Val McDermid When I was first invited to appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival back in the mists of history, I felt I’d been anointed by the book gods. I still experience that sense of delight and the, “Who me? A swan? Ah, go on…” moment when the invitation arrives. Yes, really!

I have so many wonderful memories, mostly centred on the authors’ yurt, where I’ve found myself in conversation with all sorts of heroes, desperately aiming for nonchalant… And the Spiegeltent is where my band, the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, played our first gig back in 2017.

But the highlight I’ll never forget was when I was invited to curate a strand of programming we called Home/Less. Over three sessions, I chaired panels that covered immigrants, New Scots, homelessness and refugees. Among others, performance poet Joelle Taylor brought tears to people’s eyes; Danny Dorling’s analysis of how the 1 per cent is destroying social cohesion generated gasps of horror; Karine Polwart reminded us of the power of popular song; Leila Aboulela spoke of being a stranger in a strange land. Three hours of intelligent, moving commentary that reminded me of what books can do, and what this festival in particular has the courage to tackle.

Michael Pedersen I’ve had the gooey good-fortune of appearing ubiquitously at EIBF from 2012 through 2022 (now back in 2023) – reading, chairing, guest curating, feasting (all hail feeding time in the author’s yurt), fawning, and the quirky realms beyond. I’ve shared stages with likes of Shirley Manson, Ocean Vuong, Charlotte Church, Irvine Welsh, Hollie McNish and heaps more. I’ve marvelled over Billy Collins, Alice Oswald, Martha Wainwright, Jackie Kay, Ada Limón, Haruki Murakami, Kae Tempest and uncountable other literary sages. EIBF charts my writing career – nay, my adulthood – so plucking out a single moment shouldn’t be so easy, but it is. I’m thinking here in terms of my ability to relive the experience.

That moment being Scott Hutchison throwing me a wily sideways glance during his last song at our EIBF Oyster launch in 2017 [Oyster was a book of poems by Pedersen, illustrated by Hutchison]. A glance that came with a gorgeous grin and said, at once, both: “this is going pretty swell, right?” and “where are we heading to cheers and celebrate when it’s all over?” The year after, in the Spiegeltent Tent, we toasted his absence with oyster shells click-clacking, marbling eyes and flushed cheeks. I toast to him, that moment, still.

Jackie Kay I remember one of the first times I read at EIBF – it might have actually been the first time. I was on with Sarah Walker, who had just published Tipping the Velvet, and my book Trumpet had just come out. It was a rainy Thursday night and there were 12 people in the tent, including my dear old dad. “Ah well, 12 people is no bad for a rainy night in Edinburgh,” my dad said. A few years later, I remember being chosen by Catherine Lockerbie to do the opening reading just after an amazing South African choir. I wrote a poem specially for it called Dear Charlotte Square, which Catherine told me she kept on her desk for years.

Another special time for me was the Amnesty event that I did with my son, the film director Matt Kay, who was talking about his film Over the Wall and I was reading poems that fitted the film’s themes. He had always said, “Mum, I don’t know why you get nervous every year for Edinburgh when it always goes well.” But suddenly walking down the boardwalk into the buzz of the big tent, he understood. He went down well that year. I didn’t get asked a single question!

Michael Pedersen will be among the poets appearing at Edinburgh's Push The Boat Out Festival when it returns in November. Picture: Hollie McNish

Every year EIBF is the highlight of my year. Bumping into people in the yurt. Going to hear Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in conversation with Nicola Sturgeon, hearing the Fun-Loving Crime Writers late at night in the Spiegeltent. It is all magic. One year runs into another. Impossible to separate. It is one big Scottish welcome to writers from all over the world.

Jenni Fagan It a amazing to be an EIBF Outrider in 2017 – one of five writers invited to travel across the Americas and then return to Edinburgh to share our experiences. This is one of many memories just as special and important to me.

I was standing on a large painted star, in a red barn house. A swing gently swayed outside, hung from a tree with two long ropes like it had been there since the 60s. The skies were clear and blue. Green fields aglow in the last weeks of summer. Ken Babbs had made me blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and we were both laughing, standing in his friend and writing companion, Ken Kesey's home. These men had an extraordinary friendship. Their history with the Beats, their travels on the infamous Merry Pranksters bus in the 60s (I have photos of me with both the old one and the new one) The Acid Test (Ken gave me a copy when I left), a bathroom door sign read: Intrepid Trips. I’d discovered One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Ken Kesey so many years before. So much of my literary heritage comes from all over the world. Each of those writers meant something to me that helped me to one day also be travelling across the US, writing an epic single poem called Truth.

The 2023 Edinburgh International Book Festival runs from 12-28 August, see www.edbookfest.co.uk

To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the festival is asking audience members and friends from all over the world to share their favourite "Bookfest Moments”, which will then be shared on the On the Road blog: https://ontheroad.edbookfest.co.uk/bookfest-at-40/

The festival has also launched a new fundraising campaign, Four for 40. To find out more, visit https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/fourfor40

Edinburgh International Book Festival: Leading writers share their most memorable moments from the last 40 years