Our city of Literature has a lot on – as per usual – but here are a few highlights for
September! If you’re up for a dose of empowerment, Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival is taking place this September, 26th-27th, so be quick to grab your tickets! They offer panels as well as workshops that you can purchase individual tickets for. Full festival passes are also available on their website (edwomensficfest.co.uk) if you would like access to all events. Head along to meet inspiring female authors, and maybe be introduced to some local names you have not come across yet. There are numerous panels you can attend, including “We Shall Be Monsters: The inspiring women behind classic gothic fiction with Mairi Kidd & Caroline Lea”, or “Goddesses and Gorgons: Rediscovering magic and witchcraft in Greek mythology with Rosie Hewlett and Phoenicia Rogerson” – definitely events you will not want to
miss!
Hopefully, you caught the event at The Lighthouse (Edinburgh’s radical bookshop), as they hosted an intriguing event with Caroline Young on How pop culture created the unstable single woman on 18 September. They also have lots of other interesting events coming up, such as Why women have better sex under socialism or Launching an Anthology of Non-Fiction by Autistic Writers. Assuming you’ve now been inspired by female empowerment (and or rage), you should head over to Tribe Porty in Portobello on 20 September to do some writing of your own! Partake in the By the Beach Writing Retreat for women or non-binary writers. It takes place from 9.30 am until 5 pm. You can expect a day of writing (obviously), but also walks by the beach, food, drink, and the valuable experience of meeting your peer authors and poets. Tickets are available online at Eventbrite.
If science, specifically physics, is up your alley, you can spend an Evening with Carlo
Rovelli at McEwan Hall to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his book “Seven Brief Lessons on Physics”. The book was named as “One of the best books of the 21st century” by The Guardian. Rovelli, an Italian physicist, inquires about time, pointing out that “The difference between past and future only exists when there is heat” (The Guardian). If this and his statement “in physics there is nothing that corresponds to the notion of the ‘now’” intrigues you, then mark your calendar for 23 September, from 6.30 until 7.50 pm. The event is hosted by Portobello Bookshop, so search their website for tickets and more info.
Argonaut Books has unfortunately sold out their monthly book club events for September (because they’re just that popular!), so keep an eye out for the ones in October. They host a Queer, Fiction, Poetry, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and a “Wildcard” book club – something appealing for everyone! If you’d like to encourage yourself to read something new and would like to turn reading into a social experience, definitely book your seat! They even offer a discount on the book being read that month.
As a little bonus, here are some places to search if you’re looking for some more
literary events that might take your fancy. Portobello Bookshop and the Lighthouse
Bookshop always offer a range of events. Check out Topping & Company Booksellers of Edinburgh for their poetry reading group, and search “Edinburgh City of Literature” and “What’s On Edinburgh” websites for more news on upcoming events.
Enjoy your literary September!
“The Castle From The Grassmarket, Edinburgh” by pastpin is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0