In case EBR fans don’t get enough excitement from their latest novel, cup of tea and the occasional news item on EBR, the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2012 will soon be upon us from the 11th to 27th of August.
The 2012 offering is full to the brim with interesting book launches, talks and events that will feature a glittering cast of rock star authors and new talent, to whet the appetite of book worms from Edinburgh and all over the world.
- Zadie Smith will give a glimpse into her long awaited new book NW, after a seven year hiatus since her last novel.
- Alice Oswald will perform her book ‘Memorial’ a modern reimagining of the Iliad.
- Joyce Carol Oates and Leith’s most famous son Irvine Welsh, will debate about the key issues facing literature today.
- Seamus Heaney and Andrew O’Hagan will wax lyrical about their wanderings through the wilderness in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
- Booker Prize winning authors Hilary Mantel, John Banville and Anne Enright will take to the stage to discuss their work in relation to contemporary issues.
- Ian McEwan, Will Self and Pat Barker will each launch a new book from Charlotte Square this year.
- Ian McEwan will interview Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, about his life outside of politics.
Not since the 1962 Edinburgh Writer’s Conference when Norman Mailer and William S. Burroughs thrashed out the future of literature, has there been a more exhilarating and heady mix of authors coming to Edinburgh.
Who will you be going to see? I don’t know where to begin!