EIBF 2008: Saturday 16th August

To begin a day rich in poetry, a dazzling line-up from Scotland, England and Wales. Kathleen Jamie’s award-winning work is lyrical, subtle, alert to rhythms of the natural world; Costa-winning Jean Sprackland’s Tilt depicts a slipping world where survival is still possible; and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch is a prodigiously talented new Welsh voice.

An hour with Jackie Kay is an hour of purest pleasure. Poet, playwright, novelist, story writer, children’s author, broadcaster, all of her many award-winning genres are infused with the kind of passion for life which simply makes the world a better place. Her latest poetry collection Darling gets to the heart of love with exquisite literary skill.

Our first opportunity this weekend to experience the dazzlingly funny Scottish crime writer and Spirit of Scotland winner who returns with A Snowball In Hell. Expect no-holds-barred wit, satire and some choice language as Christopher Brookmyre reveals the adventures of his talent-show contestant-cum-professional assassin Simon Darcourt.

A stunningly high quality showcase of the finest contemporary Scottish writing – commissioned especially by the festival. We asked four of Scotland’s most highly acclaimed writers of prose and poetry to create brand new work for this event, which will later be presented in Norway, in Stavanger City of Culture 2008. Come and hear the very best.

A young man froma dysfunctional family pursues adventure in Hope For Newborns, showing all Rodge Glass’s narrative skill. Stella Duffy’s beautiful The Room Of Lost Things is a love letter to the hidden lives that pass through a dry cleaning shop. In William Sutcliffe’s hilarious Whatever Makes You Happy three mothers sort out their thirty-something year old sons.

How to be a black belt in haiku! Learn the rules of good poetry, and more importantly, how to break them. Kevin MacNeil wrote the international award-winning collection Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides and his poetry is widely anthologised. (Maximum 20 places)

One of the most entertaining, engaging and genial of all authors, beloved by millions across the world, Alexander McCall Smith continues to charm with his wise, beautifully observed novels set in Botswana and Scotland. A life-enhancing hour guaranteed.

Bands on the road, band mates together, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll: two great novels about rock musicians on tour. Doug Johnstone plays in a band; his new novel The Ossians is a rock odyssey around modern Scotland. Toby Litt’s I play the drums in a band called okay follows a Canadian band on tour – very true to life and very funny.

Exquisite fiction set in Japan by two award-laden authors. Alan Spence, director of Aberdeen's Word festival, tells of the Scot who helped found modern Japan in The Pure Land. Andrew Miller's One Morning Like A Bird is set in Tokyo in 1940 – a tale of growing up and a great city on the brink of catastrophe.