Sarpong, Porter and du Beke among Bookshop Day authors

June Sarpong, Sophie Mackintosh, Anton du Beke and Max Porter are some of the authors preparing to take part in this year's Bookshop Day on Saturday 6th October, according to The Booksellers Association (BA), whose "unmissable" line-up also has children running bookshops, alongside poetry karaoke, book surgeries, writing workshops, book clubs and quizzes.

The nationwide celebration of bookshops, now in its third year and part of the annual Books Are My Bag campaign, takes place two days after Super Thursday (4th October) when 544 new hardbacks will be hitting shelves.

Among the key Bookshop Day highlights, while bookshops across the UK will be welcoming authors, poets, illustrators and book lovers into their stores, this year's Flagship Bookshop Day Event brings together Sarpong (pictured), author of The Power of Women and Diversify (HQ), with fellow feminist writers Charly Cox and Emma Glass, to discuss women’s writing and what is means to be a woman in 2018 on a special panel at Waterstones Gower Street (2pm, 6th October; £6).

The Wellcome Shop at the Wellcome Collection will be marking its first ever partnership with Books Are My Bag by hosting a "book surgery" on Bookshop Day. From 11am until 5pm, "book doctors" will prescribe each guest their perfect next read. The Wellcome Book Prize, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, will also have special edition BAMB bags to give away.

Burley Fisher Books in Haggerston, London, is hosting a Saturday Salon featuring readings from Sophie Mackintosh, Elaine Castillo and Emma Glass of their respective novels The Water Cure, a debut longlisted for the Man Booker, America is not the Heart and Peach (6-8:30pm; £5); Mr’s B’s Emporium in Bath has invited Max Porter to go behind the till for the morning to sell his favourite books; Five Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham is hosting the launch of the All-Night Bookshop by David Belbin, with a reading from the author (8:30-9:45pm); and Bookish in Crickhowell is running the Crickhowell Literary Festival, with author events featuring Amanda Jennings and Laura Kemp in conversation (5pm, £7), M R Hall, Joanna Cannon, Roy Noble, Stuart Turton and Sophie Hannah.

Meanwhile, two days prior on what is both National Poetry Day and Super Thursday, Foyles Charing Cross Road is hosting "The People vs Poetry", an event where four poets (Craig Raine, Sandeep Parmar, Richard Scott and Victoria Adukwei Bulley) will be subjected to "Newsnight-style grilling" from adjudicators Will Harris and Richard Osmand to explore poetry’s role and relevance in 2018 (8.30pm, 4th October; from £5). And Pickled Pepper Books in Crouch End will welcome illustrator Chris Wormell - illustrator of Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust - to celebrate his new book, Planetarium, with an educational afternoon and planetary drawing session for children (3pm, 4th October; £5), before it lets local children "run the shop" on Bookshop Day (6th October). Other bookshops letting children run their shops on Bookshop Day include Moon Lane Books in London, Chicken & Frog in Essex, The Book Case in Hebden Bridge, Children’s Bookshop Huddersfield and The Edinburgh Bookshop. The day after Bookshop Day, Rossiter Books in Monmouth is teaming up with the local Savoy Theatre to host Strictly Come Dancing's Anton du Beke who will be signing his debut novel One Enchanted Evening (7th October, 1pm; £20).

More information, including the full line-up of planned events, can be found at www.booksaremybag.com