LITERARY ENCOUNTERS
The tented garden in Charlotte Square entices 220,000 visitors every year, making the Edinburgh International Book Festival the largest public celebration of the written word in the world. With around 750 authors arriving from over 40 countries, the programme ranges from Nobel Prize winners to debut novelists, from scientists to children’s illustrators, from poets to tomorrow’s Man Booker Prize candidates. Above all, it is a festival of ideas, a place where historians, politicians, economists and distinguished writers share their insights with an audience primed for debate and discussion.
While the 2011 programme has not yet been announced, notable guests at the 2010 Festival included Joseph Stiglitz, Fatima Bhutto, Phillip Pullman, Julia Donaldson and Roddy Doyle, covering such topics as Pakistan, the credit crunch and an analysis of the media. Running alongside the general programme is the highly regarded RBS Children’s Programme, which has grown to become a leading showcase for children’s writers and illustrators. Incorporating workshops, storytelling, panel discussions, author events and book signings, the RBS Children’s Programme is popular with both the public and schools alike and now ranks as the world’s premier books and reading event for young people.
The Festival now includes picture books, graphic novels and other forms of illustrated art to reflect and explore the dialogue between pictures and text.
There are over 700 events for both adults and children in the three weeks that the Book Festival runs. They range from writing workshops, education events, panel discussions, to talks and performances by international writers, poets, musicians and thinkers. The leading names in literary and non-fiction writing attract thousands of visitors of all ages to debate, discuss and discover new horizons, take part in creative workshops and, of course, to meet favourite and new authors.
Amid the hustle and bustle of Edinburgh in August the magical tented village in a beautiful New Town square creates a unique Festival environment, an oasis where ideas, opinions and insights take centre stage. Don’t miss your opportunity to write author your own experience among the brightest minds in the world. •
August 13- 29 2011
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