First Scottish SFF literary festival to launch next summer

A new book festival for fans of fantasy, science fiction and horror is launching in Edinburgh next summer featuring authors including Scottish sci-fi writer Ken MacLeod and The Bone Season's Samantha Shannon.

Taking place over the course of three days next June (7th-9th), The Cymera Festival has been touted as Scotland's very first book festival dedicated to the SFF genre and promises a curated programme of talks, debates and writing workshops. Other authors confirmed on the line-up so far include the horror writer Charles Stross, as well as Claire McFall and Cassandra Khaw.

The festival's founder is Ann Landmann, a former events manager for Blackwell's book shop in Edinburgh, who told The Herald she wanted to throw a spotlight on "three often overlooked but hugely popular genres" and to "break down the boundaries between genre writing and general fiction". "By modelling it on existing book festivals, we aim to put genre writing on an equal footing with literary fiction," she said. "We want to connect readers with some of their favourite authors, and introduce them to the writing stars of the future."

The festival is keen to attract more national and international authors and to "discover, nurture and showcase local writers". It has also formed a partnership with the MLitt Department at Glasgow University and the Creative Writing MA programme at Edinburgh Napier University.

A crowd-funding campaign has launched online and monies raised will go towards paying panellists and their travel costs, hosting free social events, offering free tickets to those who can't afford them, and feeding and clothing the festival's volunteers.

Tickets to the festival are available at The Cymera Festival website, where a full programme will be available to view in Feburary next year.