It was in September 2017 that the seed for CYMERA: Scotland’s Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Writing was sown.

Festival enthusiast Ann Landmann and Noel Chidwick, mastermind behind award-winning sci-fi magazine Shoreline of Infinity, were having a cup of tea and lamenting the lack of genre authors in book festival programmes. ‘So why not set up our own book festival?’ they asked each other.

Thus the idea for creating a festival for science fiction, fantasy and horror writing was born. It just happened that Ann needed a topic for her dissertation for her MA Arts, Festival and Cultural Management (as her lecturer said: ‘Make sure you do it on something useful!’). Armed with this excellent excuse to talk to people about the idea, Ann went out into the world to meet authors, publishers, agents, festival programmers, readers and convention/book festival attendees, collecting ideas and feedback. The end product was a 100-page business plan, and the conviction that this…

… is the best news I've heard all day.

Audience Survey response

CYMERA: Scotland’s Festival of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Writing ran its first festival weekend in 2019, and we’ve only grown since then—CYMERA now has charity status, a board of trustees and a fantastic team of volunteers helping to make the festival happen. We even have an annual CYMERA Writers’ Conference now, which kicked off in 2023!

Cymera Festival (SC048809 )

Registered Office: 35 Woolmet Crescent, Danderhall, Midlothian, EH22 1NL