Acclaimed travel writer Philip Marsden and novelist and memoirist Nina Stibbe will be joined on the bill by festival regular Patrick Gale, author of the hugely successful Notes from an Exhibition.
The four-day festival, will run from July 8 to 11, is now in its sixth year, having grown to become a major event in the West Country literary calendar.
Producer Joy Salisbury said: “Here in Cornwall we have a wonderful situation. The local literary culture is so strong, and there are so many major |writers based in the county that it’s very easy to put together a festival with a world-class |line-up that still feels like a thoroughly local affair.”
Philip Marsden, who lives on the River Fal, will appear on the first day of the festival to talk about his critically acclaimed book Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place. 
Marsden first found fame in the 1990s with travel books about such far-flung places as Armenia and Ethiopia, but this most recent title sees him exploring the landscapes and histories of Cornwall itself.
Nina Stibbe, meanwhile, is a Truro-based author whose recently published novel, Man at the Helm, has gained rave reviews.
One local writer who is very well-known beyond the county is festival patron Patrick Gale, whose bestselling novels Notes from an Exhibition and A Perfectly Good Man have been set in West Cornwall. This year he’ll be talking about his forthcoming book, A Place Called Winter – which for once eschews Gale’s Cornish homeland, and is set on the Canadian prairies. 
The theme for the 2015 Penzance Literary Festival is Sparks. With three major writers already confirmed, and with the organisers currently working out slots for dozens of other authors, poets and |performers, literary sparks are certain to fly in Penzance come July.
For more information see www.penzance-literary-festival.org.uk