Jenny Niven joined the Edinburgh International Book Festival in September 2023. Prior to this, she was founder and Director of the award-winning Push the Boat Out, a festival of poetry, spoken word and language; Executive Producer of Dandelion, an epic programme of sowing, growing and sharing across Scotland, and Chair of Literature Alliance Scotland, the national membership organisation for books and publishing.
In previous roles, she has led the literature and publishing team as Head of Literature at Creative Scotland (the national funding and development body for the arts, screen and creative industries), executive produced the Edinburgh International Culture Summit, led on the creation of the Muriel Spark 100 centenary celebrations, was Head of Programme/Associate Director at the Wheeler Centre for Books Writing & Ideas, Melbourne, and co-founded Beijing’s first book festival.
Jenny is responsible for the overall vision and direction of the organisation and our programme, and maintaining our position as a world-leading Book Festival. She leads on advocacy and high-level relationship building with authors, publishers, sponsors, funder and donors.
