Join Strawmoddie Theatre for Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, adapted for stage by Stephen Briggs, and brought to stage as part of Cymera: Scotland’s Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Writing 2026.

Night Watch is the story of Sam Vimes, running hero of the Guards sequence, who finds himself cast back in time to the Ankh-Morpork of his youth. With a psychopath from his own time rising in the vile ranks of the Cable Street Unmentionables complicating things, Vimes has to ensure that history takes its course so that he will have the right future to go back to, and to keep his younger self alive.

Running Time: approx. 2 hours 30 minutes including interval

Performance dates and times

Wednesday 3rd June, 7:30pm

Thursday 4th June: 7:30pm

Friday 5th June: 8pm

Saturday 6th June: 8pm

Sunday 7th June: 5pm

Ticket prices £20.50/ £18.50 concession, free for carers. Please book a free carer ticket.

Please note that the venue has unreserved bench seating. Please arrive in goodtime to secure seats, especially if you are in a group. 

The venue has limited wheelchair spaces. Please let us know when booking if you require one.

We do not issue physical tickets - your booking confirmation email is your ticket.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Join Strawmoddie Theatre for Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, adapted for stage by Stephen Briggs, and brought to stage as part of Cymera: Scotland’s Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Writing 2026.

Night Watch is the story of Sam Vimes, running hero of the Guards sequence, who finds himself cast back in time to the Ankh-Morpork of his youth. With a psychopath from his own time rising in the vile ranks of the Cable Street Unmentionables complicating things, Vimes has to ensure that history takes its course so that he will have the right future to go back to, and to keep his younger self alive.

Running Time: approx. 2 hours 30 minutes including interval

Performance dates and times

Wednesday 3rd June, 7:30pm

Thursday 4th June: 7:30pm

Friday 5th June: 8pm

Saturday 6th June: 8pm

Sunday 7th June: 5pm

Ticket prices £20.50/ £18.50 concession, free for carers. Please book a free carer ticket.

Please note that the venue has unreserved bench seating. Please arrive in goodtime to secure seats, especially if you are in a group. 

The venue has limited wheelchair spaces. Please let us know when booking if you require one.

We do not issue physical tickets - your booking confirmation email is your ticket.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

• Tagged Made in Scotland, Theatre

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 fourteen 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: 120 minutes including breaks

 Tickets: £16.50/£14.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The workshop will be take place in Zoom meetings. You will receive the Zoom link 48 hours before the event. Workshops are not recorded.

Please note there is no physical space provided at the festival venue to participate in this workshop. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Writers will have the invaluable opportunity to talk directly to an agent from a literary agency or an editor from a SFFH publisher about their work, seek advice about any stage of the writing process, and receive direct feedback on pitches and ideas.

Meet our Agents/Editors

Mia Dakin from Greene & Heaton

Meetings will be 15 minutes long, and there will be a £25 fee.

Please select which Agent you’d like to speak to on booking. Please note spaces are limited.

By booking tickets for this event, you are committing to submitting your query letter and the first 2000 words of your work (or less) by Monday 11.05.2026

Please send your material to admin@cymerafestival.co.uk

Booking Deadline Monday 11th May 2026.

Please note that our Agent One to One sessions book out very quickly.

Digital Agent One to Ones will take via Zoom.

Writers will have the invaluable opportunity to talk directly to an agent from a literary agency or an editor from a SFFH publisher about their work, seek advice about any stage of the writing process, and receive direct feedback on pitches and ideas.

Meet our Agents/Editors

Caro Clarke from Portobello Literary

Kirsten Lang from Zeno Agency

Meetings will be 15 minutes long, and there will be a £25 fee.

Please select which Agent you’d like to speak to on booking. Please note spaces are limited.

By booking tickets for this event, you are committing to submitting your query letter and the first 2000 words of your work (or less) by Monday 11.05.2026

Please send your material to admin@cymerafestival.co.uk

Booking Deadline Monday 11th May 2026.

Please note that our Agent One to One sessions book out very quickly.

Digital Agent One to Ones will take via Zoom.

Join Narrative Damage for a spooky live play Call of Cthulhu adventure set in 1890s Edinburgh featuring some of your favourite authors. 

When a visiting professor from Miskatonic University turns up dead, a motley group of investigators are put into a race against time to find his killer. Why was he murdered? And what happened to the manuscript he brought with him? Join our players (all authors attending Cymera!) as they attempt to follow the clues, uncover dark secrets - or go mad trying!

Narrative Damage is an actual play and interview TTRPG podcast where writers put down the pens and let the dice tell the story. Follow Narrative Damage on Instagram and Bluesky: @narrativedamagerpg and watch on YouTube or listen on your favourite podcast app.

About the event

Venue: Highland Room/Games space

Running time: 180 minutes

Price: £0 +

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

How far would you go for salvation—and what might answer when you call?

In Isabel Cañas’ The Possession of Alba Diaz, as plague ravages 1765 Zacatecas, Alba flees with her family and fiancé to an isolated silver mine—only to awaken something ancient beneath its depths. Hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions take hold as a cold, furious presence grows inside her. Elías, determined to escape his own family’s legacy, knows he should keep his distance—but cannot ignore Alba’s decline or the dangerous pull between them. As the entity’s hunger deepens, Alba may have no choice but to trust the one man she shouldn’t.

In Johanna Van Veen’s Bone of My Bone, travel to 1635, where the ravages of war has driven Sister Ursula and the sharp-witted Elsebeth into the Bavarian forest, where they discover a gilded saint’s skull said to grant a wish. Following a tattered map across a devastated land, they are hunted by a necromancer while the saint whispers in the dark. As blessing and curse entwine, the women must decide what they are willing to sacrifice—and what it may cost them to stay together.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Price: £6 - (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 12th July 2026. 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.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Join editor Dan Coxon and contributors Alex Pheby, Hannah Kaner and Richard Strachan as they pull back the curtain on how they write fantasy, demystifying topics such as worldbuilding, sources of magic, creating authenticity, and how best to deploy your dragons.

An essential map for anyone wanting to write their own world into being, Writing the Magic explores the perilous realms of fantasy fiction – and arms novice writers with everything they need to embark on their own adventure. 

From Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones, over the last hundred years few genres have captured the public imagination as powerfully as fantasy. Whether it's epic quests of dwarves and elves, wizards and paladins, or the influential childhood classics of Alan Garner and C.S. Lewis, the appetite among readers for all things magical seems insatiable.

Pulling together a fellowship of some of the best writers of modern fantasy fiction, Writing the Magic invites you to step through the portal and discover what gives these tales such enduring appeal.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Every word carries a world—stories shaped by the rhythms, roots, and power of language.

In Robin C.M. Duncan’s “The Sarry Heid Free Press”, Monty Johnston's up tae no good. Nae change there then, but wi only two days tae Glesga WorldCon 2034, he's still settin up his crew fur an audacious heist that'll net a good few quid. But there's so much mair at stake—the reputations o two mega famous SF writers, mibbie even truth itself—as the UK Literary Polis come breathin doon his neck. Told in vibrant Scots, this story captures voice, place, and character in a way only language can. “The Sarry Heid Free Press” can be found in the Gallus anthology.

In Tim Armstrong’s An Luingeas Dorcha air Fàire, Saul almost died when he and his companion, Rìosa, were captured by the murderous tyrant Sadb. Escaping to Earth, they hide for years in its vast forests—until Rìosa disappears, and Saul fears their sanctuary has been discovered. Written in Scottish Gaelic, this award-winning novel continues an epic tale of survival, exile, and loss, rooted deeply in language, culture, and identity.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Ragtag crews, deadly quests, and magic-laced oceans—set sail for adventure where fate, loyalty, and survival hang in the balance.

In Katalina Watt’s Saltswept, a pirate bound for the gallows, a desperate farmer, and an acolyte who learns a blessing can be a curse are thrown together with an unlikely crew—including a pickpocket and a talking ottercat. Their journey leads them to the Maelstrom, a deadly whirlpool hiding untold treasure. But as their fragile alliance frays, they discover far more is at stake: magic is failing, the boundary between life and death is thinning, and a queen’s hunger threatens to consume it all.

In Shannon Chakraborty’s Tapestry of Fate, Amina al-Sirafi walks the line between adventure and home, hunting magical artefacts while trying to remain close to her daughter. But when she is forced into a perilous mission to steal a spindle that can rewrite fate, she must once again risk everything. As storms gather and loyalties shift, Amina finds herself caught in a dangerous game where not everyone wants her to succeed—and the truth may be more dangerous than the task itself.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Some houses remember. Some legacies refuse to fade. And some ghosts never leave.

In Amy Jane Stewart’s Hex House, pregnant Elly flees her wedding night and finds refuge in a mysterious house that offers safety—and something far more dangerous. Years later, Siobhan, whose life unraveled after encountering the house, is drawn back when it resurfaces. As past and present collide, Hex reveals itself as a place of vengeance, transformation, and survival at any cost.

In Charlotte Cross’s The Brides, Dr. John Seward is pulled back into long-buried horrors when a new patient’s story echoes the past. Decades earlier, Mafalda Lowell journeys to Budapest, where illness, visions, and dark forces entwine her fate with Lucy North and her companions. Told through letters and diaries, this reimagining places women at the heart of a chilling Gothic legacy.

In MK Hardy’s Needfire, Norah Mackenzie seeks a fresh start in a marriage of convenience, only to find Corrain House steeped in unease. Her husband is distant, the house is alive with something dark, and ghostly visions begin to blur reality. As secrets surface and tensions rise, Norah must uncover the truth before the house claims her.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Expect the unexpected—where the uncanny lurks in the everyday.

In David Quantick’s And Other Stories, thirty-three tales revel in the strange, the surreal, and the darkly comic. From small-town horror to bizarre sci-fi—including an autonomous toothbrush’s ill-fated journey through the human body—these stories blend absurdity with sharp, unsettling prose, inviting readers to sit with the uncanny long after the final page.

In Neil Williamson’s Hand-Me-Downs, fifteen stories trace the eerie legacy of objects passed from one life to another. From crumbling houses and puzzle chests to bones, teeth, and stranger things still, each inheritance carries something unsettling. Weird, dark, and often quietly horrifying, these tales reveal the hidden power of what we leave behind.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Price: £6 - (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 12th July 2026. 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.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Join Strawmoddie Theatre for Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, adapted for stage by Stephen Briggs, and brought to stage as part of Cymera: Scotland’s Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Writing 2026.

Night Watch is the story of Sam Vimes, running hero of the Guards sequence, who finds himself cast back in time to the Ankh-Morpork of his youth. With a psychopath from his own time rising in the vile ranks of the Cable Street Unmentionables complicating things, Vimes has to ensure that history takes its course so that he will have the right future to go back to, and to keep his younger self alive.

Book Tickets

Running Time: approx. 2 hours 30 minutes including interval

Performance dates and times

Wednesday 3rd June, 7:30pm

Thursday 4th June: 7:30pm

Friday 5th June: 8pm

Saturday 6th June: 8pm

Sunday 7th June: 5pm

Ticket prices £20.50/ £18.50 concession, free for carers. Please book a free carer ticket.

Please note that the venue has unreserved bench seating. Please arrive in goodtime to secure seats, especially if you are in a group. 

The venue has limited wheelchair spaces. Please let us know when booking if you require one.

We do not issue physical tickets - your booking confirmation email is your ticket.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Test your Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror knowledge in our Cymera quiz.

Teams of up to five people.

Entry is free.

Venue: The Pleasance Bar

When trust is a weapon, survival depends on knowing who to believe.

In Aliya Whiteley’s The Misheard World, soldier Elize Janview is stationed at Crag, the South’s impenetrable fortress, when a mysterious prisoner arrives: Marius Mondegreen, a performer and spy with extraordinary abilities. Tasked with recording his interrogation by a man who claims he can end the war, Janview becomes entangled in a web of shifting truths—forcing her to question the conflict, her role in it, and the very nature of reality itself.

In Ren Hutchings’ An Unbreakable World, petty thief Page Found lives by one rule: if something seems too good to be true, leave. But when she’s kidnapped by her own mark and forced into a dangerous heist, she must impersonate a monk to help steal a treasure-laden ship. As secrets deepen and loyalties blur—especially with the conflicted Maelle—Page must decide who to trust, because in a world built on deception, it may be the only way to survive.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Join sci fi writer and Shoreline of Infinity Magazine's fiction editor, Eris Young, for a sci-fi workshop exploring what "science fiction" really is, and how to use science and tech to create conflict and shape character. 

This workshop is for any writer new to the genre of science fiction. You  may have experience writing in other speculative genres like horror or fantasy, but might be intimidated by the prospect of moving into the sci fi space, or you could be completely new to speculative fiction and looking to sound out the spaces you might like to work in. 

Using inspiration from real-life science and tech, we will explore what science fiction actually is and what it can be used for, and how to build your concept and follow it to its natural conclusions, along the way discovering character and story conflict. 

This workshop will involve a small amount of pre-preparation, which is encouraged but not mandatory. 

Your Workshop Leader

Eris Young is a transgender writer of speculative fiction. Their work has appeared in venues such as Pseudopod, Gutter, GigaNotoSaurus, the Immigrant Sci Fi Short Stories anthology from Flame Tree Press, and the 2025 Edinburgh Science Festival exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland. Their debut novel, a lesbian vampire thriller titled Hunger in the Blood, is publishing with Tor UK in May 2027. They are fiction editor at Shoreline of Infinity, Scotland's sci fi magazine. 

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

 Tickets: £16.50/£14.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The workshop will be take place in Zoom meetings. You will receive the Zoom link 48 hours before the event. Workshops are not recorded.

Please note there is no physical space provided at the festival venue to participate in this workshop. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Worldbuilding is the cornerstone of SFFH fiction. Join author Ian Green to guide you through the  art of worldbuilding in speculative fiction in an interactive workshop.  Learn how to enhance your storytelling and reader immersion with practical examples and approaches. Come with a blank sheet of paper, leave with a world!

Your Workshop Leader

Ian Green is a writer from Northern Scotland with a PhD in epigenetics. His biopunk eco-terrorism thriller Extremophile was one of Financial Times’ Best Science Fiction Books of 2024 and was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and Dragon Awards. His debut fantasy trilogy The Rotstorm began with the Sunday Times bestseller The Gauntlet and the First Beneath. His short fiction has been widely published and he won the BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines competition, the Futurebook Future Fiction Prize, and was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the British Fantasy Awards. Find out more at www.ianthegreen.com

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Braid Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in-person. Workshops are not recorded. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

How do you get into games writing? Can you move from writing novels to writing interactive action? And can a writer make a videogame by themselves? (Spoilers: Yes! And Thomas will explain how.)

This workshop will cover:

• Writing great dialogue and engaging characters

• Moving from novel and tabletop RPG writing into videogames

• Branching narrative and interactive fiction

• Visual novels

• Practical and fun narrative exercises

• Creating a game by yourself

• Industry and career advice

This workshop starts with a presentation, but also has some group discussion and some fun, practical exercises. The participants will learn the basics of videogame writing, interactive narrative, and how to make games all by themselves.

Your Workshop Leader

Thomas Welsh is a games writer and fantasy novelist. He was lead writer and narrative director on the award winning Cloudpunk, City of Ghosts, Nivalis, Best Served Cold and more. He has written for numerous game sites including Kotaku and has several short stories in print. Tom has presented at The Games Developers conference in San Francisco, and he won the Creativity Award at the Scottish Game Awards in 2023 for Cloupunk. He is a BAFTA and Society of Authors member and works with The Scottish Book Trust on their Live Literature Programme. He is the author of Anna Undreaming and the bestselling Metiks Fade Trilogy, and is teaching Interactive Digital Narrative at the Glasgow School of Art. Tomfounded his own game studio, “Box of Greebles”, in 2026.

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Cheviot Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in-person. Workshops are not recorded. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Step into worlds where Rome never fell, where power, rebellion, and destiny collide.

In Sophie Burnham’s Bloodtide, the Empire has begun to fracture under betrayal and unrest. Tair, now custodian of the powerful Iveroa Stone, fights to protect Luxana as resistance rises in the streets. In the Imperial Archives, Selah uncovers dangerous truths, while far beyond the city, Arran and Theo undertake a covert mission that could shift the coming war. As tensions mount, Sargassa’s fate may already be sealed by a storm on the horizon.

In Solitaire Townsend’s Godstorm, a petrol-powered Roman Empire sets the stage for Arrow, a former gladiatrix turned governess, to confront her past. When the child she loves is taken during a devastating storm, Arrow defies her master and turns to old allies in a desperate search. As betrayal and battle close in, she must decide whether to become the killer she once was—or risk everything to save the girl who calls her mother.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Over the festival weekend, we will be chatting with industry professionals during our Inside SFFH Publishing series.

What does an editor do all day? Why should you get an agent? And why you should always listen to your publicist!

Line-up to be announced

This event is free to attend, no ticket needed.

Venue: Lomond Room

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Sit back and relax as some of our authors read from their work.

The line-up will be announced closer to the festival.

About the event

Running time: 45 minutes

Price: Free

Venue: Munro Room

This event takes place in person. Please note the Munro Room is not wheelchair accessible.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Over the festival weekend, we will be chatting with industry professionals during our Inside SFFH Publishing series.

What does an editor do all day? Why should you get an agent? And why you should always listen to your publicist!

This event is free to attend, no ticket needed.

Venue: Lomond Room

Running time: 30 minutes

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Over the festival weekend, we will be chatting with industry professionals during our Inside SFFH Publishing series.

What does an editor do all day? Why should you get an agent? And why you should always listen to your publicist!

This event is free to attend, no ticket needed.

Line-up to be announced

Venue: Lomond Room

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Every legend has a beginning. This is where heroes rise.

In Felix Mosse’s The Mistral, an ancient wind that grants magic is dying, threatening the balance of the realm. As war looms, Swan—daughter of a murdered queen—journeys to Lurella seeking answers about her past and her untamed power. When her path crosses with Fenne, a feared fighter in the city’s brutal duelling pit, they are drawn into a conspiracy that could decide the fate of their world.

In Marvellous Michael Anson’s Firstborn of the Sun, L’ore is the only person in her kingdom without the sun’s gift of magic. When her best friend is chosen for a divine role that will cost him his life, she unleashes a forbidden shadow power tied to a hidden land. Forced to flee, they uncover truths that could bring their entire world to its knees.

In V.L. Bovalino’s The Second Death of Locke, Grey Flynn has devoted her life to protecting her mage, Kier. But when a mission pulls them into the heart of a growing war, their bond is tested. For Grey is more than she seems—she is heir to the source of all magic—and if she falls, magic may fall with her.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Eastercon and Fantasycon are firm favourites in the calendar of many SFFH reader or writer, and both are coming to Scotland!

But what are cons all about? How can you get involved? Should you get involved?

The teams from Fantasycon 2026 and Eastercon 2027: Unconfined stand ready to answer all your questions.

This event is free to attend, no ticket needed.

Venue: Lomond Room

Running time: 30 minutes

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Survival is only the beginning—what comes after may redefine everything.

In E.J. Swift’s When There Are Wolves Again, two women look back on lives shaped by crisis, memory, and hope. Lucy, an activist shaped by the 2020 pandemic, works to restore Britain’s lost wildlife, while Hester, a filmmaker born on the day of the Chornobyl disaster, documents fragile ecosystems and unheard voices. Across decades of change, loss, and resilience, both hold onto the possibility of a wilder future.

In Lorraine Wilson’s The Salt Oracle, seventeen years after the internet’s collapse, Auli lives aboard a floating research institute studying a mysterious girl known as the Oracle, who channels dangerous ghosts. When a plan to replicate the Oracle’s power ends in murder, Auli is thrust into leadership as corruption surfaces and the world begins to shift. She must decide what matters most—the life of the Oracle, or the fragile future of everyone who depends on her.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Sometimes starting over is the bravest magic of all.

In Heather Fawcett’s Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, Agnes runs her Montreal cat rescue with precision—until a forced move lands her above a dubious magic shop run by a grouchy wizard with a dangerous past. When trouble catches up with him, threatening both the shop and her shelter, Agnes may have to protect the very man she doesn’t trust.

In Sarah-Beth Durst’s The Enchanted Greenhouse, Terlu Perna is punished for forbidden magic by being turned into a wooden statue—until she awakens on a remote island of magical greenhouses. As she begins to rebuild her life among unexpected companions, the magic sustaining the island starts to fail. To save it, Terlu must break the rules again and confront the question of whether she truly deserves a second chance.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Price: £6 - (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 12th July 2026. 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.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Getting as far as thinking about an edit is a huge achievement. But what is an edit? You may hear words like Developmental, Structural, Copyediting, Line editing, Proofreading … are they all the same thing, with varying degrees of scary-sounding names? And do you need to work with an editor to do all, some or any of them? If so, how does that work? 

Helen will introduce the different types of editing, and you’ll look at some (invented!) examples to assess what kind of work they might benefit from. You’ll have the chance to experiment with developmental and line editing yourself, and discuss your thoughts. The workshop rounds off with a look at how you can work with an editor to help make your work (even) better.  

Editing is a hugely rewarding part of the writing process, and your editor is there only to help you – come along to find out how! 

Your Workshop Leader

Helen is a freelance editor who has worked in the publishing industry since the early 1990s (starting out as an editorial assistant and working up through typesetting, production and project management to managing editor at Edinburgh publisher Canongate). Freelance since 2008, she has also worked as digital resource creator for museums, and delighted in doing the MLitt in Fantasy at Glasgow (2015–17). She mentors beginning writers and could talk endlessly about publishing and editing … and pretty much anything else!

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

 Tickets: £16.50/£14.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The workshop will be take place in Zoom meetings. You will receive the Zoom link 48 hours before the event. Workshops are not recorded.

Please note there is no physical space provided at the festival venue to participate in this workshop. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Kings Landing, Baldur’s Gate, Ankh-Morpork, Camorr, what makes these imagined cities leap from the page when others fade into the backdrop? How do you grow a city from a name on a map to a complex character in its own right? How can you build streets that you can roam in your mind, that bustle with culture you can feel in your heart?

In this hands-on workshop, you’ll come together with other creatives and follow industry professionals as they guide you through their step-by-step process for designing memorable cities for use in fiction and games writing. 

Whether you’re a hobbyist games master, aspiring writer, or established author, you’ll emerge from the workshop with a vibrant city of your own creation. One that’s rich with history and purpose, and ready for stories to bloom within its walls. You’ll also be provided with a printed workshop guide to take home — so you can repeat the exercise in your own time to build as many cities as your heart desires.

Your Workshop Leader

Elaine Lithgow is an award winning writer and game designer known for her work in the tabletop roleplaying scene. She has over 30 books to her name, including numerous Warhammer Roleplaying Game titles, Dungeons and Dragons setting guides, and Heart: The City Beneath books. She has a special love of worldbuilding and shows no signs of stopping any time soon.

Note: For the best experience, this workshop will organise participants into groups of 3-4 people. Solo participation is possible, but be advised that the workshop leaders will have limited time to support individuals who work alone.

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Cheviot Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in-person. Workshops are not recorded. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

When it comes to writing fiction, much of our planning revolves around plot and character. But a work's lasting effect on the reader is often just as dependent on the atmosphere the author conjures on the page.

This workshop will look at how we can use techniques from the Weird and the Uncanny to develop atmosphere and tone, ensuring that the reader is drawn into your fictional world before the plot even starts to unfold. From dissonant language to Uncanny imagery, we'll examine a variety of unsettling effects before putting them into practice in a piece of descriptive writing. While the Uncanny is particularly useful when writing horror, we will also look at how to use its effects in other genre fiction, from epic fantasy to dystopian science fiction.

Your Workshop Leader

Dan Coxon has won a World Fantasy Award (Heartwood: A Mythago Wood Anthology), a Saboteur Award (Being Dad) and two British Fantasy Awards (Writing the Uncanny and Writing the Future, both co-edited with Richard V. Hirst). He has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards a total of eight times, and was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Awards. In October 2025 his anthology of haunted house stories, Unquiet Guests, was published by Dead Ink Books. His second short story collection, Come Sing for the Harrowing, will be reissued by CLASH Books in April 2026. www.dancoxon.com

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Braid Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in-person. Workshops are not recorded. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Sit back and relax as some of our authors read from their work.

The line-up will be announced closer to the festival.

About the event

Running time: 45 minutes

Price: Free

Venue: Munro Room

This event takes place in person. Please note the Munro Room is not wheelchair accessible.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Haunted cities, restless dead, and stories that refuse to rest.

In Lyndsey Croal’s In This City, Where it Rains, an alternate Edinburgh is trapped in endless rain, and Maggie is haunted by ghosts that appear only in the downpour. Drawn to the mysterious Tair House—a place that remembers in a city that forgets—she searches for answers about her past and the spirits that follow her, unaware of the darkness waiting within.

In Sunyi Dean’s The Girl with a Thousand Faces, Mercy Chan has built a life helping restless spirits find peace in war-torn Hong Kong. But when a powerful entity begins drowning innocents and claims to know her past, she is pulled into a dangerous game. Decades earlier, another story unfolds on a haunted island, where buried horrors refuse to stay hidden—as past and present collide to reveal the truth behind Mercy’s lost memories.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

In the aftermath of ruin, some rebuild. Others burn what’s left.

In Alex Pheby’s Waterblack, Nathan Treeves has returned as Master of the City of the Dead, while Sharli—once a sacrifice, now a trained God-Killer—seeks another chance to finish what she began. As forces gather and the Women’s Vanguard prepares for war, a final confrontation looms that will decide the fate of a shattered world.

In Anna Smith Spark’s A Sword of Gold and Ruin, Kanda and her family struggle to rebuild a fallen kingdom, carrying both hope and the weight of their past. As monsters and memories haunt their journey, they must confront the darkness within as much as the dangers ahead in this lyrical tale of beauty, brutality, and survival.

In Rafael Torrubia’s The Shipwright and the Shroudweaver, in a world where even the gods are gone, two figures known only by their crafts set out to stop a grieving sorceress from unleashing an ancient evil. Racing toward a distant northern kingdom, they face monsters, magic, and the ghosts of their past in a desperate fight for what remains.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Want to find out what goes into making a podcast? Maybe you want to start your own and are wondering about what equipment you need, or how to find guests? And what about editing, and distribution? Should it be audio only or video? Or maybe you want to appear as a guest on podcasts but aren’t sure what the best setup for recording is? This interactive workshop aims to answer your questions about all of the above and will include some practical tips and tricks for recording etc. Plus, you’ll get to put it all into action and record a short podcast at the end of the workshop!

Your Workshop leader

Marco Rinaldi is founder and co-host of the popular Page One - The Writer’s Podcast and the actual play and interview TTRPG podcast, Narrative Damage. Most ‘free’ time he has is spent recording and editing podcasts or prepping new adventures for his players! In between all of that, he tries to write books, and won the Pitch Perfect prize at Bloody Scotland in 2025

 Running time: 90 minutes including breaks

Venue: Lomond Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

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

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Writers will have the invaluable opportunity to talk directly to an agent from a literary agency or an editor from a SFFH publisher about their work, seek advice about any stage of the writing process, and receive direct feedback on pitches and ideas.

Meet our Agents/Editors

Claire Schultz

Meetings will be 15 minutes long, and there will be a £25 fee.

Please select which Agent you’d like to speak to on booking. Please note spaces are limited.

By booking tickets for this event, you are committing to submitting your query letter and the first 2000 words of your work (or less) by Monday 11.05.2026

Please send your material to admin@cymerafestival.co.uk

Booking Deadline Monday 11th May 2026. Due to limited availability, we ask that participants only book one Agent One to One session.

Please note that our Agent One to One sessions book out very quickly.

Meeting will take place in the Cheviot and Braid rooms.

Join our one-hour class, hosted by professional binder Will Phoenix, and craft a beautiful accordion-style pocket book—perfect for photos and keepsakes.

Choose from a wide selection of materials, including leather, cotton, and tweed. All materials provided.

About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £20, includes all materials

Venue: Munro Room

This event takes place in person. Please note the Munro Room is not wheelchair accessible.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Work can be hell. Sometimes it literally is.

In Caitlin Rozakis’ Startup Hell, Morgan Blackwater is just trying to survive her job at a chaotic tech startup—despite having a demon-slaying wizard mother and magic dyslexia. When her boss dies summoning a demon to hit his quarterly target, Morgan is left with a dangerously charming demon problem. Keeping him hidden drags her into the Infernal Plane, where hell looks a lot like corporate life—and escaping may cost more than she’s willing to give.

In Nicholas Binge’s Abyss, Joe takes a job at a company he knows nothing about, only to discover that Ponos is interested in one thing: his potential. As reality begins to warp, he is pulled into a surreal corporate nightmare where ambition and identity begin to unravel. The deeper he goes, the harder it is to tell where the job ends and something far more disturbing begins.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Love and rivalry make for dangerous magic—especially when the dead refuse to stay that way.

In Danielle Knight’s A Rather Vengeful Accord, Halen Kilchoir will do anything to study necromancy at St Penderghast’s, an elite college where students either raise the dead or fight them. Her only way in is to team up with her rival, Alastair Faulton, and compete as spirer gladiators. As they battle monstrous creations for a place at the college, their long-standing feud begins to shift into something far more complicated.

In Shiloh Briar’s Hopeless Necromantic, soldier Helspira volunteers for a doomed mission, escorting Sikras—a necromancer who has already failed twice—to stop an undead army. No one expects them to succeed. But as they face mounting dangers and uncover hidden truths, an unexpected bond begins to grow, and they must decide if their feelings can survive what lies ahead.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Price: £6 - (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 12th July 2026. 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.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

What happens when the women who know the old ways decide to use them?

In Rebecca Ferrier’s The Salt Bind, on the storm-lashed Cornish coast in 1779, Kensa becomes apprentice to a wise woman, learning the ancient magic that binds land and sea. But when her mentor falls gravely ill, she turns to the Bucka, a vengeful sea god, striking a dangerous pact. As omens rise and tides shift, Kensa must face the true cost of the Old Ways—and the power she is only beginning to understand.

In Shona Kinsella’s Daughters of Nicnevin, amid the upheaval of the 1745 Jacobite uprising, witches Mairead and Constance call upon the fae queen Nicnevin to protect their village. Creating men of earth to defend their homes, they soon question who the real enemy is and what will happen when the balance of power shifts. Rooted in Scottish folklore, this is a story of magic, survival, and the strength of women in a time of war.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Discover some of the freshest SFFH talent out there at our 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!

Readings should be no longer than five minutes

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

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

• Saturday 7th June 3:30pm to 4:15pm

• Sunday 8th June 1:30pm to 2pm

To read your work, please apply here

Submission deadline is Wednesday 27th May 2026

About the event

Running time: 45 minutes

Price: Free

Venue: Pleasance Bar

This event takes place in person.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Join podcasters Marco Rinaldi and Tariq Ashkanani for a live recording of their writing podcast, Page One.

Guest to be announced.

On Page One - The Writer’s Podcast, Marco and Tariq talk to writers of all kinds, from bestselling authors to screenwriters to comic writers to learn about how they go about creating their stories.

Don't miss a deep dive into each guest’s writing history, including how they broke into the industry, their writing process and an exploration of their work. There might even be a sneak peek of upcoming projects!

From the selkie to the hag, folklore is alive with stories of mythological women. As writers, how do we revoice these mythological and folkloric female figures? What are the challenges and opportunities for writers working with folklore today?

Join Tracy Fahey for a workshop where participants are guided to work with existing folkloric stories that have a special meaning for them, and are facilitated to consider and develop a creative reimagining of these stories.

Your Workshop Leader

Tracy Fahey is an Irish writer. She has won the Rubery International Book Award (2025) and the Paul Cave Prize for Literature (2024). Three of her books have been shortlisted for British Fantasy Awards (Best Collection 2017, 2022, Best Novella 2024). Her short fiction is published in more than fifty American, British, Australian and Irish anthologies. Fahey's next book is Queens of the Crone Age (2026, PS Publishing), the research and writing of which was supported by a Saari Fellowship awarded by the Kone Foundation, and residencies in Ireland, Scotland, and Finland.  She holds a PhD on the Gothic in visual art and lectures in Critical and Contextual Studies at Limerick School of Art and Design, TUS.

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Braid Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in-person. Workshops are not recorded. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Using myths and legends as inspiration for new writing

Focussing on the primary elements of Character, Perspective and Plot, this is a fully interactive workshop, giving participants plenty of opportunity to develop – and begin to write and develop new characters based on old stories. 

The plenary session of the workshop will allow participants who wish to do so to share the work they have created.

Feedback from previous workshop participants:

“Fabulous workshop – the practical exercises were amazingly helpful to my writing”

“Usually, I’m a non-fiction writer – this took my out of my comfort zone and was great fun –

and also really useful to my development as a writer”

“I really enjoyed building a character who is usually seen just as an afterthought in the

traditional telling of the tale”

Your Workshop Leader

Sam Davey is a prize-winning author of fantasy and speculative fiction – both short stories and novels. Her short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies, the most recent being “Breaking Through the Penumbra”, Cicada Song Press, Nov 2025).  

She is currently working on a series of novels retelling the legends of Camelot from a feminist perspective. Her new novel (2nd in series) The Sisters and The Sword will be published in June 2026, by Diversion Books/Simon and Schuster.

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Cheviot Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in-person. Workshops are not recorded. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Cooking up trouble, one dish at a time.

In Annalee Newitz’s Automatic Noodle, a group of abandoned food service bots in a near-future San Francisco take over a ghost kitchen and launch their own noodle restaurant. Business is booming, until a flood of mysterious bad reviews threatens to shut them down. To survive, they must uncover who is sabotaging them before everything they’ve built collapses.

In Lavanya Lakshminarayan’s Intergalactic Feast, winning Interstellar MegaChef is only the beginning. As Saraswati becomes the face of their revolutionary food simulation and Ko fights to control its future, rivalries grow, and scrutiny intensifies. With the culinary world divided and darker possibilities emerging, Feast may be more than a breakthrough—it could be a weapon.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Price: £6 - (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 12th July 2026. 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.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Sit back and relax as some of our authors read from their work.

The line-up will be announced closer to the festival.

About the event

Running time: 45 minutes

Price: Free

Venue: Munro Room

This event takes place in person. Please note the Munro Room is not wheelchair accessible.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Out among the stars, humanity is only the beginning.

In Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Strife, in a far future where Earth has fallen, a crew of humans, spiders, and a formidable mantis shrimp captain discovers a long-lost world. But when crewmate Alis wakes to find most of the expedition missing, she must uncover what lies beneath. As the mystery deepens, the mission becomes a question not just of survival, but of first contact and the nature of intelligence itself.

In Fonda Lee’s The Last Contract of Isako, a legendary swordswoman on the brink of retirement accepts one final mission that draws her into a world of corporate intrigue and deadly duels. As secrets unravel, she uncovers truths that could change humanity’s future among the stars—and force her to confront the cost of her legacy.

In Claire North’s Slow Gods, Mawukana na-Vdnaze has lived many lives and died more than once. Reborn as something not quite human, he gains the ability to speak to the vastness of space itself. His story spans galaxies and civilizations, tracing a path of vengeance, transformation, and survival in a universe shaped by gods and the endless dark.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

You don’t have to like each other—you just have to survive together.

In Cassidy Ellis Salter’s These Shattered Spires, a cursed world rots beneath a deadly sky as Fourspires Castle descends into chaos after its ruler’s assassination. To claim the throne, arcanists must survive the brutal Slaughter—but for their familiars, it means certain death. Nixie, a botanical familiar, discovers a chance to escape her fate, but only by allying with rivals, including her ex-girlfriend Taro. With just 48 hours, they must battle monstrous threats—and each other.

In Lauryn Hamilton Murray’s Tides of Fortune, newly crowned Queen Blaze must secure the Eye of the Soul before it falls into the wrong hands. Her search forces her into an uneasy alliance with the enigmatic Fox, whose motives are as uncertain as her growing feelings. As danger closes in, Blaze must decide who to trust in a world where power and survival are always at odds.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

From Blade Runner to Warhammer 40,000, SYNTHONIE brings the sound of science-fiction and videogame worlds to the stage. Founded in Germany and now based in Birmingham, Chris from SYNTHONIE performs live with his self-built instrument, the Musitar, blending atmospheric sci-fi soundscapes, dark futuristic tones and cinematic energy.

SYNTHONIE’s performances explore imagination, technology and storytelling through music — because yes, even machines dream of electric sheep.

About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

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

Venue: Pleasance Bar

This event takes place in person.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

There is man chained to a book. Or, perhaps, it is a book chained to a man?
 
It is a book full of stories. The most terrible and wonderful stories you will ever hear. Stories of misery and monsters, of capitated heads becoming UNcapitated heads and of people who – despite all appearances to the contrary – were dead ALL ALONG.

His name is Hector Kreeping and this is his Book of Despair. Dare you hear what’s written within?
 
An hour of rib-tickling and spine-chilling comedy spoken-word from the slightly cracked mind of Tom Black.

Tom Black is a writer and performer based in Edinburgh with a slightly unhealthy interest in both the spooky and the silly. He has written comic books, plays and all sorts of stories for all manner of mediums. He’s performed at venues across the UK including the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. One of his lifelong ambitions is to befriend a crow. Find him on Instagram at @tom.black.writes

Venue: Lomond Room

Running Time: 60 minutes

Price: £8/£6 concession (plus 50p booking fee).

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Something is watching. Something is waiting. And it’s already too late.

In Benedict Anning’s Atomic Coffin, intelligence agent Heidi Sperling uncovers a chilling mystery: a long-lost Soviet submarine is active in the North Atlantic. Taken aboard HMS Viking to investigate, she soon realises this is no ordinary mission. As reality fractures and an unknowable force drives the crew toward madness, Heidi must survive the depths—and stop something far more dangerous than any weapon.

In India-Rose Bower’s We Call Them Witches, Sara and her family survive a world ravaged by eldritch creatures using folklore and ritual as their only defence. When a mysterious woman named Parsley appears, Sara is drawn to her—but when her brother is taken, they must journey through a brutal, haunted landscape. As their bond deepens, Sara must decide if Parsley can be trusted.

In Rhiannon Grist’s Home Sick, Tamsin retreats to a remote cottage after a violent incident, seeking a fresh start. But the isolation she craves proves impossible. Strange disturbances, unsettling local stories, and a deeply unnerving neighbour blur the line between paranoia and reality, leaving Tamsin to wonder if she can ever escape what follows her.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Train hijacks, moon missions, alchemic artefacts, what could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, actually.

In A.Y. Chao’s Paris Celestial, Lady Jing has settled into her role as a Minister of Hell, but she’s restless for something more. Volunteering to escort an injured deity aboard the Immortal Express seems like the perfect distraction—until vampires hijack the train. As tensions rise between pantheons and her own heritage is thrust into the spotlight, Jing must choose between loyalty, identity, and survival.

In Cameron Johnston’s First Mage on the Moon, Ella Pickering is no longer the skymage she once was. Debt and injury have left her clinging to survival, until she discovers a radical possibility: reaching the moon, the forbidden realm of the gods. With a rogue engineer and a fragile alliance of conspirators, she sets out on a mission that could end a war—or doom them all.

In James Logan’s The Blackfire Blade, Lukan Gardova arrives in the frozen city of Korslakov seeking his father’s legacy, only for it to be stolen. As he hunts for a missing key and the thief who took it, he is drawn into a web of murder, secrets, and shifting loyalties. With the enigmatic Lady Marni Volkova at his side, Lukan must navigate a city where every answer leads to greater danger.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Deep in the forest, something is waiting…not everything that calls you there will let you leave.

In Gretchen McNeil’s They Fear Not Men in the Woods, Jen Monroe returns home after her father’s remains are found, determined to uncover the truth. Her search leads her into the forests of rural Washington, where a camping trip promises answers but reveals something far more sinister. The deeper she goes, the more the woods seem to close in—alive with a presence that does not want her to leave.

In Philip Fracassi’s Sarafina, three brothers desert the Civil War and seek refuge in a remote woodland cabin. At first, it feels like safety. But the land is not what it seems. Strange discoveries and an unsettling stillness give way to a growing sense that they have stepped into something far more dangerous. What waits in the forest is not easily escaped.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Price: £6 - (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 12th July 2026. 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.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Join Strawmoddie Theatre for Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, adapted for stage by Stephen Briggs, and brought to stage as part of Cymera: Scotland’s Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Writing 2026.

Night Watch is the story of Sam Vimes, running hero of the Guards sequence, who finds himself cast back in time to the Ankh-Morpork of his youth. With a psychopath from his own time rising in the vile ranks of the Cable Street Unmentionables complicating things, Vimes has to ensure that history takes its course so that he will have the right future to go back to, and to keep his younger self alive.

Running Time: approx. 2 hours 30 minutes including interval

Performance dates and times

Wednesday 3rd June, 7:30pm

Thursday 4th June: 7:30pm

Friday 5th June: 8pm

Saturday 6th June: 8pm

Sunday 7th June: 5pm

Ticket prices £20.50/ £18.50 concession, free for carers. Please book a free carer ticket.

Please note that the venue has unreserved bench seating. Please arrive in goodtime to secure seats, especially if you are in a group. 

The venue has limited wheelchair spaces. Please let us know when booking if you require one.

We do not issue physical tickets - your booking confirmation email is your ticket.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Returning to Cymera with their glorious night of science fictional words and music.

Line-up is still to be revealed but you don’t want to miss this!

About the event

Running time: 120 minutes

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

Venue: Pleasance Bar

This event takes place in person.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

The Cymera festival is in full swing, but something odd is happening in the games hall. A cry goes out. A storyteller is dead and it can only mean one thing. A demon walks among you. It’s down to a plucky band of attendees to hunt the demon. Will good triumph or will impish evil succeed?   

Blood on the Clocktower is a social deduction game from The Pandemonium Institute. Players are opposing teams of Good and Evil, overseen by a Storyteller. The goal of the game is to successfully deduce and execute the demons before they outnumber the townsfolk. Each player receives a token with their unique character. Good players share information to solve the mystery of who has the demon token, while evil players lie about who they are and what they know. Good wins if they can find and execute the demon during the ‘day’ phase. Evil wins by killing players in the ‘night’ phase, sowing distrust and evading detection until the final two players. 

 Games will be beginner friendly running the Trouble Brewing introductory script.

Trigger warnings 

Death, talk or murder/execution, the game mechanics revolve around deceit and mistrust.

Game- System: https://bloodontheclocktower.com/

Your GM

Fiona Leslie is an Edinburgh-based author. Her first novel, an urban fantasy exploring the history and urban myths of Edinburgh, is currently out on submission, and hopefully, she will have news to report soon! She is also a moderator of the Edinburgh SFF Writers' group and ‌part of a guild of Blood on the Clocktower Storytellers that run games in association with Ancient Robot Games.   

Find her online @biblo_fi/ bibliofi.bsky.social  

Running time: 120 hours +

Price: from £0

Venue: Munro Room

This event takes place in person. Please note the Munro Room is not wheelchair accessible.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Can we use a prescription as a base for a sci/fi-fantasy-horror story? What about a receipt? A parking ticket? A nursery rhyme? How many 'other,' forms of writing could we harness to enrich our writing practice? I'm thinking of the back of shampoo bottles, your dishwasher instructions, children's picture books, semaphore. Let's go weird. 

Your Workshop Leader

Can we use a prescription as a base for a sci/fi-fantasy-horror story? What about a receipt? A parking ticket? A nursery rhyme? How many 'other,' forms of writing could we harness to enrich our writing practice? I'm thinking of the back of shampoo bottles, your dishwasher instructions, children's picture books, semaphore. Let's go weird. 

“Genuinely one of the best workshops I have ever done. Practical, fun and with multiple Aha! moments.” 2025 Writers Conference Feedback

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Braid Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in-person. Workshops are not recorded. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Join sci fi writer and Shoreline of Infinity Magazine's fiction editor, Eris Young, for a sci-fi workshop exploring what "science fiction" really is, and how to use science and tech to create conflict and shape character. 

This workshop is for any writer new to the genre of science fiction. You  may have experience writing in other speculative genres like horror or fantasy, but might be intimidated by the prospect of moving into the sci fi space, or you could be completely new to speculative fiction and looking to sound out the spaces you might like to work in. 

Using inspiration from real-life science and tech, we will explore what science fiction actually is and what it can be used for, and how to build your concept and follow it to its natural conclusions, along the way discovering character and story conflict. 

This workshop will involve a small amount of pre-preparation, which is encouraged but not mandatory. 

Your Workshop Leader

Eris Young is a transgender writer of speculative fiction. Their work has appeared in venues such as Pseudopod, Gutter, GigaNotoSaurus, the Immigrant Sci Fi Short Stories anthology from Flame Tree Press, and the 2025 Edinburgh Science Festival exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland. Their debut novel, a lesbian vampire thriller titled Hunger in the Blood, is publishing with Tor UK in May 2027. They are fiction editor at Shoreline of Infinity, Scotland's sci fi magazine. 

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Cheviot Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in-person. Workshops are not recorded. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

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

Special guest to be announced.

They will be in conversation with Philippa Cochrane who is the Head of Porgramme at Scottish Book Trust and Katherine Wilkinson, the Scottish Book Trust’s Head of Evaluation and Research.

This event is based on the ongoing Reading and Wellbeing research project by Dr Sarah McGeown from the University of Edinburgh.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £8/£6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

The world tried to silence them. It didn’t work. Now they’re rewriting the ending.

In Anna Smith Spark’s Anderson Versus Death, Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson sacrifices herself to imprison Judge Death within her own mind, her body sealed away as she wages a silent, relentless war. For eighteen months, she endures endless visions of destruction, fighting to contain the entity she defeated—and to keep herself from breaking.

In Brigid Lowe’s The Bloody Branch, three powerful women—a slave queen, a sorceress, and a woman made of flowers—join forces to take revenge on the man who wronged them. As Gwydion’s ambition threatens the land itself, Goewin, Arianrhod, and Blodeuwedd unleash ancient magic in a story of power, desire, and the bonds between women.

In Sam Davey’s The Sisters and the Sword, Arthur’s rise to power fractures the fragile balance between him and his sisters, Morgause and Morgan. As prophecy looms and old wounds resurface, alliances shift and rebellion stirs in a dark reimagining of Camelot, where magic and betrayal go hand in hand.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Over the festival weekend, we will be chatting with industry professionals during our Inside SFFH Publishing series.

What does an editor do all day? Why should you get an agent? And why you should always listen to your publicist!

This event is free to attend, no ticket needed.

Line-up to be announced

Venue: Lomond Room

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Join our one-hour class, hosted by professional binder Will Phoenix, and craft a beautiful accordion-style pocket book—perfect for photos and keepsakes.

Choose from a wide selection of materials, including leather, cotton, and tweed. All materials provided.

About the event

Running time: 60 minutes

Price: £20, includes all materials

Venue: Munro Room

This event takes place in person. Please note the Munro Room is not wheelchair accessible.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Over the festival weekend, we will be chatting with industry professionals during our Inside SFFH Publishing series.

What does an editor do all day? Why should you get an agent? And why you should always listen to your publicist!

This event is free to attend, no ticket needed.

Line-up to be announced

Venue: Lomond Room

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Bookshops, bakeries, and a little bit of magic—stories to curl up with, warm in hand and heart.

In Amy Coombe’s Stay for a Spell, Princess Tanadelle finds herself cursed into a run-down bookshop until she discovers her heart’s true desire. Far from desperate to escape, she embraces a quieter life among the shelves—alongside an irritatingly charming pirate—beginning to imagine a future that may not include the princes sent to rescue her.

In Chiara Bullen’s The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance, scholar Ainsworth Gladsly arrives at a remote inn determined to document heroic quests. But no one seems to actually climb the legendary mountain. As he grows closer to the inn’s inhabitants, his curiosity deepens into something riskier—because uncovering the truth may mean pushing others toward danger.

In Lucy Jane Wood’s Uncharmed, Annie Wildwood’s perfectly curated life begins to unravel when she’s tasked with mentoring a teenage witch with unpredictable powers. As chaos seeps into her carefully controlled world, Annie must learn to let go of perfection and embrace connection, magic, and the messiness of who she truly is.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Ever wondered the best way to write realistic injuries for your characters? From bleeding, to burns, to broken bones, join author and GP Jenni Coutts for a crash course in the dos and don'ts of writing injuries in scifi and fantasy. 

Your Workshop Leader

Jenni Coutts is an illustrator, speculative fiction writer and GP based in Glasgow, Scotland. She won the British Fantasy Award for Best Artist in 2022, and won the British Science Fiction Association Award for best artwork in 2025. She was also shortlisted for the World Fantasy Awards for best artist in 2025, with artwork featured in both UK and international publications. She is the current art editor for BFS Horizons and is art lead for this World Fantasy Convention. She was shortlisted for the Scottish New Writers Award in 2019, and is represented by Harry Illingworth of DHH Literary for her writing. In her free time, she enjoys boxing, weight lifting, and chilling with her cat Smudge.

 Running time: 60 minutes including breaks

Venue: Lomond Room

 Tickets: £13 / £10 (plus 50p booking fee)

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

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Empires fall, vengeance rises, and justice always comes at a price.

In A.S. Tamaki’s The Book of Fallen Leaves, exiled heir Sen Hoshiakari is drawn into a growing civil war as vengeful spirits rise across the land. Reunited with Rui, the woman who once saved him, he begins to question the cost of his clan’s ambition—and the bloodshed feeding both war and demons. As loyalties fracture and the gods threaten retribution, they must find a path to peace before everything is consumed.

In Sarah Mughal Rana’s Dawn of the Firebird, Khamilla Zahr-zad has been shaped by war and driven by vengeance since childhood. After her family is destroyed, she infiltrates an enemy army school, hiding her identity while honing her magic. But as she rises through the ranks and uncovers truths that challenge everything she believes, she must choose between the revenge she’s fought for and the future she never imagined.

In Soraya Bouazzaoui’s Aicha, in a Morocco under colonial rule, Aicha becomes a fierce force of rebellion, driven by rage and a dangerous, ancient power within her. As the fight for freedom intensifies, her connection to fellow rebel Rachid offers a fragile anchor, even as the force beneath her skin grows harder to control. She must decide how far she’s willing to go for vengeance—and what it might turn her into.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Experimental stories – playing with fiction and form

Join author Lyndsey Croal for a workshop on different ways of experimentation in style and form, from flash fiction to longer fiction. This will include looking at epistolary fiction, interactive and choose-your-own-adventure narratives, ways to generate ideas from other media, unusual points of views, metafiction in short and long fiction, and other unconventional forms (like fiction through reviews, lists, adverts, audio transcripts, and more). We will look at published examples to explore what these authors did and what they achieved, followed by guided writing exercises to bring your own experimental stories to life. This workshop will be suitable for a range of writing levels, and of particular interest to writers working in flash and short fiction.

Your Workshop Leader

Lyndsey is a Scottish author of strange and speculative fiction published in 100+ magazines and anthologies, including Apex, ElectricLit, Shoreline of Infinity, Analog SF, Weird Tales, Best of British Science Fiction, and Mslexia’s Best Women’s Short Fiction. She’s a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, Shirley Jackson Award and British Fantasy Award Finalist, and former Hawthornden Fellow. Her longer works include the collections Limelight and Other Stories (Shortwave) and Dark Crescent (Luna Press), and most recently her novella In This City, Where it Rains. She writes across science fiction, fantasy, and horror, often blending genres. Some of her published work has been experimental, including fiction as adverts, audio transcripts, film reviews, recipes, and more.

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Braid Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in-person. Workshops are not recorded. Workshops are not included In a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Speculative poetry might conjure images of seers and the cosmos, aliens and cryptids, or haunted landscapes and foreclosed destinies. In this workshop, we’ll explore one of the hallmarks of speculative poetry – its sense of wonder and the blurring of time, space, history, and identity. Through a series of short prompts, we will play with these themes, re-orienting ourselves towards the future to speculate on what it means to us. Drawing on myth and our own personal histories, we'll reimagine the pasts of places of personal importance and, together, transform these imaginings into spaces brimming with possibility.

 This workshop is open to writers of any level who wish to delve into the world of speculative poetry. It is designed to both inspire and offer practical guidance, holding space for lyrical experiments.

The aim of this workshop is practical and generative. Writers will come away with a draft of a poem they can polish for submission as well as ideas and prompts for honing their own poetic projects.

 Be sure to bring a notebook and/or laptop! There will be time set aside for advice on submissions.

Your Workshop leader

Morgan L. Ventura (They/She) is a Belfast-based poet, writer, translator, and former archaeologist. They hold degrees from the University of Chicago and the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University, Belfast. Poems and short fiction have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Poetry Ireland Review, Strange Horizons, Banshee, Shoreline of Infinity, and Lackington’s, among others. Thrice a finalist for the Rhysling Award, Ventura’s the author of the microchap, some minor, sometimes divine, existential crises (Ghost City Press 2024) and translator of the forthcoming collection by Ñuu Savi (Mixtec) poet, Kalu Tatyisavi, Tyi Niin Iyo / Because of the Silence (Skein Press 2027). Find them on Bluesky: @morganvl.bsky.social

About the event:

 Running time: 105 minutes including breaks

Venue: Cheviot Room

 Tickets: £20.50/ £18.50 (plus 50p booking fee)

 The event will be take place in-person. Workshops are not recorded. Workshops are not included in a weekend pass.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Sit back and relax as some of our authors read from their work.

The line-up will be announced closer to the festival.

About the event

Running time: 45 minutes

Price: Free

Venue: Munro Room

This event takes place in person. Please note the Munro Room is not wheelchair accessible.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

To rule is to risk everything. To survive is something else entirely.

In C.L. Clark’s The Sovereign, Luca has claimed the throne of Balladaire, but her rule is already under threat. Betrayal festers within the court, a deadly plague looms, and the magic that could save her people remains out of reach. Beyond the kingdom’s borders, her general Touraine faces failing alliances and rising enemies. As past loyalties resurface, both must decide what they are willing to sacrifice—for their country and for each other.

In Elian J Morgan’s Princeweaver, Meilyr has spent his life hiding forbidden magic, until a forced engagement to Prince Osian binds him to the very court occupying his homeland. As nobles begin to die by magic like his own, suspicion tightens around him. Drawn into a dangerous alliance with Osian that begins to shift into something more, Meilyr must navigate a court of secrets and shifting loyalties—where survival may demand an impossible choice.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

Discover some of the freshest SFFH talent out there at our 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!

Readings should be no longer than five minutes

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

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

• Saturday 7th June 3:30pm to 4:15pm

• Sunday 8th June 1:30pm to 2pm

To read your work, please apply here

Submission deadline is Wednesday 27th May 2026

About the event

Running time: 45 minutes

Price: Free

Venue: Pleasance Bar

This event takes place in person.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Bodies shift. Rage takes root. And something buried refuses to stay that way.

In Emma Cleary’s Our Monstrous Bodies, Brooke travels to Vancouver to care for her estranged sister, only to find her apartment building steeped in unease and shadowed by a figure known as Medusa. As reality begins to warp and horror bleeds into everyday life, Brooke undergoes changes she cannot explain. Together, the sisters are pulled into a claustrophobic spiral where identity, autonomy, and transformation begin to unravel.

In Hester Steel’s The Faceless Thing We Adore, Aoife is drawn to a remote commune that promises freedom and belonging. But beneath its idyllic surface lies something far darker—a vanishing cave, a creeping rot, and a leader whose influence borders on devotion. As her past collides with her present, Aoife must confront the violence and power within herself, and the dangerous pull of her own rage.

In Tracy Fahey’s Queens of the Crone Age, the ancient Hag of Béara awakens to a world that has forgotten women like her. Through a series of haunting, interconnected stories, voices of marginalised women rise—seeking refuge, survival, and something more. As their stories intertwine, the collection explores power, transformation, and what happens when those long ignored are finally heard.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

There is man chained to a book. Or, perhaps, it is a book chained to a man?
 
It is a book full of stories. The most terrible and wonderful stories you will ever hear. Stories of misery and monsters, of capitated heads becoming UNcapitated heads and of people who – despite all appearances to the contrary – were dead ALL ALONG.

His name is Hector Kreeping and this is his Book of Despair. Dare you hear what’s written within?
 
An hour of rib-tickling and spine-chilling comedy spoken-word from the slightly cracked mind of Tom Black.

Tom Black is a writer and performer based in Edinburgh with a slightly unhealthy interest in both the spooky and the silly. He has written comic books, plays and all sorts of stories for all manner of mediums. He’s performed at venues across the UK including the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. One of his lifelong ambitions is to befriend a crow. Find him on Instagram at @tom.black.writes

The Cymera festival is in full swing, but something odd is happening in the games hall. A cry goes out. A storyteller is dead and it can only mean one thing. A demon walks among you. It’s down to a plucky band of attendees to hunt the demon. Will good triumph or will impish evil succeed?   

Blood on the Clocktower is a social deduction game from The Pandemonium Institute. Players are opposing teams of Good and Evil, overseen by a Storyteller. The goal of the game is to successfully deduce and execute the demons before they outnumber the townsfolk. Each player receives a token with their unique character. Good players share information to solve the mystery of who has the demon token, while evil players lie about who they are and what they know. Good wins if they can find and execute the demon during the ‘day’ phase. Evil wins by killing players in the ‘night’ phase, sowing distrust and evading detection until the final two players. 

 Games will be beginner friendly running the Trouble Brewing introductory script.

Trigger warnings 

Death, talk or murder/execution, the game mechanics revolve around deceit and mistrust.

Game- System: https://bloodontheclocktower.com/

Your GM

Fiona Leslie is an Edinburgh-based author. Her first novel, an urban fantasy exploring the history and urban myths of Edinburgh, is currently out on submission, and hopefully, she will have news to report soon! She is also a moderator of the Edinburgh SFF Writers' group and ‌part of a guild of Blood on the Clocktower Storytellers that run games in association with Ancient Robot Games.   

Find her online @biblo_fi/ bibliofi.bsky.social  

Running time: 120 hours +

Price: from £0

Venue: Munro Room

This event takes place in person. Please note the Munro Room is not wheelchair accessible.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

When the system starts to crack, the question isn’t if it will fall—but who will survive the collapse.

In Bethany Jacobs’ This Brutal Moon, rebellion spreads across the Treble as the fragile colony Jun Ironway and Masar Hawks fought to protect begins to collapse. New enemies rise, old powers cling to control, and the cost of freedom grows ever steeper. As alliances shift and a final confrontation looms, unlikely forces must come together to challenge tyranny.

In Mahmud El Sayed’s The Republic of Memory, aboard the Safina—a city ship carrying the remnants of a ruined Earth—generations have preserved the legacy of a long-dead empire. But as blackouts spread and unrest grows, the crew begins to question the system that governs them. Loyalties fracture, authority falters, and a reckoning approaches in a society that can no longer hold itself together.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Price: £6 - (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 12th July 2026. 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.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Writers will have the invaluable opportunity to talk directly to an agent from a literary agency or an editor from a SFFH publisher about their work, seek advice about any stage of the writing process, and receive direct feedback on pitches and ideas.

Meet our Agents/Editors

Simon Spanton-Walker, commissioning editor at Angry Robot

Lina Langlee from North Literary Agency

Meetings will be 15 minutes long, and there will be a £25 fee.

Please select which Agent you’d like to speak to on booking. Please note spaces are limited.

By booking tickets for this event, you are committing to submitting your query letter and the first 2000 words of your work (or less) by Monday 11.05.2026

Please send your material to admin@cymerafestival.co.uk

Booking Deadline Monday 11th May 2026. Due to limited availability, we ask that participants only book one Agent One to One session.

Please note that our Agent One to One sessions book out very quickly.

Meeting will take place in the Cheviot and Braid rooms.

The stars have already decided their fate. They just might refuse to follow it.

In Tasha Suri’s The Isle in the Silver Sea, in a Britain shaped by story, a knight and a witch are destined to fall in love—and destroy each other—across countless lifetimes. Simran and Vina are drawn together despite knowing how their story ends. As they search for a way to break the cycle, a mysterious assassin begins hunting tales like theirs, forcing them to question whether fate can truly be rewritten.

In Venetia Constantine’s The Last Starborn Seer, Leilani Stellarion is the last of a cursed bloodline, her volatile magic granting visions while slowly consuming her. As war spreads and her future is controlled by political forces, a prophecy offers her a chance to change everything. But to claim it, she must navigate dangerous alliances, forbidden feelings, and a relentless hunter before her power destroys her—and the world with it.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Theatre

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

A memoir in song by the Earl of Caladan, trusted adviser to the Padisha Emperor and beloved troubadour-warrior, the bard Gurney Halleck.

Following the success of his work on "A Child's History of Muad'Dib" Gurney will perform hits from his back catalogue and introduce never-before-heard songs from his time among the Fremen.

Sing along with little Paul Atreides on his journey to Sietch Tabr; can he tame the worm, save the world AND get the girl?

Forget everything you know about Arrakis and get ready for Dune! The Musical

About the Performer

Dan Collins is a musician, writer and amateur clown with too much time on his hands. He enjoys reading sci-fi and telling stories.

“I saw Dune! The Musical at the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, bought it on Bandcamp, then travelled to Edinburgh a few days later specifically to see it again because it was so good (then bought the CD too). Of the wide galaxy of Dune adaptations, this is certainly in the top tier. I really can't recommend it highly enough.”

Check out the original cast recording on Bandcamp

Venue: Pleasance Bar

Running Time: 60 minutes, no break

Tickets: £10/£8 plus 50p booking fee

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

No way out. No one to trust. And the deeper you go, the worse it gets.

In Frances White’s The Bone Door, Hop awakens in a vast labyrinth with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Trapped with a mysterious girl and hunted by something in the dark, he must navigate a series of impossible trials to reach the only exit. But as he ventures deeper, the maze begins to reveal a far more dangerous truth—about itself, and about him.

In Megan Bontrager’s The Sea Hides Its Dead, Caro joins an expedition into ancient sea caves, hoping for purpose. When the entrance collapses, trapping the team inside, they discover they are not alone. Surrounded by relics and something far older than they imagined, they are forced into a trial where each must confront their darkest sins—because in the depths, atonement is the only way out.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Venue: Upper Hall

Price: £11/£9 concession - In Person - or £6 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 12th July 2026. 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.

What if your mind wasn’t entirely your own?

In Paul Tremblay’s Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep, Julia Flang takes a job escorting a man in a vegetative state, his body controlled by implanted AI. As she guides him across the country, the man—Bernie—wanders a shifting dreamscape, searching for something he cannot remember. As their realities begin to blur, they are drawn together in a journey where memory, technology, and identity begin to unravel.

In Sylvain Neuvel’s The Many, a strange event in a small Michigan town causes five strangers to share a single, merging consciousness. As their identities begin to dissolve into something collective, they must grapple with what it means to lose themselves—and what they are becoming together. In this unsettling exploration of connection and transformation, the greatest mystery may not be what happened, but what comes next.

About the event

Running time: 55 minutes

Price: £6 - (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 12th July 2026. 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.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.

Join Strawmoddie Theatre for Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, adapted for stage by Stephen Briggs, and brought to stage as part of Cymera: Scotland’s Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Writing 2026.

Night Watch is the story of Sam Vimes, running hero of the Guards sequence, who finds himself cast back in time to the Ankh-Morpork of his youth. With a psychopath from his own time rising in the vile ranks of the Cable Street Unmentionables complicating things, Vimes has to ensure that history takes its course so that he will have the right future to go back to, and to keep his younger self alive.

Book Tickets

Running Time: approx. 2 hours 30 minutes including interval

Performance dates and times

Wednesday 3rd June, 7:30pm

Thursday 4th June: 7:30pm

Friday 5th June: 8pm

Saturday 6th June: 8pm

Sunday 7th June: 5pm

Ticket prices £20.50/ £18.50 concession, free for carers. Please book a free carer ticket.

Please note that the venue has unreserved bench seating. Please arrive in goodtime to secure seats, especially if you are in a group. 

The venue has limited wheelchair spaces. Please let us know when booking if you require one.

We do not issue physical tickets - your booking confirmation email is your ticket.

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

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ.