The Folio Prize announces The Folio Prize Fiction Festival.

In anticipation of the announcement of the first winner of The Folio Prize – a major new award for international fiction sponsored by The Folio Society – the British Library will host a new two-day fiction festival featuring some of the world's finest writers and critics, all drawn from The Folio Prize Academy.

Announcing the new initiative, Andrew Kidd, Founder of The Folio Prize, said: "The Folio Prize is the first major award to highlight the very best fiction published in the UK in a given year, regardless of a writer's country of origin or of the genre a writer chooses to work within. What better way to amplify the aims of the prize and our sponsor, The Folio Society, than to launch a major international fiction festival featuring the writers on our shortlist, our eminent panel of judges and members of The Folio Prize Academy.

"At this stage we can announce that our judges, Lavinia Greenlaw (Chair), Michael Chabon, Sarah Hall, Pankaj Mishra and Nam Le, will appear alongside Prize Academy members A.S. Byatt, Sebastian Faulks and Ali Smith and others yet to be confirmed. The Folio Prize shortlist will be announced on 4th February at the British Library, and the final festival programme revealed".

Toby Hartwell, MD, The Folio Society, Sponsor of The Folio Prize said: "As sponsor of The Folio Prize, we are delighted to present The Folio Prize Fiction Festival in partnership with the British Library, with whom we have a long-standing relationship and where we sponsor The Folio Society Gallery. As publishers of beautiful books we have a long tradition of producing the highest quality editions of great works of fiction from the world's leading writers. Now with the Fiction Festival we can celebrate our first Folio Prize shortlist of authors alongside their peers from the Academy. We also welcome wholeheartedly their many fans and readers to join us in celebrating their work, ahead of the announcement of the inaugural winner on 10th March".

Roger Walshe, Head of Public Engagement, the British Library said: "The Festival weekend at the British Library will be a unique and wonderful opportunity for readers and fans to come face to face with some of the leading voices in world literature. The calibre of the participants, and the critical and public reception of their recent works, shows just what an exciting time this is for fiction across a range of genres.

"The British Library has a long tradition of literary events and exhibitions, and the Folio Prize Festival is set to become a major occasion in next year's calendar".