The Edinburgh International Book Festival has been allocated £55,000 Expo funding by the Scottish Government to present a showcase of Scotland’s leading and emerging fiction writers and poets. The project, part of the Year of Homecoming celebrations, also celebrates the Scottish diaspora and the strong literary links between Scotland and Canada.
Culture Minister Michael Russell said it would introduce Scottish authors to an international audience.
"The project will also support and promote emerging Scottish-based talent and the work of some of the finest unpublished authors from across the creative writing schools of Scotland. In a groundbreaking series of events - all thanks to Expo - Canadian, Scottish and UK agents and publishers will be invited to the showcase for new Scottish writers, actively helping to launch the literary careers of the future," said Russell.
Expo will highlight work by established writers such as Janice Galloway, Alisdair Gray, and satirist Christopher Brookmyre, poets Tom Pow and Alan Spence, and thrillers from media figures Alan Clements and Tom Morton. Emerging talent is featured in the New Scottish Writing showcase (Edinburgh New Writing is on 26 August at 2.30pm) and Ian Rankin, James Robertson and A L Kennedy launch a series Crimespotting, specially commissioned stories set in Edinburgh for poverty charity One City Trust.
Roland Gulliver, Programme Manager at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said:
"The Edinburgh International Book Festival has been very fortunate to welcome some of Canada's finest, internationally renowned authors to the Festival each year and 2009 is no different. The Expo fund this year will enable us to build upon those existing relationships to create long-term links with key organisations in Canada and enable us to achieve one of the key aims of the Festival - to promote the best of Scottish contemporary writing on an international stage."
The Expo Fund is available to all 12 Festivals in Edinburgh to support the development of Scottish-based work. The planned expenditure for the Edinburgh Festival Expo Fund is £6 million over three years (2008-09 to 2011-12). This year just under £2 million in funding has been announced across seven festivals with more to follow through the year.