Edinburgh International Book Festival 2025 takes Repair as its theme

The Edinburgh International Book Festival took place from 9 to 24 August 2025, the second festival under its director, Jenny Niven. The theme was Repair, taking in subjects from fast fashion and the environment to cultural reparations and the state of politics.

The programme, announced in June, brought together 641 writers from 35 countries. Those announced included Ian McEwan, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ali Smith, Maggie O'Farrell, Amitav Ghosh, Rachel Kushner and Asako Yuzuki, alongside political figures including Nicola Sturgeon and Diane Abbott.

The festival opened with newly commissioned spoken-word pieces, and the programme included events on Mary Shelley, Indigenous perspectives, human rights and environmental activism, with a substantial strand of Scottish writing from both new and established authors.

Edinburgh sits in the middle of the city's August festivals, which gives it an audience well beyond regular book buyers. A clear theme can make a large programme easier to navigate, and it also shows which kinds of books a major festival thinks will carry a public conversation. For writers of non-fiction in particular, that is a useful signal.

Source: The Skinny: Edinburgh International Book Festival announces 2025 programme.