly drawing games, then give you prompts and skills to develop figures and stories from ancient objects. You'll sketch, draw and play throughout, finishing with a fantasy character of your own design.


Suitable for Adults, Teens. (12+)
All materials provided. Any skill level welcome!

Your Workshop Leader

Hannah Kelly is a fantasy writer & illustrator. In 2019 she won the Moniack Mhor Emerging Writer Prize for her speculative fiction and she is currently writing her YA Fantasy series for Victoria Hobbs at A.M.Heath. Arthur Rackham, Brian Froud and Alan Lee are her constant inspiration for worldbuilding. 

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Cheviot Room

 Tickets: £18 / £15 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in person. Workshops are not recorded.

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Opposites Attract with Sarah A. Parker and Chloe C. Peñaranda
Jun
2
10:00 AM10:00
Digital, Debut, Made in Scotland, Sunday

Opposites Attract with Sarah A. Parker and Chloe C. Peñaranda

Love is in the air with these two Romantasy debuts.

 

Born in New Zealand, Sarah A. Parker now lives on the Gold Coast with her husband and three young children. When she’s not reading or tapping away at her keyboard, she’s spending time with her friends and family, her plants, and enjoying trips to the snow. Sarah has been writing since she was small, but has only recently begun sharing her stories with the world. When the Moon Hatched is her debut.

Chloe C. Peñaranda is the USA Today bestselling author of The Nytefall Trilogy and An Heir Comes to Rise Series.

 A lifelong avid reader and writer, Chloe discovered her passion for storytelling in her early teens. Her stories have been spun from years of building on fictional characters and exploring Tolkien-like quests in made up worlds. During her time at the University of the West of Scotland, Chloe immersed herself in writing for short film, producing animations, and spending class time dreaming of far off lands. 

 In her spare time from writing in her home in scenic Scotland, Chloe enjoys digital art, graphic design, and down time with her three little dogs. When the real world calls...she rarely listens.

Originally self-published, The Stars are Dying is Chloe’s traditionally published debut.

About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £6 digital ticket.

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There’s Been A Murder with Amy Goldsmith, T.L. Huchu and Frances White
Jun
2
10:00 AM10:00
Made in Scotland, Sunday, Livestream, Debut

There’s Been A Murder with Amy Goldsmith, T.L. Huchu and Frances White

Murder follows the main protagonists of the new books by Amy Goldsmith, T.L. Huchu and Frances White. Are you ready to take a trip to the scenes of the crime?

 

Amy Goldsmith grew up on the south coast of England, obsessed with obscure 70s horror movies and antiquarian ghost stories. She studied Psychology at the University of Sussex and, after gaining her Postgraduate Certificate in Education, moved to inner London to teach. Now, she lives back on the south coast where she still teaches English and spends her weekends trawling antiques shops for haunted mirrors. She is the author of Those We Drown and the forthcoming YA horror novel Our Wicked Histories.

T. L. Huchu has been published previously (as Tendai Huchu) in the adult market, but the Edinburgh Nights series is his genre fiction debut. His previous books (The Hairdresser of Harare and The Maestro, The Magistrate and the Mathematician) have been translated into multiple languages and his short fiction has won awards. Tendai grew up in Zimbabwe but has lived in Edinburgh for most of his adult life.

Frances White is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Voyage of the Damned, a fantasy murder mystery at sea. Born in Leicester and now a Nottingham resident, Frances is a creative writing graduate from Royal Holloway University of London. She has a soft spot for writing unlikely, flawed, messy heroes and loves mixing humour and heartbreak. Frances is passionate about bringing more LGBTQIA+ representation and fat positivity into fantasy. When not writing, she can be found sewing costumes for comic conventions or researching obscure historical facts. She also loves to perform on stage, with a fondness for musicals and Shakespeare. 

This event will be chaired by Kshoni Gunputh.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes followed by a book signing

Venue: Pleasance Theatre

Price: £11/£8 concession - In Person - or £5.50 Live Stream - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

 

Find out more about ACCESS to our events here, and for information about TICKETS, click here.

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

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Workshop: Getting Your Book Ready For Submission
Jun
2
10:00 AM10:00
For Writers, Sunday, Workshop

Workshop: Getting Your Book Ready For Submission

Agent Caro Clarke breaks down how to craft a query letter and make your submission shine.

They will go through what information to include, how to catch an agent's attention and some of the Do's and Don't's to help you on your road to pitching your writing to agents and publishers.

Your Workshop Leader

Caro Clarke is a literary agent with over thirteen years' experience in publishing – at Transworld (PRH) and at Canongate Books as a Senior Rights Manager. They were named Rights Professional of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2021. In 2019, they co-founded the Nan Shepherd Prize for underrepresented nature writers, which kickstarted a passion to demystify the publishing industry and help emerging writers to develop their craft and build their writing careers. Portobello Literary was established in 2022 to build on that work.

Writers they have worked with have won or been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Saltire National Book Awards, Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize, Edwin Morgan Poetry Award, Forward Prize, Morley Prize for Unpublished Writers of Colour, Mo Siewcharran Prize, Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award, Northern Writers Award, Nan Shepherd Prize, Laurel Prize, Nature Chronicles Prize, Wasafiri New Writing Prize, Eric Gregory Award, Women in Journalism Georgina Henry award, SI Leeds Literary Award and the Frank Allen Bullock Creative Writing Prize.

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Braid Room

 Tickets: £18 / £15 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in person. Workshops are not recorded.

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Workshop: Dialogue and Characterisation: What You Say, How You Say It
Jun
2
10:00 AM10:00
For Writers, Sunday, Workshop

Workshop: Dialogue and Characterisation: What You Say, How You Say It

This interactive craft workshop will explore effective charactersation in prose fiction. We'll look at point of view, dialogue, and character description, with a series of guided exercises (sharing optional). Learn about conversational rhythms and speech patterns, tips and tricks for crafting back-and-forths that are both naturalistic and propulsive, character building through dialogue and description, and how to write thumbnail character sketches that punch above their weight.

Your Workshop Leaders

MK Hardy is the pen name of author duo Morag Hannah and Erin Hardee. Together they write queer speculative fiction of all flavours. Their debut novel, gothic eco-horror THE NEEDFIRE, comes out from Solaris Books in 2025.

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Cheviot Room

 Tickets: £18 / £15 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in person. Workshops are not recorded.

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The Pleasures of Reading with Joanne Harris
Jun
2
10:15 AM10:15
Debut, Fantasy, Livestream, Made in Scotland, Sunday

The Pleasures of Reading with Joanne Harris

What happens when we read? What is it that we get from losing ourselves in a novel?  Does reading actually improve our wellbeing? 

Join Joanne Harris for this special event for Cymera, as she explores the impact of being a reader by sharing some of her favourite books and the influence they have had in her life.

She will be in conversation with Philippa Cochrane who is the Head of Reading Communities at Scottish Book Trust. We will also be joined by Dr Sarah McGeown from the University of Edinburgh who will share some of the fascinating insights into these questions from the ongoing Reading and Wellbeing research project.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes followed by a book signing

Venue: Pleasance Upper Hall

Price: £5/£3 concession - In Person - or £3 Live Stream - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

 

Find out more about ACCESS to our events here, and for information about TICKETS, click here.

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

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Digital Workshop: Recycling Magic - The Craft of Turning Old Tales into New Stories
Jun
2
10:30 AM10:30
Digital, Sunday, Workshop

Digital Workshop: Recycling Magic - The Craft of Turning Old Tales into New Stories

 

Traditional tales – myths, legends, folktales, fairytales – are the inspiration for most fantasy stories and lots of other genre and literary writing. 

 Lari Don, author and storyteller, will discuss using aspects of old tales to create new stories, which might be close cousins of the original sources, or such distant relatives that only the writer knows which old tale first sparked the idea.

She will help you explore ways of rethinking, recycling and interrogating the narrative, characters, creatures, magical lore and even plot-holes of old tales, to come up with original and intriguing ideas of your own. 

There are no absolutely right or wrong ways to be inspired, to work with ideas and to write your own stories, so this isn’t a workshop about how to do things, more a chance to discover new paths and experiment with magical notions.

 

If possible please arrive at the workshop with one or two old stories in mind, traditional tales that you’re familiar with and keen to play with.

 Your Workshop Leader

Lari Don is a Scottish children’s author and storyteller. Lari has written more than 30 books for children, ranging from picture book retellings of fairy tales and folklore (eg The Secret of the Kelpie, The Legend of the First Unicorn) through fantasy adventures for 8-12 year olds (eg First Aid for Fairies, the Spellchasers Trilogy) to collections of traditional tales (eg Girls Goddesses and Giants, The Dragon’s Hoard) and a YA thriller (MindBlind) which was inspired by a story about the fairy queen, though it’s impossible to spot any fairies past the fight scenes and chases. Lari also loves telling traditional tales to live audiences, preferably in caves and forests. But she’s currently writing very slowly and telling tales only very occasionally, because she’s having to learn to do it all differently round long covid.

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

 Tickets: £13 / £11 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be take place in Zoom meetings. Workshops are not recorded.

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Thrilling Futures with Lauren Beukes, Nikhil Singh and Maud Woolf
Jun
2
11:45 AM11:45
Debut, Sunday, Livestream, Made in Scotland, Science Fiction

Thrilling Futures with Lauren Beukes, Nikhil Singh and Maud Woolf

From gateways to other worlds to artificial realities to murderous clones, join us for a thrilling look at the future from the imaginations of Lauren Beukes, Nikhil Singh and Maud Woolf.

 

Lauren Beukes is the award-winning author of six novels, a collection of short stories, a pop history about South African women, and New York Times best-selling comics. Her work has been translated into 26 languages and won prizes across genres from the Arthur C Clarke Award to the Strand Critic’s Choice award and the University of Johannesburg Prize. Her novel, The Shining Girls, about a time-travelling serial killer and the survivor who turns the hunt around is now a major AppleTV series with Elisabeth Moss. Her latest novel, Bridge, about a young woman’s search for her mother across realities is out now. She lives in London with a teenager and two cats.

Find Lauren on socials @laurenbeukes and on TikTok @lauren.beukes

Nikhil Singh is a South African artist, writer and musician. Former projects include the graphic novels: Salem Brownstone written by John Harris Dunning (longlisted for the Branford Boase Award, Walker Books 2009) as well as The Ziggurat (Bell-Roberts 2003) by The Constructus Corporation (now Die Antwoord). His work has also been featured in various magazines including Dazed, i-D Online, Creative Review, as well as Pictures and Words: New Comic Art and Narrative Illustration (Laurence King, 2005). His debut novel Taty Went West was published by Kwani? Trust in 2015, Jacaranda Books (UK) in 2017, and Rosarium (US) in 2018. The book was released with an accompanying soundtrack and was shortlisted for Best African Novel in the inaugural Nommo Awards. His new novel Dakini Atoll is a sequel to his 2020 novel Club Ded  which was shortlist for the BSFA and Nommo Awards.

Maud Woolf is a Scottish speculative writer with a particular focus on horror and science fiction. While completing an MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, her unpublished novel was shortlisted for the North Lit Agency Prize. Her work has appeared in a variety of online magazines, including Metaphorosis Magazine where her short story ‘The Stranding’ was selected to appear in the Best of Metaphorosis 2020. Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock is her debut novel.

This event will be chaired by Catriona Silvey.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes followed by a book signing

Venue: Pleasance Theatre

Price: £11/£8 concession - In Person - or £5.50 Live Stream - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

 

Find out more about ACCESS to our events here, and for information about TICKETS, click here.

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

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For Love or Money with Rose Black, Trip Galey and James Logan
Jun
2
12:00 PM12:00
Fantasy, Debut, Livestream, Sunday

For Love or Money with Rose Black, Trip Galey and James Logan

Join these intrepid adventurers (authors) in their search for love, treasure or the answers to those secrets that are best left in the dark. Bring snacks and extra socks!

 

Rose Black is a combination of anxiety and dyslexia in a hoodie, bi, a professional computer wrangler, and mother to the world’s wiggliest child. She’s lucky enough to live in the historic city of Bath and is capable of eating her weight in sushi.

Trip Galey was born in the United States but has now lived in the United Kingdom for over half a decade. He has a Masters from the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon and a doctorate in Creative Writing, and is a lecturer on the subject in Cambridge, with a focus on sci-fi and fantasy. He has had short stories and articles published in numerous places, such as a multi-award-nominated queer SFF anthology from Neon Hemlock Press, and his first interactive novel came out in 2021 from Choice of Games. He lives in London with his partner.

James Logan was born in the southeast of England where he grew up on a diet of Commodore 64 computer games, Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, and classic eighties cartoons, which left him with a love of all things fantastical. He lives in London and works in publishing. The Silverblood Promise is his first novel.

This event will be chaired by Meg MacDonald.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes followed by a book signing

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£8 concession - In Person - or £5.50 Live Stream - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

 

Find out more about ACCESS to our events here, and for information about TICKETS, click here.

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

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Workshop: Contract Skills with Francesca Barbini
Jun
2
12:15 PM12:15
For Writers, Workshop, Sunday

Workshop: Contract Skills with Francesca Barbini

Francesca Barbini of Luna Press hosts this informative workshop designed to help you develop the essential skills required to read, understand, and negotiate a publishing contract.

Your Workshop Leader

Francesca T Barbini was born and raised in Rome, Italy. After years of volunteer work around the world, she completed a MA Honour in Religious Studies at New College, Edinburgh, focusing on the Ancient Near East and the Dead Sea Scrolls, followed by a PGDE at Edinburgh University. In 2011, she began self-publishing her YA SF series Tijaran Tales, subsequently receiving a publication contract by American Oloris Publishing. In January 2015 she officially started Luna Press Publishing, home of speculative fiction in fiction and academia. In 2018 she won the British Fantasy Award for Non-Fiction, as Editor of Gender Identity and Sexuality in Fantasy and Science Fiction.

About the event:

 Running time: 60 minutes

Venue: Lomond Room

 Tickets: £10/ £8 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in person. Workshops are not recorded.

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Workshop: Writing Immersive Fight Scenes
Jun
2
12:15 PM12:15
For Writers, Sunday, Workshop

Workshop: Writing Immersive Fight Scenes

Whether you’re writing a brawl in a saloon, transporting readers to an underground fight club, or designing the martial art of an ancient alien race, this workshop will help you write convincing and compelling fight scenes. This workshop is relevant for writers of any level and genre, from established novelists to those who want to write their first ever fight scene.

By the end of this workshop, you should be able to:

  • Understand and convey the influences of character on fighting style

  • Use setting to inform the creation of fictional fights

  • Write believable and compelling fighting techniques and strategies

  • Understand and convey the thoughts and emotions of those involved in fighting

  • Assign believable fight injuries and damage outcomes to their characters

  • Avoid common misconceptions and mistakes that can break the reader's immersion

Your Workshop Leader

Josh Holton is a writer and a fighter with more than a decade of experience in mixed martial arts and street fighting. He has studied and coached in a variety of martial arts and has befriended and fought fighters from all over the world. His writing has been published in numerous lit mags, anthologies, and podcasts, and he placed in Streetcake’s Experimental Writing Prize, Spread the Word’s Life Writing Prize, and the Writers’ and Artists’ Working Class Writers’ Prize. Find him on X @JHoltonWriter

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Cheviot Room

 Tickets: £18 / £15 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in person. Workshops are not recorded.

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Workshop: Writing Ghost Stories with Helen Grant
Jun
2
12:15 PM12:15
For Writers, Sunday, Workshop, Horror

Workshop: Writing Ghost Stories with Helen Grant

This workshop invites you to delve into the perennially-popular ghost story. What defines the ghost story? Are there "rules" for ghost story writing? How do we create a genuinely chilling tale? What are the particular challenges when approaching either a short ghost story or a novel length work? And where can you get your ghost story published? Helen Grant examines these and other topics. The session will include hints and tips, discussions and some writing exercises with prompts. Please bring something to write with/on.  

 

Your Workshop Leader 

Helen Grant writes Gothic novels and short ghost stories. Joyce Carol Oates has described her as "a brilliant chronicler of the uncanny as only those who dwell in places of dripping, graylit beauty can be." A lifelong fan of the ghost story writer M.R.James, she has spoken at two M.R.James conferences and appeared at the Dublin Ghost Story Festival. Helen's most recent books are Too Near The Dead (2021) and Jump Cut (2023). She lives in Perthshire with her family, and when not writing, she likes to explore abandoned country houses and swim in freezing lochs.

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Braid Room

 Tickets: £18 / £15 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in person. Workshops are not recorded.

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Digital Workshop: The Author As A Brand
Jun
2
1:00 PM13:00
For Writers, Digital, Sunday, Workshop

Digital Workshop: The Author As A Brand

And how to use your brand on social media to connect with readers

This session will cover the essentials of author branding, book marketing, and using social media. Run by Anna Caig, a writer and marketing professional, the workshop will look at tools for exploring and pinning down your author brand, the version of you you’ll share with potential readers, in an authentic way which banishes the cringe.

We’ll also cover the practicalities of how to share your brand, and the content themes that come from this, on social media. As we know, ‘here’s my book, buy my book’ doesn’t cut it - so what can you talk about, and how can you create effective content?

We'll look at:

  • How to develop an authentic personal brand which reflects your passions and inspirations, including the development of content themes (what to talk about on your social media and other marketing channels)

  • An understanding of marketing strategy – a clear structure to follow to find readers who’ll love your work

  • Support to find confidence in your marketing and banish the cringe factor

  • Learn “what buttons to push” on social media: content creation practical tips and advice


Your Workshop Leader
Anna Caig trains creative people to do their own marketing. She works with The Society of Authors, Jericho Writers and The Literary Consultancy, as well as one-to-one with many writers. She’s worked in communications for over 20 years, specialising in media relations and strategic marketing campaigns, and is an experienced and engaging public speaker.
Anna also writes historical crime fiction and her debut novel was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger prize. She reviews books for The Sheffield Telegraph and on her blog.

The former Head of Communications at Sheffield City Council and tutor on The University of Sheffield MA Journalism course, Anna began her training business to support writers to build their brand and reach more readers. She now works with traditionally, indie and self-published writers, as well as helping creatives in any discipline find a wider audience.

Please note Sheila M. Averbuch is no longer able to co-run this workshop but it will go ahead as planned.

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

 Tickets: £13 / £11 (plus 50p booking fee)

The event will be take place in Zoom meetings. Workshops are not recorded.

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Open Mic
Jun
2
1:30 PM13:30
For Writers, Free, Sunday

Open Mic

Do you have a fresh piece of writing ready for the world to see? Then we want your reading! Poetry, a bit of a novel or short fiction, we love it all!

There will be two in-person open mic session over the festival weekend.

Readings should be no longer than five minutes

The Open Mic will take place in the Pleasance Bar at the following times

  • Saturday 1st June 3pm to 3:30pm

  • Sunday 2nd June 1:30pm to 2pm

To join us in person, please apply here

Submission deadline is Sunday 19th May 2024.

Venue: Pleasance Bar

Free, no ticket needed.

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Retellings with Joanne Harris, Lucy Holland and Shona Kinsella
Jun
2
1:30 PM13:30
Fantasy, Livestream, Made in Scotland, Sunday

Retellings with Joanne Harris, Lucy Holland and Shona Kinsella

OId stories and myths continue to capture our imagination.

Joanne Harris’ collection Maiden, Mother, Crone brings together her award-winning novellas A Pocketful of Crows, The Blue Salt Road and Orfeia, which reimagine traditional British folktales into a timely, relevant and powerful new stories.

In Song of the Huntress, the follow-up to her bestselling novel Sistersong, Lucy Holland puts a female warrior leader at the centre of the Wild Hunt, while Shona Kinsella’s new book The Heart of Winter is a fresh take on the story of the Cailleach, the goddess of winter in Gaelic mythology.

Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French author, whose books include fourteen novels, two cookbooks and many short stories. Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology and fantasy. In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and in 2013 was awarded an MBE by the Queen.

Lucy Holland aka Lucy Hounsom has a BA Hons in English & Creative Writing and an MA in Creative Writing, both from the University of London, and four books published with Pan Macmillan. She has twelve years of bookselling experience at Waterstones Booksellers, and co-hosts the award-winning intersectional feminist podcast, ‘Breaking the Glass Slipper’.

Shona Kinsella is the author of epic fantasy, The Vessel of KalaDene series, dark Scottish fantasy Petra MacDonald and the Queen of the Fae and British Fantasy Award shortlisted industrial fantasy The Flame and the Flood as well as the non-fiction Outlander and the Real Jacobites: Scotland’s Fight for Freedom. She was editor of the British Fantasy Society’s fiction publication BFS Horizons for four years and is now Chair of the British Fantasy Society. Shona is an avid reader with a love for language and is most often to be found with her nose in a book. She has worked in varied industries, from acting to the civil service, and has a degree in law from the University of Strathclyde.

This event will be chaired by Katalina Watt.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes followed by a book signing

Venue: Pleasance Theatre

Price: £11/£8 concession - In Person - or £5.50 Live Stream - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

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Containing Multitudes with Camilla Grudova, Teika Marija Smits and Elspeth Wilson
Jun
2
1:45 PM13:45
Sunday, Made in Scotland, Livestream

Containing Multitudes with Camilla Grudova, Teika Marija Smits and Elspeth Wilson

Stories come in all shapes and sizes. Join writers Camilla Grudova, Teika Marija Smits and Elspeth Wilson as we celebrate their imagination in short fiction and poetry.

Camilla Grudova lives in Scotland where she works as an usher in an old cinema. She holds a degree in Art History and German from McGill University, Montreal. Her fiction has appeared in The White Review and Granta..Her debut collection The Doll’s Alphabet was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2017. Her first novel, Children of Paradise, was published by Atlantic Books in July 2022 and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Granta named her one their Best Young British Novelists list. Her short story collection The Coiled Serpent was published by Atlantic to critical acclaim in November 2023.

 

Teika Marija Smits is a UK-based writer, freelance editor and mother-of-two. Her poetry, short fiction and non-fiction have been widely published. Teika was formerly the managing editor of Mother’s Milk Books and is now an Editor-at-Large at Valley Press alongside running The Book Stewards – a writers’ support site that she manages with her husband. In her spare moments she likes to doodle, draw and paint. She is delighted by the fact that ‘Teika’ means fairy tale in Latvian (she is half-Latvian; the other half is Russian). She was born in Windsor, Berkshire, in the 1970s and can still remember a time before the internet and smartphones. (In the eyes of her children, that makes her ancient!)

Follow Teika on X at @MarijaSmits

Elspeth Wilson is a writer and poet who is interested in exploring the limitations and possibilities of the body through writing, as well as writing about joy and happiness from a marginalised perspective. Her debut poetry pamphlet, Too Hot to Sleep, is published by Written Off Publishing and was shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s 2023 Poetry Book of the Year Award. Her debut novel, These Mortal Bodies, is forthcoming with Simon and Schuster in 2025. She can usually be found in or near the sea.

This event will be chaired by Lindz McLeod.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes followed by a book signing

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£8 concession - In Person - or £5.50 Live Stream - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

 

Find out more about ACCESS to our events here, and for information about TICKETS, click here.

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

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The Power of Books with Gareth Brown and Mark Lawrence
Jun
2
3:15 PM15:15
Fantasy, Made in Scotland, Sunday, Livestream

The Power of Books with Gareth Brown and Mark Lawrence

Books have the power to transport their reader to any place imaginable. But usually just in their imagination.

In the new books by Gareth Brown and Mark Lawrence, books show their true powers.

Gareth Brown has been writing novels since he was a teenager. Most of those books were not very good, and thankfully were never published. His first published novel - The Book of Doors - will be released in the UK (Bantam) and USA (William Morrow) in February 2024. Foreign language rights for The Book of Doors have also been sold to nearly twenty other territories including Germany. Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Hungary. 

When not working or writing Gareth loves travel, barbecues, playing bass guitar and watching snooker. He also enjoys falling asleep in front of the television like an old man.  Gareth lives with his wife and two Skye terriers near Edinburgh in Scotland.

Follow Gareth on X @garethjohnbrown and Instagram @garethjbrown13

Mark Lawrence was born in Urbana–Champaign, Illinois, to British parents but moved to the UK at the age of one. He went back to the US after taking a PhD in mathematics at Imperial College to work on a variety of research projects including the ‘Star Wars’ missile defence programme. Returning to the UK, he has worked mainly on image processing and decision/reasoning theory. He says he never had any ambition to be a writer so was very surprised when a half-hearted attempt to find an agent turned into a global publishing deal overnight. His first trilogy, THE BROKEN EMPIRE, has been universally acclaimed as a ground-breaking work of fantasy. Following The Broken Empire is the related RED QUEEN’S WAR trilogy. THE BOOK OF THE ANCESTOR trilogy is set on a different world and is followed by the related BOOK OF THE ICE trilogy. There is also THE IMPOSSIBLE TIMES trilogy, a D&D/sci-fi work set in London in the 80s. All of these trilogies can be read in any order. Mark is married, with four children, and lives in Bristol.

Follow Mark on X @Mark__Lawrencem, on Instagram @mark___lawrence and on his facebook page MarkLawrenceBooks

This event will be chaired by Justin Lee Anderson.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes followed by a book signing

Venue: Pleasance Theatre

Price: £11/£8 concession - In Person - or £5.50 Live Stream - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

 

Find out more about ACCESS to our events here, and for information about TICKETS, click here.

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

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Lost in Space with R.W.W. Greene and Emily Hamilton
Jun
2
3:30 PM15:30
Digital, Debut, Science Fiction, Sunday

Lost in Space with R.W.W. Greene and Emily Hamilton

Things are just not going to plan for the protagonists of the new books by R.W.W. Greene and Emily Hamilton.

In Earth Retrogade, the sequel to R.W.W. Greene’s novel Mercury Rising, Brooklyn Lamontagne doesn't remember saving the world eight years ago, but he's been paying for it ever since. The conquered Earth governments don't trust him, the Average Joe can't make up their mind, but they all agree that Brooklyn should stay in space. Now, he's just about covering his bills with junk-food runs to Venus and transporting horny honeymooners to Tycho aboard his aging spaceship, the Victory. When a pal asks for a ride to Mars, Brooklyn lands in a solar system's worth of espionage, backroom alliances, ancient treasures and secret plots while encountering a navigation system that just wants to be loved...

In Emily Hamilton’s debut The Stars Too Fondly , Cleo and her friends really, truly didn't mean to steal this spaceship. They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace. But then the dark matter engine started all on its own, and now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri, unable to turn around, and being harangued by a snarky hologram that has the face and attitude of the ship's missing captain, Billie.

Rob Greene, who writes as the search-engine friendly “R.W.W. Greene,” is a recovering journalist and high-school English teacher. He writes science-fiction novels and short stories in a little house in southern New Hampshire where he lives with spouse Brenda, cat Jack, and a hive or two of honeybees. Greene is the author of four books -- The Light Years, Twenty-Five to Life, Mercury Rising, and Earth Retrograde -- all from from Angry Robot Books. He keeps a website at www.rwwgreene.com.

Emily Hamilton is a science fiction author who writes about women kissing in space. Her debut novel, The Stars Too Fondly, is forthcoming from Harper Voyager (US) and Gollancz (UK) in June 2024. She is also an award-winning staff writer at the alt-weekly newspaper Seven Days. She lives in Burlington, Vermont with her wife and their tiny dog Mimi.

About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £5 digital ticket.

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Defying Expectations with Rosie Hewlett, Ioanna Papadopoulou and Alex Penland
Jun
2
3:30 PM15:30
Debut, Fantasy, Livestream, Made in Scotland, Sunday

Defying Expectations with Rosie Hewlett, Ioanna Papadopoulou and Alex Penland

The Greek goddess of the Harvest, one of Greek mythology's most notorious women and a young girl set to make her own way in a world reserved for men - meet three protagonists defying societies, and your, expectations!

Having secured a First Class Honours degree in Classical Literature and Civilisation at the University of Birmingham, Rosie Hewlett has studied Greek mythology in depth and is passionate about unearthing strong female voices within the classical world. Her self-published debut novel, Medusa, won the Rubery Book of the Year award in 2021. Medea is her first traditionally published book.

Ionna Papadopoulou is a Greek by descent and Scottish by residence author. Other than writing, she is passionate about art history and museology. She has been published at Hexagon Magazine, Idle Ink, Piker Press and The Future Fire. Ioanna’s novel, Winter Harvest, was published by Ghost Orchid Press in November 2023.

Follow Ionna on X and Instagram @IoannaP_Author and on Bluesky ay ioannapauthor.bsky.social

Alex Penland is a former museum kid - they spent their childhood running rampant through the Smithsonian Institution. Alex has worked in the field with NASA scientists, linguists and acclaimed photographers and is a Pushcart-nominated author. They currently live in Scotland while studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. Their short stories have been published in Interzone, Metaphorosis and beyond.

This event will be chaired by Zebib K Abraham.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes followed by a book signing

Venue: Pleasance Upper Hall

Price: £11/£8 concession - In Person - or £5.50 Live Stream - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in person and is broadcast via live stream.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

 

Find out more about ACCESS to our events here, and for information about TICKETS, click here.

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

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Terry Pratchett's Men at Arms
Jun
2
5:00 PM17:00
Play, Made in Scotland, Sunday

Terry Pratchett's Men at Arms

Join us for this amateur production of Terry Pratchett’s Men at Arms adapted for stage by Stephen Briggs.

Scarcely a year on from the events of Guards! Guards!, the Ankh-Morpork City Night Watch find their services are once more needed to tackle a threat to their city. A threat at least as deadly as a 60-foot dragon, but mechanical and heartless to boot. It kills without compunction. It is the first gun on the Discworld.

The original Watch - Captain Vimes, Sergeant Colon, Corporal Carrot and Corporal Nobbs - are joined by some new recruits, selected to reflect the city's ethnic make-up - Lance-Constable Cuddy (a dwarf), Detritus (a troll) and Angua (a w..., well, best to find out for yourself)..

Brought to the stage by Edinburgh-based company Strawmoddie Theatre


Venue: Theatre

Running Time: approx 2 hours 30 minutes including interval

Performance dates and times

Thursday 30th May: 7:30pm

Friday 31st Maty: 8:30pm

Saturday 1st June: 8:30pm

Sunday 2nd June: 5pm

Please note that the venue has unreserved seating. Please arrive in good time to secure seats.


Find out more about ACCESS to our events here, and for information about TICKETS, click here.

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

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Unleashing Chaos with Jane Flett and Kelly Link
Jun
2
5:00 PM17:00
Digital, Debut, Made in Scotland, Sunday

Unleashing Chaos with Jane Flett and Kelly Link

Prepare to have your quiet existence interrupted by authors Jane Flett and Kelly Link.

In Kelly Link’s debut novel The Book of Love, supernatural beings and chaos descend on the small seaside town of Lovesend, Massachusetts, in the wake of the unexpected return of three missing teenagers. Laura, Daniel and Mo disappeared without trace a year ago.

Meanwhile in Jane Flett’s debut novel Freakslaw, a travelling funfair populated by deviant queers, a contortionist witch, the most powerful fortune teller, and other architects of mayhem comes to the repressed Scottish town of Pitlaw.

 

Jane Flett is a Scottish writer based in Berlin. Her fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4, featured in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and awarded the New Orleans Writing Residency. Her poetry features in the Best British Poetry and received the Berlin Senate Award for non-German literature. She is represented by Marina de Pass of the Soho Agency and her debut novel Freakslaw is forthcoming from Doubleday (Penguin Random House) in June 2024.

Kelly Link is the author of the collections Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, Pretty Monsters, Get in Trouble, and White Cat, Black Dog. Her short stories have been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Best American Short Stories, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She was a 2018 MacArthur Fellow and has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She and Gavin J. Grant have co-edited a number of anthologies, including multiple volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and, for young adults, Steampunk! and Monstrous Affections. She is the co-founder of Small Beer Press and co-edits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. She is the owner of Book Moon, an independent bookshop in Easthampton, MA.
Link was born in Miami, Florida. She currently lives with her family, dog, and chickens in Northampton, Massachusetts.

About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £6 digital ticket.

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Cassandra Clare in conversation with V.E. Schwab
Jun
2
6:30 PM18:30
Digital, Sunday

Cassandra Clare in conversation with V.E. Schwab

We are excited to welcome bestselling author Cassandra Clare to talk about her latest creation, Sword Catcher.

A boy lives to protect his Prince with his life. A girl is destined to return lost magic to the world. A Prince must choose between his heart and his duty. And thrumming beneath it all, the heartbeat of a city unlike any other. Welcome to Castellane.

Cassandra will be in conversation with fellow writer V.E. Schwab.

Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old.

Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called “The Beautiful Cassandra” based on a Jane Austen short story of the same name (and  which later inspired her current pen name).

After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina’s world travels and Britney Spears’ wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again.

Cassie’s first professional writing sale was a short story called “The Girl’s Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord” in a Baen anthology of humor fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.

City of Bones was her first novel.

VICTORIA “V. E.” SCHWAB is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including the acclaimed Shades of Magic series, the Villains series, the Cassidy Blake series and the international bestseller The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Her work has received critical acclaim, translated into over two dozen languages, and optioned for television and film. First Kill – a YA vampire series based on Schwab’s short story of the same name – is currently in the works at Netflix with Emma Roberts’ Belletrist Productions producing. When not haunting Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is usually tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up monsters.

About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £5.50 - (plus 50p booking fee)

This event takes place in Zoom Webinar.

A recording of this event will be available to catch-up on our YouTube until Sunday 14th July 2024. Ticket holders and weekend pass owners will receive the catch-up link automatically after the festival. Please keep an eye on your SPAM.

Joining us at the Pleasance? We will be showing the digital events on a big TV in the Music Room. Free with a weekend pass, or please purchase a £6 digital ticket.

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