Kilwinning author and London Review of Books editor, Andrew O’Hagan will be performing at Virtual Crossways 2021 this month.

The festival, which celebrates Irish and Scottish culture and literature, has moved online and will be held from February 12-14.

It will bring together some of Ireland’s and Scotland’s most-acclaimed poets and writers in front of the festival’s largest-ever potential audience.

Organised by literary journal Irish Pages, it will feature some of best and most-respected literary talents in these islands.

There will be a particular focus on Irish-language and Scottish Gaelic writing.

Virtual Crossways 2021, moved online as a result of the pandemic. It will feature Paula Meehan, Anna Frater, Meg Bateman, Chris Agee, Andrew O’Hagan, Aonghas MacNeacail and Kathleen Jamie, whose poem, “Here lies our land”, is inscribed on the national monument at Bannockburn.

There will be 15 readings (pairing two writers, one from Scotland and one from Ireland) and three musical events streamed over the weekend. Andrew O’Hagan, who grew up in Kilwinning, will be paired with Dublin-based poet Jessica Traynor on the Saturday.

Chris Agee, Irish Pages editor said: “The particular aim of Virtual Crossways 2021 continues to be to foster and expand the rather weak literary links across the North Channel.

“It will again bring together notable Irish writers – from both North and South – together with their Scottish peers, in a well-planned and well-balanced festival underscoring the longstanding contribution of Irish people, history, language, culture and writing to both Glasgow and the Scottish nation.

“In the view of Irish Pages, such a forum for Irish-Scottish cultural and literary interaction, dialogue and debate of real distinction and diversity, is long overdue.”