The creator of the popular time-travel romance drama Outlander has been added to the line up of a new Scottish literary festival.
Diana Gabaldon will take part in the Saltire Society’s first virtual literary festival.
She will join authors Val McDermid, Michael Faber, A. L. Kennedy, Vic Galloway, Juno Dawson and Kirsty Logan for the Saltire Society’s first "virtual literary festival", taking place between the 24 and 26 June.
The festival will also feature a live screening of William McIlvanney: Living With Words, a portrait of the late Scottish author.
The inaugural Scot Lit Fest takes place as part of The Saltire Society‘s 80th anniversary celebrations.
Across the weekend there will be live video streams, Twitter and Facebook chats.
Diana Gabaldon will take part in a Twitter chat on Friday the 24 June at 4pm where she will lead a conversation about how Scotland has influenced her bestselling Outlander series, why she chose Scotland as a setting for the series and what the country means to her.
The discussion can be followed via her Twitter account (@Writer_DG) and will give participants an opportunity to ask their own questions directly to the author.
Val McDermid will join an online discussion about the importance of supporting local libraries, chaired by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and a number of Scotland’s libraries including Stewart Bain, the voice behind the Orkney Library Twitter account.
Other authors taking part in the digital weekend event are Amy Liptrot, author of The Outrun.
She will be joined by Malachy Tallack and Kevin MacNeil for a Twitter discussion about Scotland’s islands and their influence on modern literature.
Sara Sheridan will be taking part in the Collaborative Crime Creation with Louise Welsh, Alex Gray, Neil Broadfoot, Michael J Malone, Mark Leggatt and more.
This will see some of Scotland’s best crime authors creating an original piece of crime fiction on Twitter based on the public’s suggestions. Kicking off on the Sunday at 12pm it promises to be an interesting and unusual event.
Poets Claire Askew and Theresa Munoz will join Saltire Poetry Book of the Year 2015 winner Ryan Van Winkle to discuss their respective work and the experience of being a modern poet.
Mariam Khan will chair a Twitter chat between top Young Adult authors Non Pratt and Kirkland Ciccone.
Meanwhile, on Sunday 26 June, there will be a showcase of emerging new Scottish writing talents, Helen Sedgwick and Mary Paulson-Ellis.
Angus Peter Campbell, Tim Armstrong, Alison Lang and Peter MacKay will all contribute to the dedicated Gaelic strand of the festival, #fèislitalba.
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