Debut Showcase with Eleanor Tucker and Rachel Wood

Join us for our opening event of the 2026 festival. Eleanor Tucker and Rachel Wood’s debut novels focus on those times in our lives where everything is coming to a head and the future is uncertain. In this event they’ll explore their books and also discuss the challenges facing debut authors even with significant platforms and their experiences with marketing their books and meeting audiences at events.

Eleanor Tucker grew up in Oxford, moved to Edinburgh for university and stayed. She’s an author and journalist who began her career as an advertising creative, then went on to write for, amongst others, The Guardian and The Observer. Her first book, Thanks for Sharing (2023, Quarto), was a narrative non-fiction that explored the sharing economy. Her debut novel, Turn Back Time (April 2026, Canelo), satirised 'tweakments' culture and her next novel The Redo (coming May 2027) examines the complexities of midlife.

Rachel Wood is a Canadian writer from Toronto, now based in Edinburgh. After graduating with a master’s in creative writing from The University of Edinburgh, she began her career as a copywriter, before founding the book subscription Rare Birds Book Club in 2017. She opened Rare Birds Book Shop in Edinburgh in 2021, named ‘one of the coolest new bookshops’ by the Sunday Times. Annie Knows Everything is her first novel.

About the Festival
The Edinburgh Women’s Fiction Festival is back for 2026!

This year's festival will take place on Saturday 26 October 2026, returning to our lovely venue of Christ Church Morningside - just five minutes walk from Bruntsfield Links and a short bus ride from the city centre.

The Edinburgh Women's Fiction Festival is a literary festival celebrating writing for, by, and about women. We are an inclusive event and welcome everyone who finds joy in reading women's fiction - commercial, romance, historical, literary, book club and beyond. Our festival showcases authors of genres that are often overlooked, and our aim is to give readers the opportunity to connect with their favourite writers.

2026 Programme
Details of our full programme can be found on our website.

Our festival strongly believes in paying our authors, chairs, and workshop leaders the fee recommended by the Scottish Book Trust.