Edinburgh International Book Festival kicks off today, and organisers are asking for people to share their special memories of Edinburgh’s Festivals to help create a piece of collective writing celebrating the 70th anniversary of Edinburgh becoming a Festival City.
In Live Poetry Lab; 70 Years of Festival Memoriesthe Book Festival’s Poets in Residence, Colin Herd, Jane McKie, Jennifer Williams, Peter Mackay and Ryan Van Winkle, will be creating a live, collective response to people’s stories in a series of free, drop-in sessions from Monday 21 to Friday 25 August in the Greenhouse, the new Book Festival venue on George Street. Audiences can observe their unique, creative writing processes and see how the poets use the memories of visitors and the creative input of their fellow poets to create one unified piece.
The Book Festival is calling for anyone who has special Festival memories they would like to share to tweet these using #LivePoetryLab, or come along from 4 August and write down those memories and put them in the Memory Boxes, which can be found in the Book Festival Box Office on George Street, in the Greenhouse on George Street and in the Entrance Tent in Charlotte Square Gardens.
In 2017 the Edinburgh International Book Festival is, for the first time ever, expanding beyond the boundaries of Charlotte Square and creating two exciting new venues on the west end of George Street. To mark the 70th anniversary of the Festival City these two new venues, the Bosco Theatre and The Greenhouse, offer new opportunities to look at the relationship the Festival has with the city. In addition to the Live Poetry Lab, events being held in these new venues include LitLong Reading the City, writing workshops and drop-in activities for all ages. This extension of Charlotte Square Gardens also includes a box office, pop-up bookshop and patio seating area.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival welcomes over 1000 participants from 50 different countries to its tented village in the heart of Edinburgh and runs from Saturday 12 to Monday 28 August 2017. Entrance to the Gardens is FREE and the gardens, cafes, bookshops and all venues are fully accessible. Full details of the programme and tickets to all events can be found at www.edbookfest.co.uk
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