Star line up for Literary Festival

The second Dundee Literary Festival takes place in the New Teaching Block from the 19th to the 22nd June. The festival has doubled in size since the inaugural year and will feature an even wider selection of authors.

Highlights on the first day include Vivienne Westwood, who is widely acknowledged as the most influential designer in the UK. Together with students from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dame Vivienne will be reading her work, Manifesto, before taking questions from the audience.

William Boyd, one of the most critically acclaimed living novelists, will also be making an appearance. His novels and stories have been published around the world and translated into thirty languages. Described as a wry historian of 20th-century life, his ninth book, Restless was an espionage thriller which intertwined the stories of Eva, a Russian émigré and her daughter Ruth.

Kate Muir, Meaghan Delahunt and Richard Reynolds are also on the bill for the opening day as is world famous novelist, Ian Rankin.

Friday highlights include a creative writing class run by award winning author Kirsty Gunn - who is also the Dundee Literary Festival Creative Advisor and a very special reading by literary giant James Kelman, the single most influential Scottish novelist of modern times and Scotland's only Booker winner.

Saturday 21st June will feature fun events for the children in the morning and in the afternoon Aline Templeton, Lin Anderson and Karen Campbell will be talking about their crime novels. In the evening a panel of song writers and literary experts will discuss song lyrics and debate whether or not they should be considered poetry. More names will be announced for Saturday afternoon in the next few weeks.

Sunday, 22nd June kicks off with Ken Cox who has written a new book specifically for gardeners in Scotland, before an afternoon of capers with the Dundee Comic Conference.

"We've got a wonderful line-up this year, with more names still to be confirmed," said Anna Day, Director of the Dundee Literary Festival. "We are going to keep ticket prices as low as possible to make sessions affordable for all and we hope that we attract a really big cross section of the Dundee community.

"We're introducing a new lunchtime event, poem and a piece. For just £4 you can enjoy the wonderful words of a poet together with a sandwich and tea or coffee.

"Additionally, we take literature for children very seriously at the festival - this year we've, together with the Educational Development Service, Leisure and Communities and Dundee Science Centre, developed a programme to encourage literacy in Dundee as well as an understanding of science. We're working with teachers to provide a fun way of getting children into books and science - and helping them stay that way.

Kirsty Gunn, Chair of Creative Writing at the University, who has also founded the Dundee Literary Salons, added, "We really want the festival to be a meeting place for minds and somewhere for debate and creativity to spark."

Tickets will be on sale in the near future, both online and from Borders Books in Dundee. You can also call in at the 5th floor Dundee Literary Festival office or you can reserve tickets by phone - 01382 384768 - and send a cheque to cover the cost. Log on to www.dundeeliteraryfest.org for a full timetable or, if you want to join the mailing list email dundeeliteraryfestival@gmail.com.