POETS, authors and writers will be making it a weekend of words at the second annual Malton Literature Festival in October.

The town will come to life with literary events during the three-day festival celebrating prose and poetry.

Ryedale writer and national bestseller Mike Pannett will be opening the festival on Friday, October 21.

His first book Now Than Lad... , published in 2008, was serialised in the Daily Mail and broke the newspaper’s book club record, outselling any other book they had serialised.

During the festival Mike will be reading from his latest book, Just the Job, Lad.

Poet Luke Wright will be performing his sell-out show from the Edinburgh Fringe, providing inspiration for budding performance poets to compete in Ryedale’s first slam poetry competition, hosted by award-winning poet and writer Andy Humphrey.

Author and teacher Andy Seed, who lives in Amotherby, will read from his first volume of his entertaining memoirs All Teachers Great and Small, published last month by Headline. Andy will also be conducting a performance and poetry workshop for 7-11 year olds.

Following his appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival, poet and author André Mangeot will present an evening of poetry and prose, reading from his best-selling poetry collection Mixer and his short story anthologies.

Adrian Plass, the well-known writer and speaker who has published more than 30 books in the last 20 years, including his best-selling The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, a gentle satire on the modern church, is another of the featured authors attending the festival.

The Malton Literature Festival is being organised by the We Love Malton Events group and the private publishing company, Vivalogue Ltd with sponsorship from the Malton Amenity Community Interest Company, Ryedale District Council and the Arts Council.

Festival co-ordinator Kilmeny Jane Denny said she had been involved as an exhibitor last year.

“I thought it was a wonderful idea and really applauded the people who were involved and was delighted to come on board and help organise this year’s event,” she said.

“I am really excited about it and working with the We Love Malton Events group to put on the festival.

“We are hoping the festival will be as successful as last year and become a major event for Ryedale.”

The festival, which runs from October 21-23, will be headquartered in The Milton Rooms, which will be the site of a major book fair where regional publishers and self-published authors will be able to sell and promote their books direct to the public.

There will also be exhibitions by self-publishing companies and panel presentations on writing, self-publishing and publishing.

A short story and poetry writing competition, open nationally to adults and young writers will also take place with cash prizes for the winners. All winning entries and highly-commended entries will be published in a book celebrating the festival.

Ryedale councillor and author Paul Andrews said he was keen to help promote the event.

“There is no literacy festival in York this year so we hope people who would otherwise had attended that will come along and support us here,” he added.