Unbound the free, unticketed nights at the Edinburgh Book Festival is back again this August for the third year with a host of off-beat, late night events.
Billed as "a place for writers to experiment with storytelling, fusing together words, music and performance", it has previously seen authors shaving their hair on stage, poets playing ping pong, and a verbal punch up between Chris Brookmyre and Billy Letford.
Word play
This year’s Unbound programme (announced earlier today), unravelling at the Guardian Spiegeltent in Charlotte Square Gardens every night from 12-27 August at 9pm, will feature a Saturday night disco with Chic’s Nile Rodgers, a sensual show of words with Man Booker nominated author Sarah Hall and Scotland’s own Alan Bissett, as well as celebrated writer Mark Haddon debuting his one man stand-up show.
Roland Gulliver, Programme Manager for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said, "We are thrilled to be welcoming back Unbound favourites such as Literary Death Match, as well as collaborating with new Unbounders such as the Electric Voice Phenomena for what is set to be our most exciting and international year yet. This August’s line up encompasses all that Unbound is – something new, possibly cheeky, slightly chaotic and always fun."
Literary nights
Other participants include Glasgow-based literary night Words Per Minute, as well as Kohl Publishing who will launch their first novel as an e-book download.
Relocating to the Scottish capital for one night only will be London based spoken word group Homework featuring Joe Dunthorne and Ross Sutherland, as well as the Faber Social from publishers Faber & Faber, with their authors Teju Cole and Jeet Thayil.
Edinburgh-based Illicit Ink will present their night of Magic Words, Americans Simon Felice and TM Wolfe will team up for an evening of music and musing, and making their Unbound debut on the closing night will be a host of new Scottish talent from the Scottish Book Trust.
Cargo and McSweeney’s, publishers of the Book Festival’s new collection of short stories Elsewhere, will host a night with authors from the book to celebrate its launch.
Christine Otten will participate in an evening of contemporary fiction and spoken word from the Netherlands, supported by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, whilst Kamila Shamsie and Hari Kunzru will be creating a mixtape of South Asian stories with DJ Neil Kulkarni in an event from the South Asian Literature Festival.
Cities of Literature
Unbound also celebrates the designation of two new cities as UNESCO Cities of Literature Reykjavik and Dublin, joining Edinburgh the first such city to be given the title.
Icelandic author Sjón will host a night of fiction from his home country and Irish writer Kevin Barry will join artists Julie Feeney and Maeve Higgins, to take part in an evening of story and song.