Radical Book Fair 2023 - our speaker's favourites

The Edinburgh Radical Book Fair 2023 is THIS WEEK! Four days of panels, workshops and performances begin on Thursday evening, 9thNovember and we can’t wait to welcome you all to the Roxy Assembly and to our livestreams from wherever you may be.

The Radical Book Fair, however, isn’t only about the stage – let’s not forget the tables and tables of radical books, to expand minds, give comfort, empower for change and forge connections. At any point during the fair, you’re welcome to pop in for a browse and the opportunity to pick up something unexpected (and dare we mention one or two radical gifts for the holiday season).

As a warm-up for the fair, and rooted in this year’s theme of Revolutionary Feeling, we asked some of this year’s speakers to mention one of the books that informed how they view the personal/political.

No one chose the same book, but Angela Davis and Naomi Klein are mentioned twice (which we’re utterly ok with). Here are their choices! (those without a link are currently not available in the UK)

Alice Cappelle – Backlash by Susan Faludi

Arianne Shahvisi – Women, Race and Class by Angela Davis

Catherine Joy White – In Search of Our Mother's Gardens by Alice Walker

Fiona Robertson – The Combahee River Collective Statement

Gina Gwenffrewi – The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher

Hannah Silva - Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

Hil Aked – The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

Jenni Keasden - Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Jessica Gaitan Johannesson – The Breaks by Julietta Singh

JJ Fakada - Feminism Interrupted by Lola Olufemi

Kirsty Logan - GenderQueer: Voices From Beyond the Sexual Binary, edited by Riki Wilchins

Lakshmi Ajay - Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

layla-roxanne hill - interviews with radical palestinian women, complied + edited by the shoal collective. 

Leah Hazard - Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts

Matt Colquhoun - Beginning to See the Light: Sex, Hope, and Rock'n'Roll by Ellen Willis

Micha Frazer-Carroll - Freedom is a Constant Struggle – Angela Davis

Nadia Karim - Derek Jarman's Garden by Derek Jarman

Nick Dearden - No Logo by Naomi Klein

Phil Crockett Thomas - Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Phil Wrigglesworth - Merz To Emigre and Beyond by Steven Heller

Robert Chapman - Psychopolitics by Peter Sedgwick

Sian Norris - Caliban and the Witchby Silvia Federici

Sophie Chauhan – Nomenclature by Dionne Brand

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan – The Quran

Terry Macalister – Beloved by Toni Morrison

Yasmin El-Rifae – The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

The full Radical Book Fair programme is HERE!