From Scotland to India, Here’s Our Readers’ List To Finish Out Your Year—and Beyond
Long after we’ve left school behind, many of us still think of September as the beginning of a new year. We buy fresh notebooks, make ambitious reading lists, and imagine becoming just a little more thoughtful than we were before. What if, instead of planning the year around holidays or bucket-list destinations, you planned it around literary gatherings?
The six festivals below offer a different kind of cultural calendar that may inspire a reading adventure that’ll take you around the globe.
“Literature Without Velvet Ropes”
WHEN: Sept. 20-28; Festival Day & Literary Marketplace: Sept. 27
WHERE: Brooklyn, New York
WHY GO: Discover a citywide literary festival that feels more like neighborhoods than conventions.
DON’T MISS: Joyce Carol Oates, Tracy K. Smith, Marlon James, Douglas Stuart—or the chance to stumble upon your next favorite writer.
Stretching across nine days, the Brooklyn Book Festival celebrates literary community as much as literature itself. Internationally acclaimed authors, emerging voices, independent presses, and readers gather for discussions that spill beyond the stages into bookstores, cafes and sidewalks. If Edinburgh honors literary tradition, Brooklyn reminds us that literature is still being made—one conversation and one unexpected discovery at a time.
Where Books Take Over the Streets
WHEN: Sept. 12-13
WHERE: Chicago, Illinois
WHY GO: The best literary discoveries are rarely the ones you planned.
DON’T MISS: Independent publishers, local bookstores, author conversations—and permission to buy one more book than you intended.
Each September, Chicago’s historic Printers Row returns to its publishing roots as authors, independent presses, booksellers and readers fill the streets. Part festival and part neighborhood stroll, it rewards curiosity. Buy a book directly from the people who wrote, edited or published it, then spend the afternoon discovering what else you didn’t know you were looking for.
A City Built on Books
WHEN: Nov. 4-8
WHERE: Dublin, Ireland
WHY GO: You’ll experience a city where literature isn’t just celebrated—it’s part of everyday life.
DON’T MISS: Contemporary Irish writers, intimate conversations with emerging voices, and time to explore Trinity College Dublin, Marsh’s Library or the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI).
Some cities preserve their literary history. Dublin lives inside it. The festival celebrates contemporary Irish writing while reminding visitors that every new voice joins a conversation that is centuries in the making. Wander streets once walked by James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and William Butler Yeats; then discover the writers shaping Ireland’s next chapter. Here, literature seems to spill naturally into cafes, libraries and everyday conversation.
“THE GREATEST LITERARY SHOW ON EARTH”
WHEN: Jan. 14-18, 2027
WHERE: Jaipur, India
WHY GO: To discover how literature sounds when the whole world joins the conversation.
DON’T MISS: Nobel laureates, debut novelists, historians, poets, translators—and conversations that cross languages as naturally as they cross genres.
Each January, Jaipur becomes a meeting place for ideas from every corner of the world. Conversations move easily between fiction, memoir, politics, philosophy, history and science. The setting is unforgettable, but it’s the exchange of perspectives that lingers. They remind us that while stories are shaped by culture, they’re united by the same enduring questions about love, justice, memory and what it means to be human.
“Imagine the World”
WHEN: May 27–June 6, 2027
WHERE: Hay-on-Wye, Wales
WHY GO: It’s the perfect spot to remind us that slowing down is part of learning.
DON’T MISS: Nobel laureates, historians, novelists, scientists—and time to browse Hay-on-Wye’s legendary bookshops.
Hay Festival grew from a town where books have long been part of the landscape, and that spirit still shapes the experience. Conversations move easily between literature, history, science, politics and the arts, reflecting a simple belief that readers are curious about more than one thing. Between events, lose track of time wandering Hay-on-Wye’s shelves, carrying home a stack of unexpected finds.
Some people plan their year around concerts or sporting events. Others follow the film festival circuit. But readers have another calendar. You might begin in Brooklyn, wander around in Chicago, pause in Dublin, then stretch across continents to Jaipur, and come to rest among the bookshops of Hay-on-Wye.
But where will you head for your next chapter in 2027? Perhaps you’ll find yourself in Edinburgh, Scotland, which the United Nations named the world’s first UNESCO “City of Literature” in 2004—now that’s a special title.
Every August, The Edinburgh International Book Festival welcomes hundreds of writers for conversations that range from fiction and poetry to science, history and politics. The festival next year will be held Aug. 13-29 and include author talks, panel discussions, book signings and creative writing workshops. So prepare to enjoy spending a week in a city that seems built for readers.
