Tickets are now on sale for Edinburgh International Book Festival and you can see several Blake Friedmann authors there this August.

Margie Orford will be appearing twice, first together with Ben Mcpherson for the event MADE UP STORIES: REAL WORLD CONCERNS on Monday 17 August, from 5:00pm to 6:00pm at the Writer’s Retreat. You can also see Margie at the AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL IMPRISIONED WRITERS SERIES on Tuesday 18 August, from 5:30pm to 6:15pm at the Bailie Gifford Corner Theatre.

Janice Galloway will be talking about SEX AND LIFE AND PARENTHOOD on Thursday 20 August from 11:45am to 12:45pm at the Baillie Gifford Main Theatre. The talk will be chaired by Jackie McGlone. Before the festival, Janice will be launching her new edition of THE TRICK IS TO KEEP BREATHING, re-published by Vintage Classics as part of their Scottish Classics Collection, alongside A.L. Kennedy at Looking Glass Books, on Thursday 13 August from 6:30pm. Janice will also appear at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on 28 August, 1:00pm, to read from JELLYFISH and discuss her work, admission will be free, and donations welcome.

Amy Mason will be speaking with Esther Gerritsen at the event MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS: A PSYCHOLOGICAL DUET at Thursday 20 August from 8:45pm to 9:45 pm at the Bailie Gifford Corner Theatre. Amy is also up for the First Book Award at the Edinburgh Festival, for THE OTHER IDA. You can vote for her here.

Following last year’s total sell-out run, Andrew Doyle will be doing his stand up show MINIMALISM at the Stand this year, from Wednesday 5 August till Sunday 30 August.

The Edinburgh Festival is one of the largest Arts events in the world and takes place for three weeks every August in Scotland’s capital city.

Amy Mason’s THE OTHER IDA has been longlisted for The Polari First Book Prize, awarded to a writer whose first book explores the LGBT experience in poetry, prose, fiction or nonfiction. The longlist was announced at the Polari Literary Salon in London’s Southbank Centre on 20 July.

THE OTHER IDA, published by Cargo, won the 2014 Dundee International Book Prize in October 2014. It has received fantastic reviews from fellow authors including Emma Jane Unsworth calling it, ‘a brilliant debut,’ and Kerry Hudson saying it is ‘a rare and special book full of compelling stories.’

The winner will be revealed at the London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre in October.

Visit Amy’s website.

Follow her on Twitter.

Praise for THE OTHER IDA

‘Mason’s evocation of the tension, claustrophobia and melancholy of a dysfunctional family amid grief is well realised.’ – Claire Hazelton, The Guardian

‘A raw and powerful read with a rich seam of black humour.’ – Sunday Mirror

‘Funny, bright, bold and exciting, this debut novel sparkles with originality and insight.’ – Viv Groskop