Win-Win Situation

We're delighted to announce that the second winner of our txt2win competition for a pair of tickets to the Unbound Grand Finale 7pm on 30 August is Andrew Frayn. Congratulations Andrew!

The competition continues until 30 August, with more Edinburgh International Book Festival goodies to be won.

You can enter as often as you wish.

Simply text BOOKFEST +
FLIRT or LOVER +
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
to 60777

and receive Edinburgh International Book Festival info and offers.

Standard network charges apply.

And the first txt2win winner is...

We’re delighted to announce that the first winner of our txt2win competition for a pair of tickets to the Unbound Grand Finale 7pm on 30 August is Emily Montgomery. Congratulations Emily!

The competition continues next week, with another pair of tickets to the Unbound Grand Finale and Book Fest goodies to be won.

You can enter as often as you wish.

Simply text
BOOKFEST
+ FLIRT or LOVER
+ YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
to 60777

and receive Edinburgh International Book Festival info & offers.

Standard network charges apply.

Poetry Unbound

Lorraine Mariner, John Hegley, Tim Turnbull and the fine jazz machinations of Ewen Maclean, Tom Pickles and Callum McIntyre; the rouged embrace that is the Highland Park Spiegeltent gave a splendid welcome to last night's poetical Unbound stylings, a night where poetry didn't have to rhyme. Where poetry concerned imaginary friends called Jessica Elton, potatoes, spectacles, bungalows and a man with two heads.

Lorraine ('unholy alliance of Dorothy Parker, Stevie Smith and Frank O'Hara') kicked things off with a lovely set in which she read from her two collections Bye For Now (The Rialto) and Furniture (Picador). She read about love and imagined love, about not committing to just one chair in the staff room, about learning how to write predictive text.

John Hegley came next. Wielding his customary ukulele, he sang of Eddie who doesn't like furniture and did a rap about guillemots and hamsters. He plucked a willing audience member from the (pleasingly huge number of) folk in attendance to assist him in a French to English translation from his book The Adventures Monsieur Robinet and he had the audience join him in song for his closing number, the always-fabulous 'Luton Bungalow'.

After a wee breakette, and a few choice #UnboundEd stories (join in @edbookfest on Twitter) one of Scotland's three leading poetry moustaches Mr Tim Turnbull took the floor, fresh from his own gig at the Banshee Labyrinth across town. He told Tales of Terror of a two-headed man, read pithy musings upon our current administration and more. And we ended with Latin jazz from the extremely smooth Ewen Maclean on guitar, Tom Pickles on flute and Callum McIntyre on djembe.

With the sad news of Edwin Morgan's death, this was a perfect evening to do as Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy suggested we might, and take a pause to 'think of him with love and gratitude', to remember his immensity, his innovation, his poetry. So we charged our glasses and raised a toast. and what was the toast? schiehallion! schiehallion! schiehallion! (from EM's own 'Canedolia', 'an off-concrete Scotch fantasia'.)

This event at Unbound was presented by the Scottish Poetry Library. You can borrow the books of the poets above from us. Unbound is on until the Monday 30 August, is free and offers an array of treats every single evening (and I haven't even mentioned the complimentary Highland Park whisky cocktails or the cut-price sandwiches that do the rounds at midnight). We suggest you get yourselves to the Spiegeltent for 9pm as a matter of some urgency.

Enjoy A Night In The Gutter on us

With a throbbing heart and bated breath (can the two co-exist?!) we’re all eagerly anticipating Unbound, our series of experimental performance evenings from 9pm in the Highland Park Spiegeltent. Glasgow-based Gutter magazine kicks us off on Sunday 15 August with A Night in the Gutter: McSex, all on the theme of Scottish erotic writing, and dubbed the “smuttiest” night of them all by Gutter editor Adrian Searle.

Chaired by Colin Begg and Adrian Searle and featuring erotica luminaries Michel Faber, Ewan Morrison and Zoë Strachan and five outstanding writers and performance artists, Cheryl Follon, Allan Radcliffe, Helen Sedgwick, Gamma Ray Dali and Lauren Nicoll, prepare to be enraptured by readings from Scottish erotica past and present, engaged in discussion as to whether a tradition of Scottish erotic writing exists at all, and serenaded by Scotland’s answer to Tom Waits, Grant Campbell.

McSex Poll - still time to vote!
The results of Gutter's public poll to find the nation’s favourite erotic Scottish writer will be announced on the night. Get your vote in before 4pm on Sunday and you could win a bottle of champagne!

All Unbound events are free and drop-in, except for the extended Unbound Grand Finale, 7pm-11pm on 30 August, £10 (£8). Due to licensing laws Unbound is only open to over 18s.
Full details of each night’s line-up are available on our website or at: http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/documents/Skinny_Supplement_Unbound.pdf

Look forward to seeing you there!

txt2win a pair of tickets to the Unbound Grand Finale

Are you an Edinburgh International Book Festival FLIRT or LOVER?



To get you in the mood, we’re running our own mini txt2win poll to find out
if you’re a LOVER and been to a ticketed event at the Edinburgh International Book Festival before or a FLIRT and this year will be your first time...

Text “BOOKFEST”
+ “FLIRT” or “LOVER”
+ YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
to 60777
and receive Edinburgh International Book Festival info & offers.

Standard network charges apply.

All entrants will be put forward to a prize draw to win a pair of tickets to the Unbound Grand Finale at 7pm on 30 August as well as Edinburgh International Book Festival goodies.

Free events at this year's festival

We've always had a range of free events at the Book Festival, but this year we've given you even more to choose from. Programme Manager Roland talks us through your myriad penny free possibilities:

And here's those daily options in writing: Ten At Ten, a short ten minute reading at 10am in our Writer's Retreat; StoryShop, a chance to hear some new, local writers reading at 4pm in our bookshop; Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers where we pay tribute to persecuted writers from around the world; Unbound, a mini festival within a festival where we invite writers to try out new approaches to writing; and last, but not least, our specially commissioned short stories on the theme of Elsewhere.