Seven writers to take part in the UEA’s Spring Literary Festival

Julia Blackburn (Image: Archant)

Seven writers are set to take part in the event from February 25 until April 29.

Festival director Henry Sutton said: 'We are delighted to present seven exceptional writers, highlighting particularly exciting and engaging literary voices and developments. This spring's literary festival is about life lived and life mourned, it's about nature at its most vital. These writers tell tales worth telling, whether fictional or fact based.'

He added: 'There will be laughter, some tears, insight and brilliant entertainment. We hope you enjoy these events as much as we've enjoyed programming them.'

The authors taking part in the festival include Helen Macdonald (February 25), who won the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for her book H is for Hawk, and Rachel Cusk (March 4), who has written eight novels and three non-fiction books and won a number of awards.

Author Robert Macfarlane. Picture: Angus Muir. (Image: Archant)

Other authors include: Robert Macfarlane (March 11), who has been credited with establishing a new wave of British nature and has had his book The Wild Places adapted by the BBC; Ali Smith (March 18) whose most recent novel How To Be Both was shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize among other awards; Labour MP and former home secretary Alan Johnson (April 15), whose childhood memoir This Boy won the Ondaatje and Orwell Prizes; David Nicholls (April 22), whose international bestseller One Day was turned into a movie starring Anne Hathaway; and Julia Blackburn (April 29), who has written seven non-fiction books and had two novels shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

For more details visit www.uea.ac.uk/litfest

Do you have a Norwich arts story? Email arts correspondent Emma Knights at emma.knights@archant.co.uk