Book Bags for Citizen
8th July 2020This week we have been packing and distributing book and activity packs to children and adults in Musselburgh and North Edinburgh....
The Keys to Our Lives – a Citizen Podcast
2nd July 2020In this podcast, two Musselburgh-based groups join together through poetry and discussion. We invite you to be part of the conversation by submitting your poems, songs and pictures exploring what the theme means to you....
Announcing Story Nation
2nd June 2020Find out about Story Nation, part of our Communities Programme which engages long-term with Prisons, Hospitals and Care Homes....
Musselburgh: Write Where You Belong!
14th January 2020Our Citizen Communities Writer in Residence Eleanor Thom is leading a series of 5 workshops involving writing, stories and crafts in The Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh over the next few months! We want to know about residents'...
Shelf Life
6th January 2020Citizen Writer in Residence Eleanor Thom reflects on the sharing shelf at North Edinburgh Arts - a community resource helping people in need access food and other essential items - as Christmas and a momentous General Election approach....
Muirhouse: Where Dandelions Go
17th December 2019We were thrilled to unveil these beautiful public art displays in north Edinburgh last week. The artwork comes from a short picture book created by our Citizen Communities Writer in Residence, Eleanor Thom, with P3 pupils from Craigroyst...
Leyla Josephine: Our New Schools Writer in Residence
9th December 2019Leyla Josephine has been appointed as our new Schools Writer in Residence for Citizen, the next phase of the year-round programme taking the Book Festival On The Road. Citizen is a long-term creative programme working in partnership wi...
Five Moments from Citizen: Year One
30th October 2019Eleanor Thom, our fantastic Citizen Community Writer in Residence, reflects on a year working in and with Edinburgh communities. Leading our creative programme of conversations, writing and more, she's seen and heard stories from the...
The Citizens of the Future
17th October 2019The Book Festival's first Citizen Schools Writer in Residence, the poet and novelist Claire Askew, summarises her inspiring experience working with three Edinburgh high schools to explore ideas of belonging and identity. The Citizen Scho...
‘A Place Where Reading and Writing Became Not Just Pastimes but Lifelines’
7th October 2019Our Project Manager Jess Orr shares her experiences taking Book Festival authors and events into some of Scotland's prisons this August, with sessions for male and female prisoners as well as special events enabling parents and their...
Citizen comes to the Book Festival
14th June 2019After a hugely successful event at North Edinburgh Arts in May, we're excited to bring the discussions, ideas, stories and passion of those who have been involved so far to the 2019 Edinburgh International Book Festival - the biggest...
Join in with Citizen @ North Edinburgh Arts
15th April 2019A feast of fun, food, and stories for all awaits as we hold a celebration of our Citizen programme, including loads of free activities and a special performance from two top musicians....
Citizen: Women of Wester Hailes
20th March 2019In this audio blog, Eleanor hears from the women of the Create group which meets at WHALE Arts in Wester Hailes, one of our Citizen partners. These women share their stories of home and community, food, family, work and more....
Citizen: Making Zines with Claire Askew
11th February 2019"When I needed to get to know them, I asked the three Citizen schools groups to make zines. I wanted to find out which issues and activities most interested the students; I wanted to give them a creative activity to do and ideally, one...
Meet The Hate U Give Author Angie Thomas
4th February 2019The author of the bestselling, award-winning The Hate U Give launches new novel On the Come Up in Edinburgh with the Book Festival....
Citizen: Meet Eleanor Thom
14th January 2019Our community writer-in-residence for Citizen, Eleanor Thom, introduces herself and her approach to this new creative programme - read on to find out how you can get involved in sharing stories and shaping events that will take place...
Announcing Citizen
4th December 2018Today we announced the next phase of our year-round programme taking the Book Festival On the Road. Following on from the extremely successful ReimagiNation series across Scotland’s five New Towns, Citizen is a new long-term creative p...
Echoes of ‘Home’ | Nalini Paul
6th November 2018A new sequence of poems inspired by our New Passages creative exchange programme from Glasgow-based poet Nalini Paul...
Fragmentaria: a book of notions | Sampurna Chattarji
26th October 2018A new sequence of poems inspired by our New Passages creative exchange programme from poet, novelist, translator and editor Sampurna Chattarji....
Homecomings | Sandip Roy
22nd October 2018A new piece of writing by Sandip Roy, the award-winning Kolkata-based author of Don’t Let Him Know, and a contributor to NPR in the U.S. as well as the New York Times, the Guardian, BBC, the Telegraph and more. Part of New Passages....
New Beginnings | Abir Mukherjee
19th October 2018A new short story from award-winning author Abir Mukherjee, inspired by his journey from Edinburgh to Stornoway to Kolkata, India, as part of our New Passages project, supported by the players of People’s Postcode Lottery....
New Passages at the Book Festival
11th October 2018New Passages, a project conducted in partnership with An Lanntair, Stornoway, and the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival, which enabled us to unite Scottish and Indian writers and take them on a round trip from Edinburgh to the Isle of Le...
Little Acts of Rebellion and Love
5th October 2018We held a series of events in Scotland's Prisons this summer, expanding a programme which in 2017 led an attendee to say the experience made them ‘feel recognised as human beings’. Read on to find out more....
Two special events in November
21st September 2018Yesterday we announced two exciting new events for the autumn. Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and bestselling writer of The Essex Serprent, Sarah Perry, both come to Edinburgh in November....
ReimagiNation brings the New Towns to the Book Festival
2nd August 2018Alongside some of the biggest names in global literature, sport and politics, we're thrilled to bring the voices of Scotland's New Towns to the stage as part of our ReimagiNation events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival....