NEXT SALON: February’s Guilty Pleasures

Tuesday the 24^th of February, 2026, 6.30pm, Live and on Zoom 

We like to share ideas at each Literary Salon, so in Valentine’s month why not tell us some of your writerly – possibly saucy – secrets…

This month’s Salon is an open mic with a difference. We invite attendees to tell us about the habits as readers and writers, and maybe to give one another ideas about what really makes them tick. We will pass the microphone around and offer anybody a three-minute slot to speak about their recommendations, why they love certain books, or where they read – in bed, on the bus, in the library, on the loo! – and why they do.

What refuels your creative well, or cures your writer’s block?

People can include shows they watch, or games they play, or how long they spend doomscrolling (ie, researching) social media. Tell us whatever ties into your literary habits; what music you listen to while writing, what crap TV you turn on after a writing session. Do you write when sober and edit when drunk, or vice versa, or neither. We invite people to engage in the spirit of fun, without judgement.

Once again, The Outhouse are hosting us, and we will be in the upstairs Function Room. If you can’t join in person, this will be a hybrid Salon. People can join in over Zoom, through the chat function; one of our team will read out these contributions.

The Function Room will open at 6.30, we will open the zoom at 6.45 and will begin the ‘entertainment’ at 7pm. This should last around 40 minutes; we’ll have Notes of Interest if anyone has information, and will continue to mingle and chat thereafter.

How it works... 

6.30pm:        Reception at the Outhouse

6.45:             Open the Zoom meeting

7.pm:            Introduce the Discussion

7.35              Notes of Interest

7.40              Mingling, and further guilty conversations!

Tickets are available from Eventbrite – please state which ticket type you require. We will send a zoom invitation to all attendees anyway.

All Salon Events are free. We invite a small donation (£3) for running costs, or encourage people to buy us a coffee to help fund our work, or buy our books. We look forward to seeing you in person or in the zoom-room!

Accessibility Notice

Edinburgh Literary Salon is open to all those with an interest in all aspects of Literature, whether professional or personal, and to all parts of the industry: writers, publishers, booksellers etc. All are welcome, and events have free registration. While we aim to hold some events at accessible venues, our regular salon is in an upstairs room at The Outhouse. For this reason, we aim to livestream most events. If there is a problem accessing zoom, we will do what we can to assist. We strive to ensure adequate audibility, and straightforward registration. We invite positive feedback on how we can improve, even within our limitations as a non-funded organisation. We welcome open conversation.