Wigtown Book Festival starts in
Rustic bunting on an old wooden door and stone wall, Wigtown

Adults

BROWSE EVENTS
A young adult in an book festival event, listening, Wigtown.

Young People

BROWSE EVENTS
Bigwig, the children's festival mascot in the town square with a young reader.

Children

BROWSE EVENTS
Can you help us raise £20,000?
Ticket sales are normally a huge part of our income. But this year's online events are free of charge. By giving generously, you can help bridge the financial gap, secure the future of Wigtown Book Festival, and ensure we survive - and thrive - in uncertain times.
Donate
£12,721.00

Festival highlights

 
Neil MacGregor
Living with the Gods
Sat 26 Sep - 17:00 UK
More Info
 
Maggie O'Farrell
Hamnet
Sun 27 Sep - 19:30 UK
More Info
 
Dean Atta
The Black Flamingo
Mon 28 Sep - 21:00 UK
More Info
 
Andrew Marr
The Elizabethans
Tue 29 Sep - 11:00 UK
More Info
 
George Alagiah
The Burning Land
Thu 1 Oct - 19:30 UK
More Info
 
Kate Humble
A Year of Living Simply
Fri 2 Oct - 19:30 UK
More Info
 
Meg McLaren
The Station Mouse
Sat 3 Oct - 14:00 UK
More Info
 
Helen Macdonald
Vesper Flights
Sat 3 Oct - 19:30 UK
More Info

Essential information

An event in the large marquee, during the book festival. View from the wings of the stage towards the audience.
A WARM WELCOME

A word from us

We might have gone digital but the warm welcome is no less sincere and we hope you'll support online as much as you can.

READ
image of the wigtown book festival website on a tablet mobile device
HOW IT WORKS

Facts and FAQs

It's a learning curve for us all so we know you'll have questions. Find information here about how to join in and other questions.

READ
An empty marquee waiting for the audience to arrive, Wigtown Book Festival
HOW TO GIVE

We need you

Normally, more than half our event income comes from ticket sales. Find out how you can support this year's festival.

READ
Visit our online bookshop

Our new online bookshop stocks all the titles for the 2020 Wigtown Book Festival, bestsellers and those from our recent online programme. You'll also find our exclusive Book Bond range and the chance to order any new title we don't stock to have delivered to your door within 3 working days (subject to availability). Each sale helps support the work of Wigtown Book Festival.

Browse the Bookshop
No 11 Main Street, the Wigtown Festival Bookshop

Featured content

River Solway mud flats from the air
EXPLORE

Year of Coasts and Waters

Take a look at how we're celebrating Scotland's Year of Coasts and Waters through this year's programme and an exciting new publication.

READ MORE
Podcast cover image with Adrian Turpin, Anne Barclay and Peggy Hughes
PODCAST

This year's festival

Artistic Director, Adrian Turpin, and Operational Director, Anne Barclay, chat with Peggy Hughes about the reincarnation of Wigtown Book Festival for 2020.

LISTEN
Reading Is Magic Festival Logo Square
INSPIRE

Reading Is Magic Festival

An all-star lineup of authors and illustrators present 6 days of free digital events for schools and families. Programme runs 27 Sep to 2 Oct.

FIND OUT MORE
Image from above of the edge of a clam boat with sea beneath

Exhibitions

Feast your eyes

Throughout the festival we celebrate visual arts and welcome our very first sound artist. Here's a peek at what to expect.

MORE
Gange David author portrait
Events

#WigtownWednesdays return

This series of weekly online events will return on Wednesday 9 September with David Gange, author of The Frayed Atlantic Edge.

SIGN UP
Wigtown Poetry Prize 2020 Cube
POETRY

Shortlist revealed

The judges have spoken and the shortlist for the 2020 Wigtown Poetry Prize has been announced. Winners announced Sun 4 Oct.

SEE SHORTLIST

The library

Podcast cover - featuring Kevin Barry and Nadine Aisha Jassat
PODCAST

Outrider interrupted

Poet Nadine Aisha Jassat on Edinburgh Book Festival's Outriders Africa project; plus novelist Kevin Barry's debt to Beckett.

Listen
Wigtown Ploughman - book cover
REVIEW

Wigtown Ploughman revisited

Farmer turned author Patrick Laurie takes a fresh look at Wigtown Ploughman, a classic novel of rural life.

Read
Renita Boyle portriat
CHILDREN

Let her tell you a story

The festival's resident storyteller Renita Boyle discusses the oldest artform and introduces her new project.

Read
Doddie Weir outside the Wigtown Post Office
AUDIO EXTRA

His name'5 Doddie

In a riotous event at the 2019 festival, Scottish rugby legend Doddie Weir talked about his autobiography, from on-field heroics to motor neurone disease. 

Listen
Julian Baggini portrait
VIDEO

Julian Baggini ~ Lessons from a Crisis

In a recent online event, philosopher Julian Baggini discussed how our experiences of the pandemic may change the way we think about our lives.

Watch
Astrid Jaekel Abbey illustration
ESSAY

Meet the neighbours

When writer Ken Ilgunas got stuck in the US during lockdown, he didn't expect to find himself living next door to survivalists prepping for armageddon. 

READ
Salt marshes after dark, Wigtown
SHORT STORY

The Ghosts of Wigtown

Commissioned by the festival, author Karen Campbell has written a new tale of the supernatural which takes inspiration from Wigtown's women's history.

Read
Galloway Cycling Holidays - cyclists in front of a corrugated tin shed
NEWS

Literary Tourism

How Wigtown Book Festival is working with businesses in Dumfries & Galloway to create unique new visitor experiences inspired by literature.

Read
Joanna Lumley At The Wigtown Book Festival © Colin Tennat 2
VINTAGE WIGTOWN

Joanna Lumley @ WBF

We’ll be posting a selection of the best of WBF past in the coming weeks. From 2013, watch Joanna Lumley talk Ab Fab, The Avengers, Galloway and Peter Pan.

Watch
Southlight Magazine 2020 - cover image. 1970s photograph of man with horses

Southlight

The latest edition of the Dumfries & Galloway new-writing magazine

Download Southlight (.pdf)
Motif Luke 3
Galloway landscape - dry stane wall, hills and pasture
We need you

Wigtown Festival Company is commited to engaging new and existing audiences throughout the current crisis. If you would like to support our work, we would be very grateful.

Donate

Find us in Wigtown, Scotland’s National Book Town

Designated Scotland's National Book Town in 1998 - by an international panel - Wigtown is home to a community of booksellers and literary events.

Wigtown: Scotland's National Book Town. Road signage on a grassy verge
Wigtown Book Town

A community regenerated through books

Read more
A browser outside The Bookshop on Wigtown's main street
Bookshops

Wigtown is home to more than a dozen bookshops

Read more
A panel event during Wigtown Book Festival
History of the Festival

We celebrated with our 20th Festival in 2018

Read More

More than just a festival: what we do

Since the first Wigtown Book Festival in 1999, we have expanded to become an energetic arts organisation working through the year to deliver a programme of literature development activities in the Dumfries & Galloway region of south-west Scotland.

Read more about our projects
Interior of The Bookshop, Wigtown. Armchair by fireplace, bookshelves
The sort of festival people become possessive about.

The Guardian