Murray and Kay on Scot Lit Fest virtual line-up

Judy Murray, Scottish tennis coach and mother to tennis stars Jamie and Andy Murray, will be joining the Saltire Society’s virtual book festival Scot Lit Fest in the weekend after this year's Wimbledon tournament (July 21st-23rd) to discuss her new book Knowing The Score (Chatto & Windus), about how she coached her sons to victory. The festival line-up will also see Scotland’s Makar Jackie Kay in conversation with up-and-coming poet Nadine Aisha Jassat.

Scot Lit Fest is a virtual book festival launched by the Saltire Society last year as part of the Society’s 80th anniversary. Hosting events and producing content across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, podcasts and Youtube videos, the inaugural festival reached "millions" in "countries all over the world".

Joining this year's festival will be Estelle Maskame, YA author of the originally self-published Did I Mention I Love You? trilogy (Black & White) who will be discussing her soon-to-be-published standalone novel Dare to Fall (Black & White). Kate Milner and Pooja Puri will also be discussing their respective books My Name Is Not Refugee (Barrington Stoke) and The Jungle (Black & White Publishing) which tackle the topic of displacement for young people.

Kathleen Jamie, winner of 2016's Saltire Society Poetry Book of the Year, will partake in a live event at the Saltire Society offices which will be recorded and broadcast on the weekend itself. Jenni Fagan will be talking about the work and legacy of the late Jessie Kesson as three of her books are repackaged and re-released to new audiences this year. There will also be a Scottish Independent Comic Book Alliance Awards showcase, spotlighting the successes of this year’s awards, announced following Glasgow Comic Con 2017.

Scottish Gaelic strand #FèisLitAlba returns to discuss Gaelic writing old and new. Stornoway-based Gaelic publisher Acair reach their 40th year in 2017 and will be in conversation with Catriona Lexy Campbell to celebrate their achievements for Gaelic literature. We are also joined by writers Calum MacLeod and Marcas Mac an Tuairneir in conversation with Emily McEwan to explore increasingly important LGBT voices in Gaelic writing.

Following the success of last year’s Collaborative Crime Creation, in which 16 crime writers took turns to write an original story live on Twitter, the collaboration returns with Neil Broadfoot, Gordon Brown, Douglas Skelton and Mark Leggatt losing the character limit for an afternoon of crime writing on Facebook.

The festival will be taking a leap into the spoken word scene with Scot Lit Fest live, an in-person party on the Saturday evening, featuring former BBC Poet-in-Residence Rachel McCrum, Annie George, winner of the Inspiring Scotland Bursary for a BAME writer (made in partnership with the Scottish Book Trust), and more, hosted by Flint & Pitch’s own Jenny Lindsay.

Other authors joining the Scot Lit Fest bill include the Saltire Society First Book Award winners Chitra Ramaswamy and Helen McClory, Michael Pedersen, Ever Dundas, John Young, Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit and more. The full line-up can be found at the festival's website.