Bestselling Life of Pi author Yann Martel will headline the new Canberra Writers Festival.
Martel is the biggest name to be announced at the fledgling festival which runs in late August.
His Man Booker Prize winning novel The Life of Pi - alternately a fable or a journey involving a young boy stranded on a lifeboat with a wild tiger - was a worldwide bestseller and was adapted into an Oscar winning film by Ang Lee.
Martel will be joined by Eimear McBride, the Irish author whose debut novel A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing won awards and widespread praise.
The festival announced its lineup of authors ahead of ticket releases.
The theme is Power, Politics and Passion and the authors joining the festival are a familiar roll call of Canberra political and journalism figures - Karen Middleton, George Megalogenis, Leigh Sales, Annabel Crabb, Sarah Ferguson, Bob Brown and Anne Summers.
Local authors Omar Musa, Marion Halligan, Lizz Murphy, Nigel Featherstone and Karen Viggers are also on the list.
Wellness author Sarah Wilson, of I Quit Sugar fame, novelist Charlotte Wood and intellectual AC Grayling are also among the stars.
The writers festival runs from August 26-28.
