Glasgow's annual book festival plans to expand to one of the city's biggest music venues, its new programmer has revealed.
Bob McDevitt, who was last week unveiled as the new programmer of the Aye Write! book festival, said that if the right "big author" is found for the April festival, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall could be used as a venue instead of the traditional Mitchell Library.
Mr McDevitt, who will programme the festival which will run from April 17 to 25, has more than 20 years' experience in the book world, and has programmed the Pitlochry Winter Words Festival, the Dundee Literary Festival and been involved in publishing at Hachette Scotland.
He said that in January a dozen or so big names will be announced for the annual festival, but he is already exploring themes that may be celebrated or noted in the festival, including politics and the General Election - which is in May - and historical anniversaries.
April will mark 100 years since the Battle of Gallipoli, and 2015 marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, the battle that defeated Napoleon and featured many Scottish soldiers, as well as the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta, one of the key documents in British history.
The festival will bring more than 100 authors and writers to the city, and Mr McDevitt is currently sifting through nearly 200 pitches by publishers for authors to appear at the festival.
Mr McDevitt has already been involved in Aye Write! in a variety of roles, including supporting the festival's steering group, and presenting events as a panel member and chair in events.
He said: "It has been an interesting journey for me coming to this point and I will admit over the years it is a job I have always fancied, it's been my dream job and I am very excited to get going.
"It is a big job and there is a lot of things to do - my job to come up with a really good programme - and it looks like the majority of the festival will be in the Mitchell Library.
"If we can find a very big name to fill the concert hall, we will, but I do like everything being at the Mitchell - there is a festival vibe, in one evening you can go from a crime panel to a TV personality to a literary event, and it is very doable when it is all in one building."
He said he was working on plans for some musical events, as well as some based around Glasgow's official Green year.
"It is a General Election year, and so there will definitely be some discussion on where Scotland is at politically and how that will play out," he said.
"We need to think about how we present crime authors, and we also really need to support debut authors - there is a lot of interesting debuts coming next year."
Aye Write! was founded in 2005 by Karen Cunningham, the council's former head of libraries, and since 2007 it has become a fixture on Glasgow's culture calendar.
The festival is organised and managed by Glasgow Libraries, Glasgow Life, with funding from Glasgow City Council and Creative Scotland.
The separate Wee Write! event, which will continue in 2015, attracted more than 17,000 young people and their parents to over 100 events in 2014.
The full programme of the festival will be announced in early 2015 when tickets will also go on sale.
All Aye Write! events will take place in the Mitchell Library, one of Europe's largest public libraries
Ms Cunningham, founder of the festival, left her role after taking voluntary redundancy earlier this year.
Aye Write! has proved popular with its mix of popular and literary names and special events - last year's festival saw events remembering the late Iain Banks and Nelson Mandela's visit to Glasgow.
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