The Edinburgh International Book Festival has been allocated £55,000 Expo funding for a project to showcase the best of Scotland's leading and new writers.
The project also embraces Homecoming and celebrates the Scottish diaspora including the strong literary links between Scotland and Canada.
Culture Minister Michael Russell said:
"The Scottish Government's Edinburgh Festival Expo Fund not only ensures that our Festivals continue to flourish but that we promote more Scottish-based artists on an international platform.
"This year's Book Festival Expo project - Scotland's Writing - will present the vibrant creativity and energy of Scotland's writers and poets alongside the more historic and discursive Homecoming series.
"The project will also support and promote emerging Scottish-based talent and the work of some of the finest unpublished authors from across the creative writing schools of Scotland. In a groundbreaking series of events - all thanks to Expo - Canadian, Scottish and UK agents and publishers will be invited to the showcase for new Scottish writers, actively helping to launch the literary careers of the future.
"I am also pleased to see that the Book Festival is embracing Homecoming. Once again so many talented writers from abroad and especially Canada will showcase their literary talent in Scotland and this Expo funding will help to further forge creative links between the two nations.
"Expo is about celebrating the world-class work being produced here and Scotland's Writing will do just that, helping to ensure that Scottish writing remains at the forefront of publishing in the UK and across the globe."
Roland Gulliver, Programme Manager at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said:
"The Edinburgh International Book Festival has been very fortunate to welcome some of Canada's finest, internationally renowned authors to the Festival each year and 2009 is no different. The Expo fund this year will enable us to build upon those existing relationships to create long-term links with key organisations in Canada and enable us to achieve one of the key aims of the Festival - to promote the best of Scottish contemporary writing on an international stage."
The £55,683 Expo funding allocated to the Edinburgh International Book Festival will be used by the Festival to deliver Scotland's Writing: a showcase highlighting and celebrating the best of Scotland's leading and emerging fiction writers and poets, as well as celebrating the Scottish diaspora and the strong literary links between Scotland and Canada.
The Expo Fund is available to all 12 Festivals in Edinburgh to support the development of Scottish-based work. The planned expenditure for the Edinburgh Festival Expo Fund is £6 million over three years (2008-09 to 2011-12). This year we have announced just under £2 million across seven festivals with more to follow through the year.
The Edinburgh International Book Festival launches its programme for 2009 today.