Saturday 28th August
10.15am - Robin Robertson
Powerful, Pared-Back Poetry with Deep Roots in Scotland
Highland Park Spiegeltent
Robin Robertson's poetry offers an uncompromisingly haunting view of the world, fusing the classical and the contemporary, the menacing and the familiar. His devastating latest collection, The Wrecking Light, situates him as one of the most powerful and thought provoking poets operating today.
In association with the Scottish Poetry Library. Free coffee, sponsored by the Bookshop Café.
2pm - The Writing Business
The Anatomy of a Good Story
Writers' Retreat
This masterclass looks at the nuts and bolts of developing a fictional storyline and constructing a narrative. Learn how authors Laura Marney and John Ward use different approaches to produce a rattling good story.
In association with the Society of Authors.
6.30pm - Alexander McCall Smith
New Perspectives on the Beloved Author's Popular Characters
RBS Main Theatre
One of Scotland's best-loved authors and a popular favourite at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Alexander McCall Smith returns in an entertaining discussion about his work. In this event, he takes a tour of his bestselling novels and their characters, from Precious Ramotswe to Oedipus Snark, promising a surprise or two along the way.
7pm - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
From Science Fiction to Reality: The Human Being in Transition
Highland Park Spiegeltent
In his guise as a science fiction writer, Iain M Banks has created a utopian interstellar civilisation known as the Culture. This imaginary community populated by 'transhumans' has real-life parallels in the work of Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University. The subject of Warwick's research is his own body, and he has transformed himself into the world's first Cyborg. In this event Warwick and Banks are joined by Steve Yearley, Director of the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum, to contemplate the future of human beings. Supported by ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum.
