THE Canberra Writers Festival is moving into full swing with the announcement that British author AC Grayling and recent Stella Prize winner Charlotte Wood will be here in August for the inaugural event, themed for the ACT as “Power, Politics and Passion.”

To be staged across three precincts in venues including the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, the ANU and the National Portrait Gallery, the festival will also see Isobelle Carmody, Nick Earls, Richard Glover, and locals Steve Lewis and Chris Uhlmann in the line-up.

British philosopher AC Grayling’s latest book is “The Age of Genius” and he is of course a frequent contributor to the Literary Review, The Observer and the Times on Sunday.

Carmody is known to generations of younger readers for her “Obernewtyn Chronicles” and  Wood, has won the Stella Prize, the 2016 Indie Book of the Year and the Indie Fiction Book of the Year in 2016 for “The Natural Way of Things.”

Local political thriller writers Steve Lewis and Chris Uhlmann have seen their books “The Marmalade Files” and “The Mandarin Code”  made into the six-part mini-series “Secret City” set for international release by Foxtel later this year.

Australian author Earls’ novels have won awards in Australia and the UK and Glover‘s autobiography “Flesh Wounds” has been described by one critic as “a new classic.”

Festival director Vickii Cotter says many more artists will be coming to Canberra to share their work across “an action-packed 3 days in August which will include workshops, panel sessions, keynote addresses, and intimate literary lunches and dinners.” The expects the full program to be unveiled in July.

The Inaugural Canberra Writers Festival, “Power, Politics, Passion,” around Canberra, August 26-28. Artists’ submission and all info at canberrawritersfestival.com.au including bookings for early bird tickets, season passes and day tickets or 132 849.