Glasgow's annual literary festival, Aye Write!, will today launch its third programme, featuring a constellation of stars who will appear at the annual event in March.

Glasgow's annual literary festival, Aye Write!, will today launch its third programme, featuring a constellation of stars who will appear at the annual event in March.

Hanif Kureishi, Louis de Bernieres, Tony Parsons, Joanne Harris and Blake Morrison are some of the names coming to the festival, which will also feature appearances from Gerry Anderson, creator of Thunderbirds, and, providing a touch of Hollywood glitter, actress Kathleen Turner.

Turner, star of Body Heat, War of the Roses and Romancing the Stone, will be appearing on March 10 at the Mitchell Library to talk about her autobiography, Send Yourself Roses, as well as her battle against rheumatoid arthritis.

Tomorrow The Herald, the media partner of the Aye Write! Bank of Scotland festival, will be publishing a voucher in its Saturday Magazine which will allow readers to claim a free copy of From Saturn to Glasgow, the new compilation of 50 of Edwin Morgan's most treasured poems.

The collection is to be this year's City Read, the book at the centre of the festival's aims to encourage a love and enthusiasm for reading. Last year, Small Island by Andrea Levy was distributed as the City Read, and like it, From Saturn to Glasgow will be at the centre of a series of events, reading and workshops and used for educational purposes, before and during the festival.

The book will be at the heart of a campaign to encourage people to read poetry at any hour of the day, with copies given to people wherever they are - in a taxi or cinema queue, in a 24-hour supermarket, at work or at school.

A non-stop 24-hour read of Morgan's poetry will start on Friday, January 25, encouraging people to take time to read out loud at least one of the poems by the nation's Makar.

The central focus of the day will be the Gallery of Modern Art in Royal Exchange Square, where readings of Morgan's poetry will be taking place from noon on January 25 to noon the next day.

At the festival itself, there will be a special celebration of Morgan, now 87, at the Mitchell Library, with contributions from names such as Iain Banks, Dr Richard Holloway, Liz Lochhead, Ali Smith and Roddy Woomble.

Readers of The Herald can take the coupon to any one of Glasgow's libraries to receive a copy of the book, which has an exclusive new portrait of Morgan, Scotland's Makar, by his literary peer, Alasdair Gray.

The festival runs from March 7 to 15.

Karen Cunningham, the festival director, said: "We're enormously pleased with the 2008 programme. Aye Write! celebrates all forms of writing from work in the many communities of Glasgow to the great stars of fact and fiction.

"Glasgow writers are publishing excellent material and we're pleased to have sessions looking at the work that we'll all be reading soon from authors like Louise Welsh, Laura Marney, Zoe Strachan and Janice Galloway."

Crime writing is again a strong part of the programme with appearances from Christopher Brookmyre, Val McDermid, Denise Mina and Sophie Hannah.

Ms Cunningham added: "I'm especially looking forward to our tribute to Edwin Morgan. Not only will thousands of people in Glasgow be reading his poetry in our City Read, but the cream of writers from the city, Scotland and Britain will be reading from his work at our special evening."

The Bank of Scotland is sponsoring the festival, and will be specifically supporting Books to Go, an incentive scheme for children and young people who take out books at the city's libraries.

Sarah Cran, head of sponsorship at HBOS, said: "We hope to encourage more young people to read and use their local libraries."

Last year, the festival attracted an audience of over 25,000 and we're looking forward to welcoming an even bigger audience."