Ali Smith is a writer for readers who enjoy being surprised by the shape of a novel as much as by its story. Her fiction moves between art, memory and the world outside the window. Hearing her at a festival offers time to sit with that language, or to encounter it in performance with music.
Quick facts
Best known for
How to be both and the Seasonal Quartet
Genre or subject
Literary fiction, short stories and experimental storytelling
Smith writes novels and short stories. Her work includes the Seasonal Quartet, the four-book sequence Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, and the formally playful fiction that has made her a familiar name on literary-prize shortlists. Her writing gives a reader room to notice how a story changes when time slips, a voice interrupts or another art form enters the page.
Her novel about a Renaissance painter and a modern young woman won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize and the Costa Novel Award. These prizes recognise a book which asks its reader to move between two lives and two periods. If you enjoy returning to an opening after reaching the ending, this is a writer whose work rewards that attention.
The latest novel is the second of two connected books, following Gliff. Its concerns include childhood imagination, history and real wars. The earlier book and its companion can be approached through the relationship between those private and public worlds; the festival conversations below brought that tension into the discussion.
Where to start with their books
How to be both
Two lives, one belonging to a Renaissance artist and the other to a modern young woman, meet through art and storytelling. Start here if you like a novel whose construction changes your experience of reading it; the relationship between the two parts is part of its pleasure.
Autumn
The first seasonal novel follows the friendship of centenarian Daniel and Elisabeth in a divided Britain. Their different ages make space for memory, changing perceptions of value and the everyday experience of a political moment. It is the beginning to choose if you want to enter the quartet in sequence.
Winter
A Christmas gathering in Cornwall brings Art, his mother, his aunt and a woman pretending to be his girlfriend into one large house. The second seasonal novel sets family friction beside art, protest and survival. Its uneasy reunion is an inviting starting point for readers drawn to domestic comedy.
Festival appearances
For tickets, use the host festival’s official box office. Confirm the date, venue and access details before paying.
At Hay on 30 May 2026, Smith talked with artist and filmmaker Sarah Wood in the Exchange Marquee about Glyph, which the festival presented as an anti-war novel. Wood’s work with history and personal memory gave the conversation a connection beyond fiction alone.
Edinburgh brought the Seasonal Quartet together with the New European Ensemble at Greyfriars Kirk on 28 August. The next day, Smith discussed the new novel at Venue T. Across those three events, listeners could choose a book conversation, a meeting between two artists, or writing heard alongside live music.
Where to see them next
No 2027 appearances announced yet. Check the festival guides for programme dates.
Plan your trip
If it is the sound of Smith’s language that you love, leave yourself time after the session to return to a passage you remember. For a performance day, check the venue before booking another ticket: Edinburgh’s church setting and its book-festival spaces are separate destinations. A companion who knows a different part of her work can make the conversation afterwards as enjoyable as the event itself.
You can enjoy hearing Smith without having finished it. Reading a little beforehand may make the shifts in voice easier to follow, but you can also let the conversation introduce you to the fiction and return to it afterwards.
Were all her events conventional author talks?
No. Edinburgh included a performance joining literary work and music. If that is what appeals to you, choose a future ticket for that kind of experience; a conversation about a novel offers a different afternoon.
Where can I buy tickets to hear Ali Smith?
Use the official box office of the festival presenting her. Follow the guide links here to the organiser, then choose the session you want and ask about access support before buying your ticket.
Can I attend if I only know the short stories?
Yes. A favourite short story is a good way into Smith’s attention to voice, time and form. You do not need to finish a quartet to listen to a novelist discussing how a story takes shape.
