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Appearances & Events Archive

Iain Banks at the Morley Literature Festival

Another newly-confirmed date for your diary: Iain [M] Banks will be taking part in this year's Morley Literature Festival in Leeds.

Details as follows:

Friday 15 October 2010 at 7.30pm

Venue: Morley Town Hall, Leeds LS27 9BD

Tickets: £5

Box Office: 0844 848 2706

As always, contact the event organisers for ticket details and don't forget to double-check before travelling, in case of last-minute alteration or cancellation.

Iain Banks at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Iain Banks will be taking part in two events at this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival.

The first, a talk on Monday August 16th, is already sold out according to the EIBF website, but tickets are still available (at time of posting) for a second event, called 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger?' on Saturday August 28th, from 7.00 - 8.15 p.m.

Here's the event description from the Festival brochure:

In his guise as a science fiction writer, Iain M Banks has created a utopian interstellar civilisation known as the Culture. This imaginary community populated by 'transhumans' has real-life parallels in the work of Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University. The subject of Warwick's research is his own body, and he has transformed himself into the world’s first Cyborg. In this event Warwick and Banks are joined by Steve Yearley, Director of the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum, to contemplate the future of human beings.

Tickets are £10 / £8 (concessions) and can be booked via www.edbookfest.co.uk.

Iain Banks at the Tolbooth, Stirling, September 15th

Iain Banks will be appearing at Stirling's Tolbooth Theatre on Wednesday September 15th.

'An Evening With Iain Banks' will be chaired by Professor Rory Watson, retired from Stirling University and is part of Off the Page, the Stirling Book Festival (see pages 16-17 of the online Tolbooth brochure for more details of the festival).

Tickets for the event are £7.00 each and can be booked via www.ticketsoup.com.

Iain M. Banks events in October & November 2010

N.B. The Toppings, Bath event has been moved from October 19th to November 1st.

We've just updated the appearances page of the site with details of a number of talks and signing events that Iain will be participating in this Autumn to support the publication of his brand new Culture novel, Surface Detail.

Confirmed events so far include:

  • Wed 06.10.10 - The Roundhouse, London
  • Thu 07.10.10 - Forbidden Planet, London
  • Sat 16.10.10 & Sun 17.10.10 - Cheltenham Literary Festival
  • Tue 19.10.10 - The Paragon, Bath (with Toppings Books) REARRANGED - SEE BELOW
  • Wed 20.10.10 - Chepstow Library (with Chepstow Bookshop)
  • Thu 21.10.10 - De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill (with The Bexhill Bookshop)
  • Mon 01.11.10 - The Paragon, Bath (with Toppings Books)
  • Tue 02.11.10 - Toppings Books, Ely
  • Wed 03.11.20 - Assembly House, Norwich (with Waterstone's Norwich)
  • Fri 12.11.10 - Sun 14.11.10 - Guest of Honour at Novacon 40, Nottingham

Check the appearances page for more details and then follow the links for relevant contact details and booking information (the majority of these events will be ticket only, so advance booking is highly recommended).

Video of Iain Banks at the Prague Writers Festival

David H, of Banksoniain fanzine fame, has just posted the following to the Iain Banks Forum:

The readings and conversations at the Prague Writers' Festival were recorded and are now online via www.pwf.cz.

Iain participates in the Tuesday evening conversation about Heresy, and the Wednesday evening readings.

More details on the forum.

Iain Banks at the St Albans Festival, June 16th

Iain Banks will be appearing at this year's St Albans Festival to celebrate publication of the paperback of his latest novel, Transition.

Venue: Verulamium Museum, St Albans
Time: Wednesday, 16 June 2010, 7:30PM
Tickets: £5, available from the museum

For more more information or to reserve tickets online, see the festival website: www.stalbansfestival.com.

Forthcoming Iain Banks appearances and events

The Appearances page of the site has been updated with information on three events that Iain has been booked for later this year:

See the Appearances page for a bit more information on these and other events that Iain will be attending.

Thanks (as always!) to Dave H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up on these events.

Quick Reminder: Iain Banks at Eastercon this weekend

Just a reminder that Iain Banks is a Guest of Honour at this year's Eastercon - Odyssey 2010 - which takes place in Heathrow this Easter weekend.

David H, editor of the Bansksoniain fanzine, has been in touch to let us know about some of the Banks-related events taking place at the convention:

  • David himself will be giving a talk called "Iain Banks: Before The Wasp Factory" on Friday at 13:00
  • Iain is on a panel called "Utopia - How the Concept Has Developed in Philosophy and SF" on Friday at 16:00
  • Iain is being interviewed by Jane Killick on Saturday at 11:00 (and in an autograph session afterwards)
  • Iain is hosting a whisky tasting on Saturday at 16:00
  • Iain is on a panel called "Language and Dialect in Writing" on Monday at 11:00

Full details are available in the Eastercon events programme. David has also suggested that we remind everyone that you can pay for a full weekend Convention membership on the door, and day-memberships are also available. See the Odyssey 2010 website for full details.

And if you're going to be at Eastercon and end up taking any photos of Iain, or manage to capture any decent audio or video footage (assuming that it's allowed under Convention rules, of course) then do feel free to upload your stuff to a suitable online sharing service and then send in a link (to webguy [at] iain-banks.net) and I'll post a selection of the best examples to the site next week.

Local Hero Iain Banks live in Fife, 23 June 2010

On June 23rd 2010, renowned Fife author Iain Banks will be making an eagerly awaited appearance in the Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, as part of 'Local Heroes', a series of events celebrating Fife's Culture.

Iain will be reading from his latest novel Transition and taking questions from the audience. The event starts at 19.30 and is scheduled to last for two hours. Tickets are £2.50.

More information from www.fife.gov.uk.

[Thanks again to David H of The Banksonian for the heads-up]

Iain Banks Appearing at the Ullapool Book Festival

Iain Banks will be taking part in the Ullapool Book Festival on Friday, May 7, 2010. He'll be appearing at 19:30 in Ullapool Village Hall (details as per the Ullapool Book Festival website).

Tickets are £6, and are available from www.thebooth.co.uk, but also by post or in person.

The event listing says: "Join Iain as he gives us an exclusive preview from his new and unpublished Science Fiction work and take the opportunity to ask him a question or two."

More information from: www.ullapoolbookfestival.co.uk.

[Thanks to David H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up]

Iain Banks live event, Edinburgh, December 16th 2009

Iain Banks will be appearing live at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday 16 December 2009 at the Reading Room, Edinburgh Central Library as part of the Edinburgh City Reads series of literary events.

Iain will be discussing his career and work with Alan Taylor, writer and journalist, as well as reading from Transition and taking questions from the audience. The event is free, complimentary drinks will be served and pre-booking is essential. See www.edinburghcityreads.net for details or email events@edinburghcityreads.net for details.

Thanks to David H of The Banksoniain for the heads-up.

Iain Banks 2009 events schedule update

I've just updated the appearances page of the website with details of a number of forthcoming Iain Banks author events to support the publication of Transition. There are a few more in the pipeline, which I'll post as and when details are finalised.

And sincere apologies for any confusion caused by last week's post (since removed from the site) about the Forbidden Planet signing. It turned out that FP had posted the wrong details on their website (which is where I got the info from) and in my rush to let everyone know about the event I neglected to double-check the details with the publicity people here at Little, Brown. My fault entirely... apologies again.

The correct date for that signing event is most definitely Saturday, October 3rd, as per the updated appearances page and the revised Forbidden Planet events listing.

DT, webguy

Pure poetry as Iain Banks adds audio to Mark Brew's Nocturne

DaveH of The Banksoniain fanzine fame has been in touch with some information about an audio contribution by Iain to a dance performance that's opening tonight in London:

Not strictly an Iain appearance but Gary Lloyd who created an audio version of The Bridge and is working with Iain on a tribute album for Frozen Gold has used a recording of Iain reading a poem by Luke Pell in the music that Gary has written for a dance group.

The first of this year's performances of Nocturne by the Marc Brew Company are free and will be taking place as part of the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival this weekend. The piece lasts approximately twenty minutes.

  • Friday June 26th, 13:45 & 18:45
  • Saturday June 27th, 13:45 & 18:45
  • Sunday June 28th, 13:45 & 15:45

at Monument Gardens, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich

There will also be performances at:

Iain Banks at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2009

The programme for this year's Edinburgh International Book Festival has been posted online and confirms that Iain Banks will be taking part in two events this year.

The first will be a reading for the Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers Series, on Monday 17th August, from 5.30 - 6.15 p.m.

Immediately afterwards, Iain will be reading from and discussing his latest work in the National Library of Scotland event, which runs from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m.

More details are available on the EIBF ticket booking website.

More info on Iain Banks' Prague Writers Festival appearances

DaveH of The Banksoniain has been in touch with more details of Iain's forthcoming Prague Writers Festival dates next month:

Iain is doing two signings. The first at the Big Ben Bookshop at 12:00 on Monday, 8 June. The second is at the Academia Bookstore at 17:00 the same day.

Then he is part of the Guardian Conversation called "The Freedom to Lie" at 18:00 on Tuesday, 9 June in the Laterna Magika Theatre, along with Wolf Biermann, Ma Jian, Jaroslav Rudiš, moderated by Max Rudin.

Later that evening he is part of the International Reading session in the same location at 20:00 along with Jaroslav Rudiš, Jaromir Švejdík and Yang Lian.

Both these events are listed as having simultaneous translation.

Tickets are available at the Laterna Magika, from Ticketpro or reservations can be made by email at info@pwf.cz.

The full Festival Programme is available at www.pwf.cz/en.

Iain Banks signing, Chapters Bookstore, Dublin, May 15th

From the Chapters Bookstore LiveJournal blog, news of an Iain Banks signing in Dublin on Friday May 15th this year:

We are very pleased to announce that Iain Banks / Iain M Banks, author of The Wasp Factory, The Crow Road, Consider Phlebas, The State of the Art, and many more, will be signing in Chapters Bookstore, Parnell Street, Dublin 1 on Friday 15th of May from 5pm to 6pm.

Please contact Chapters for more information on the signing and if you plan to attend, don't forget to check with them before you travel, in case of last-minute alterations or a cancellation.

Iain Banks to appear at Prague Writers' Festival

Iain will be an author guest at the Prague Writers' Festival, which takes place at the Laterna Magika theatre in the city over the weekend of 7th - 11th June this year.

Visit www.pwf.cz for more information on the event.

[Thanks to DaveH for the heads-up.]

Iain [M.] Banks announced as GoH for Eastercon 2010

Odyssey 2010 - the next-but-one reincarnation of the annual Eastercon British National Science Fiction Convention - have announced that Iain will be one of their Guests of Honour, along with fellow authors Mike Carey, Alastair Reynolds and Liz Williams, plus Artist Guest of Honour Carlos Ezquerra, and Fan Guests of Honour Jon and Fran Dowd (all Guest of Honour appearances are subject to work and other commitments).

The four-day convention, which in 2010 will return to the London Heathrow Radisson Edwardian; scene of this year's Orbital 2008 event.

For more information, see www.Odyssey2010.org.

Book Aid charity auction to include Banks-signed copy of 'Fear and Loathing'

Lewis Proudfoot of Book Aid International has been in touch to tell us about an eBay auction that they're holding to raise money for literacy projects in sub-Saharan Africa. One of the items to be included in the auction ought to be of interest to Banks-collectors, as Lewis explains:

"Visitors to the Iain Banks site may be interested in one of the items: a copy of Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing, illustrated by Ralph Steadman, and signed and inscribed by Iain Banks ('May the spirit of the blessed Saint Hunter be with you')."

This item will be one of those listed on Book Aid International's 'Books Change Lives' eBay for Charity page on Monday October 13th.

A press release about the auction adds: "As well as a fantastic array of signed books, Book Aid International will also be auctioning a number of original illustrations by some of the UK's best-loved illustrators including Nick Sharrat, Satoshi Kitamura and Sue Heap."

Iain Banks at the EIBF this weekend

A quick reminder: Iain will be appearing at the Islay Book Festival this weekend, with a Where Do You Get Your Ideas From? Q&A session taking place on Saturday at 10.30 and a session focusing on Matter on Sunday at 14.00.

See the Islay Book Festival website for more information on Iain's appearances, plus details of the other attendees.