Book Fringe 2026: From the Centre to the Margins
Mairi
The Book Fringe is our accessible, bookshop run, alternative August literary festival!
Fringe is our opportunity to collaborate with bookshop pals across the city to deliver a programme of events that highlight each bookshop’s unique personality.
Entirely run and curated by indies, Book Fringe offers readers the opportunity to meet world-class writers in the intimate and lively settings of local bookshops and in formats more informal or offbeat than a traditional book festival.
Led by Lighthouse, Book Fringe has been running for over a decade, each year reinventing itself just a wee bit while continuing to celebrate accessibility, community and creativity as only indie bookshops can!
The 2026 festival, themed ‘From the Center to the Margins’ spans the city with events at Lighthouse in the Old Town, Argonaut in Leith and Greenhouse Books & Records in Bruntsfield.
Click HERE for the full Book Fringe offering across the 3 shops and browse some of the books by writers appearing across the festival.
Linked Books
- title
- The Queer Bookshelf: A Reader’s Guide
- author
- McCay, Layla
- title
- The Hour of the Wolf
- author
- Bhutto, Fatima
- title
- Invisible Rainbows : The Unseen Universe Beyond Our Senses
- author
- Dr Alfredo Carpineti
- title
- How to Build a City : Journeys into the Urban Future
- author
- Gabriella Bennett
- title
- The Next Fix : The Winners and Losers in the Future of Drugs
- author
- Kojo Koram
- title
- Ever Land
- author
- Amy Abdelnoor
- title
- The Blood Between Us: Syria After the Fall of Assad
- author
- Yassin-Kassab, Robin
- title
- The Masquerade : A History of Extravagance and Intrigue
- author
- Meghan Kobza
- title
- Beyond Belonging: East and Southeast Asian Presence, Identity and Activism in the UK
- author
- Kam, David
- title
- Mill Dust and Dreaming Bread
- author
- Richardson-Read, Scott
- title
- Aphrodisia : Women, Sex and Pleasure in the Classical World
- author
- Jean Menzies
- title
- Unsafe : The Carceral Roots of the Anti-Trans Backlash
- author
- Sarah Lamble
- title
- Rebel Grrrls : The Real Story of Women and Punk from the 1970s to Today
- author
- Molly Tie
- title
- Will I Ever Have Sex Again? : A disarmingly honest and funny exploration of sex (and those who aren’t having it)
- author
- Sofie Hagen
- title
- The Coiled Serpent
- author
- Grudova, Camilla
- title
- The Coiled Serpent : from the Women's Prize-listed author of CHILDREN OF PARADISE
- author
- Grudova, Camilla
- title
- A Snake Among Swans
- author
- Hanah Kaner
- title
- The Book of Mysteries
- author
- Tamás, Rebecca