Now in its sixth year, The Penzance Literary Festival, which runs from July 8 to 11, has become a celebrated annual event that pulls in national names and local authors.

This year will see the return of artist collective, fastj&m, who will be presenting a range of work in an exhibition, Ex Nihilo, which is taking place from Wednesday, July 8 to Sunday, July 12 in Penzance Gallery.

This year the group will also host a lecture series called fastj&m sessions that is taking place from July 9 to 12 at Penzance Gallery.

The list of speakers and panelists includes author Tariq Goddard, founder of Zer0 Books and Repeater Books.

Dawn Foster, political commentator for Newsnight and Sky news as well a columnist for The Guardian.

Bambo Soyinka, head of the prestigious Creative Writing department at Bath/Spa University.

Jerome Fletcher, associate professor for performance writing at Falmouth University.

Topics will range from forthcoming books to the power of type design, women in the workplace, writing for technophobes and technophiles, building utopias and breaking barriers.

The evening will hold a symposium, Radical Publishing for the New Millennium, hosted by James Kearns, lecturer at Cornwall Collage.

For tickets visit: crbo.co.uk and fastjam.co.uk.