17 - 26 February 2022

The Paisley Book Festival is a platform for the celebration of books, reading and writing in Paisley over the course of 10 days. It is a festival with creativity and innovation at the heart of its programming, seeking to showcase some of the best and most diverse voices being published today in Scotland and beyond. 

In 2020, the inaugural festival was inspired by the actions of the 1820 Paisley Radicals, celebrating Paisley as a place where people value their unique rich history, and featured names such as Jackie Kay, John Byrne, Kirsty Wark, Janice Galloway, and the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. 

In 2021, with the theme Radical New Futures, the festival continued to focus on grassroots rebellion, revolution and activism, but also celebrated resilience, as we found ourselves responding to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and making the shift to being a completely digital Festival.

We're still Paisley Radicals at heart, so the festival’s trademark thread of edge and progressiveness will still run through the programme, but as we return in 2022, we do so with a blended approach of live and digital events, and with the hope for a better world. For the 2022 programme, we will contemplate, as writers and readers, the importance of community, telling your story, being present in the moment, connection and celebrating the importance of words and stories in shaping a world we can all be proud of.

The 2022 Festival will respond to it being Scotland’s Year of Stories and will lead with “Stories Mak’ Us” as the curatorial headline. The programme will launch digitally - along with a brand new website and a refreshed brand identity - on November 25th 2021.

For every book sold through the Festival’s Bookshop.org page, 10% goes back to Paisley Book Festival, which will go towards promoting future programmes that will encourage reading across Renfrewshire and further afield.