The fourth Ullapool Book Festival - Friday 16th until Sunday 18th May 2008 - has announced its line-up.

There is a very strong list of fiction writers led by the Canadian author Alistair MacLeod. James Robertson, Alan Spence, Zoe Strachan and Luke Sutherland – all major writers - will also be reading from and talking about their novels.

This year’s lecture will be by Louise Welsh and her subject will be Robert Louis Stevenson and the Theatre of the Brain. The title is based on Stevenson’s essay A Chapter on Dreams and Louise will discuss the effect dreaming had on his creativity.

As in previous years poetry features prominently and this years poets are the established George Gunn and Richard Price with newcomer Sam Meekings. Ullapool Book Festival’s commitment to Gaelic continues with poetry by two of Gaeldom’s finest writers, Rody Gorman and Anne Frater.

The Gaelic thread continues with the Breakfast Stories session when Essie Stewart will be relating her traditional stories in both English and Gaelic. Born into a Sutherland travelling family, Essie is the grand daughter of one of the greatest Gaelic storytellers of them all- Allidh Dall Stewart, who died in 1968.

Highland folklore will also be a theme when ethnologist and author Margaret Bennett reads from and talks about her book Scottish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave.

The full programme is available on the festival website www.ullapoolbookfestival.co.uk. Or you can send for it from Ullapool Book Festival, PO Box 27, Ullapool IV26 2WY.

Ullapool Book Festival has received funding from the Scottish Arts Council, Highland Council, Bord na Gaidhlig and the Tom Wright Trust. The Book Festival has also received sponsorship from the four north-west independent bookshops and from publishers and local newspapers.