EIBF 2008: Thursday 14th August

Renew your love of poetry with this fresh approach to reading with the Scottish Poetry Library. In this relaxed discussion you won’t need any background knowledge; you’ll simply come fresh to the text of single poems, take the time to read deeply and let new discoveries emerge – without the pressure of reviews, criticism and hype. Poems provided. (Maximum 20 places)

A new novel from James Kelman is a major literary event. The only Scottish writer to win both the Booker and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Kelman is a towering figure in world literature. His latest work, Kieron Smith, Boy is a powerful, poignant, empathetic evocation of a boy growing up in the new housing schemes at a time of deep social change. Chaired by Brian Taylor.

One of the most distinctive voices in Scottish literature, Agnes Owens’s darkly humorous stories uncover ordinary working class lives poised between farce and tragedy. Now in her eighties a new complete collection shows her remarkable talent. In conversation with a great admirer and champion of her work, James Kelman.

An inspiring hour with two remarkable men who engage with remote mountain communities. Scottish climber and adventurer Hamish Brown has returned to the Berber peoples of the Atlas mountains annually since 1965. American mountaineer Greg Mortenson recounts how a failed attempt to climb K2 led him to build schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Millions across the world demonstrated their anger when courageous and committed journalist Alan Johnston was kidnapped in Gaza. Eventually released after 114 days in captivity, the Scot speaks movingly of his ordeal, his release, his life in that dangerous, battered land and his new sense of the value of freedom. Chaired by Allan Little.

Founder of the seminal Rebel Inc publishing house, which launched the career of Irvine Welsh among others, Kevin Williamson has been an energetic anti-establishment presence in Scottish contemporary writing. In A Room Darkened is his own first collection of poetry and vigorously unorthodox. George Gunn draws inspiration from the landscape and identity of Caithness.

No Edinburgh International Book Festival is complete without the creator of Rebus, one of the most popular writers in the UK and Edinburgh’s favourite son, Ian Rankin. Come and join him as he reflects on leaving behind his most beloved character and moving into new exciting areas of writing – crime with a different twist - in Doors Open.