The Edinburgh International Book Festival turns 40 this year. What better way to celebrate than tell our story through the eyes of those who have been enjoying it.
Claire Askew at the The Ripple Project
4th December 2023The Ripple Project work with local people in the communities of Restalrig, Lochend, and Craigentinny to create opportunities, tackle poverty and inequality, and foster togetherness. Founded on the values of respect, dignity, equity, and ...
Poetry Sessions at the Corstorphine Dementia Project
25th October 2023Since the beginning of October, poet Ken Cockburn has been running weekly poetry sessions at the Corstorphine Dementia Project: a warm, person-centred day centre for local people living with varying stages of dementia. With a focus on re...
Communities at the August Book Festival
11th October 2023This year, we welcomed several groups to the Festival site, held special author visits with our community partners, and there were Communities Programme events throughout the Festival. Communities Programme activities were an integral ...
Guest Blog: Susie McGuinness
30th June 2023Our June blog comes from special guest writer – Susie McGuinness – who joined the Book festival as our new Communities Programme Assistant a few weeks ago. Read on to hear more about Susie’s first few weeks in the job and her highl...
A New Collaboration with The Ripple
24th May 2023Since the beginning of the year the Communities Team have been developing a new partnership with The Ripple, in Restalrig (North East Edinburgh). Read on to hear more about The Ripple, what’s happened so far and our future plans for th...
Guest Blog: Eleanor Thom
27th April 2023In this guest blog our Citizen Writer in Residence Eleanor Thom shares her experience working with the North Edinburgh Over-50s Drama Group and why elephants are so important. ‘Elephants never forget’, the saying goes. I’d just a...
New Project with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service
29th March 2023Recently we worked with young people and staff from NHS Lothian’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) on a three-day creative writing and illustration project. For several years the Book Festival’s Communities Programm...
Story-sharing with Streetreads
21st February 2023Over the autumn, our Citizen Writer in Residence, Eleanor Thom visited Streetreads to deliver story-sharing and creative writing sessions. Streetreads is a library in central Edinburgh which is open to people who are experiencing homeles...
Guest Blog: Chris Barkley
25th January 2023Hear from Chris Barkley, an award-winning author who's been inspiring young people at The Alternative School at Spartans Community Football Academy as our Writer in Residence....
Illustration Collaboration 14
24th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 13
22nd December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 12
20th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 11
18th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 10
16th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 9
14th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 8
12th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 7
10th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 6
8th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 5
6th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 4
5th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 3
5th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 2
5th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
Illustration Collaboration 1
5th December 2022In a series of posts, we are delighted to share the artworks that third year Edinburgh College of Art illustration students created in response to texts by our Citizen Writing Group...
The Citizen Writing Group
21st November 2022This year, our Citizen Writing Group have been more active than ever. Here we take a deeper look into what they have been working on....
A new term for The Citizen Collective
19th October 2022As we look ahead to a new term of sessions with The Citizen Collective, we reflect on a few highlights from the past year....