Christina Riley - Looking Down at the Stars
WithChristina Riley
In conversation withRoxani Krystalli
On:13th November 2025, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Attendance options:
It's our great pleasure to welcome Christina Riley to the bookshop for the Edinburgh launch of her new essay collection, Looking Down at the Stars. We love Riley's work on The Nature Library, including a regular Substack newsletter, and we're excited to help her celebrate the publication of this eagerly anticipated essay collection. Riley will be in conversation with writer and academic Roxani Krystalli.
This event will take place in the bookshop with an in-person audience, as well as a livestream for attendees watching from home. There will be a signing after the event.
In-person vouchers can be redeemed on the night of the event against a single copy of Looking Down at the Stars – we will have a list of attendees with vouchers to be redeemed. Please note that only one voucher can be redeemed per book. Livestream vouchers are valid until the day after the event and can be redeemed on our website against a single copy of Looking Down at the Stars.
About Looking Down at the Stars:
In 2022, Christina Riley became an ‘underwater artist in residence’ at the Argyll Coast Hope Spot – a place of incredible natural beauty in Scotland and crucial for the health of the world’s oceans. She spent days submerged alongside marine life, before resurfacing to reflect, recreate and recount what she had seen – and the feelings of love, hope and responsibility the experience had evoked in her.
The resulting essays, collected in this stunning volume, swim through the kaleidoscope of marine life she found there, from starfish to seagrass to the water itself. What shines through all of them is a sense of wonder that is also a call to action. Looking Down at the Stars asks: how can we harness our feelings of awe at the natural world in order to take better care of it?
Riley’s lyrical prose is the perfect guide to this unfamiliar underwater world, brimming with surprises, sunlight and sea stars. The book also features some of her own beautiful black and white illustrations.
Please note: Tickets for our events are non-refundable. Professional photography and videography may take place during this event. Thank you for your understanding.
Participants:
Christina Riley Author
Christina Riley was born in Florida and grew up in Ayrshire on Scotland’s west coast, where she now resides. With a focus on coastal waters, her work draws attention to small details — a particular species, object or place — to shift perspectives and encourage new ways of seeing and experiencing our surroundings, natural and otherwise. Longlisted for Canongate’s Nan Shepherd Prize for Nature Writing, her first photobook, The Beach Today, was published by Guillemot Press in 2021. In 2019 she started The Nature Library, a travelling library exploring the role of literature in times of climate crisis, which opened a long-term premises in 2024.
Roxani Krystalli Chair
Roxani Krystalli is a Senior Lecturer at the University of St Andrews. She is currently researching how practices of love and care help people build lives after violence, grief, illness, and ecological loss.
The venue
The Portobello Bookshop
46 Portobello High Street
Edinburgh
EH15 1DA
Telephone: 0131 629 6756
Website: www.theportobellobookshop.com
Wheelchair Access
We have a ramp at the front of the shop which has a ratio of 1:10 and loading capacity of 300kg, and so should be able to be used by most wheelchair users or those with mobility vehicles. The front doors are fully automated. Our shop interior is designed to allow access throughout for wheelchair users and prams, though please note there is only 700mm wide clearance to access the staff toilet.
Sound
We use a PA system to enhance the audio at our live events. We also have a hearing loop system installed, if you’d like to use our loop system during an event please let us know and we’ll make sure we have it set up and connected to the live audio feed during the event. If you wish to attend an event and require BSL interpretation, please give us a few weeks notice and we’ll do our best to arrange an interpreter.