Leisure & Culture Dundee announce the first Dundee Book Festival – bringing renowned authors to the city this June!
Dundee Book Festival takes to some of Dundee’s most beloved venues for a packed programme of authors and performers, from Thu 12–Sat 14 June.
With over thirty events across the three days, the festival will feature an impressive line-up including renowned crime writer Val McDermid, Ambrose Parry, the Witches of Scotland, Kate Muir, and kicking-off the celebrations with a special Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers performance.
To keep the festival accessible and open to all, the majority of events will be priced at £5 per ticket.
The 2025 festival programme includes:
- Thu 12 June, 8pm @ Marryat Hall: Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, featuring Val McDermid, Luca Veste, Chris Brookmyre, Mark Billingham, Stuart Neville, and Doug Johnstone, take to the stage for a full-on rock ‘n’ roll experience, murdering your favourite songs for fun!
- Fri 13 June, 12pm @ Mills Observatory: Dundee author Doug Johnstone returns to his childhood haunt for an intimate event reading and discussing his extraordinary Enceladons Trilogy.
- Fri 13 June, 3pm @ Steps Theatre: Sit back and enjoy listening to members from Open Book’s Dundee community of writers share individual writing from Blackness Writes: A Free Zine, and poems from the latest Open Book pamphlet, No Such Thing as Lost.
- Fri 13 June, 3.30pm @ Mills Observatory: Speculative fiction authors Lyndsey Croal and Sandra Ireland, with Dundee historian and storyteller Erin Farley, chat folklore, folk retellings, and the relationship between oral traditions and modern literature.
- Fri 13 June, 7pm @ The McManus: Fraser Reid of ‘Fraser’s Fruit and Veg’ emerges from his shop for evening of conversation and a three course meal inspired by Fraser and cooked by experts.
- Sat 14 June, 11.30am @ Steps Theatre: Michael Pederson is already renowned as one of Scotland’s most talented poets. Now he’s turned his pen to fiction and joins the Dundee Book Festival to read from and discuss his debut novel, Muckle Flugga.
- Sat 14 June, 1.30pm @ Steps Theatre: Join Dundee street poet, Gary Robertson as he shares tales from his life in the city and explores how he uses the Dundee dialect to tell stories.
- Sat 14 June, 6pm @ Steps Theatre: Dundee’s best loved podcasters, Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi are joined by Nicola Sturgeon for the local launch of their new book, How to Kill a Witch: A Guide for the Patriarchy.
