Some of the biggest names in world writing are being lined up to appear at this year's Bradford Literature Festival.

The event, now in its third year, will kick off on April 23 with American author Amy Tan, who wrote the multi-award winning book The Joy Luck Club.

And festival organisers are hoping to capture other star names, including Nick Hornby and Louis De Bernieres - author of the best-selling novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin - to make special guest appearances in the city.

Festival organiser Tom Palmer said: "To get Amy Tan is a major coup for us. She's a world-renowned writer. She's only doing four appearances in the UK and she's chosen us to be one of them.

"We're delighted Amy's the first major international author we have got to come to Bradford and we've moved the festival back a week so she can be part of it.

"This shows that Bradford is really up there as one of the main events on the literary calendar."

Amy's novel tells of the struggle faced by two generations of Chinese-American women and was turned into a critically-acclaimed film. Mr Palmer said: "We're just working on getting the festival events up and running now and it's going to be really big.

"We've got our fingers crossed that we'll be able to get Nick Hornby and Louis De Bernieres to come. If it all comes off it will be massive. Nick Hornby is a hugely popular author with books like Fever Pitch and High Fidelity to his credit. And Captain Corelli's Mandolin is one of the biggest selling books of recent years."

As well as big-name authors, the festival will also feature poetry readings with well-known names such as Bradford's Joolz and Carol Anne Duffy, who was recently among the contenders to become the new poet laureate.

Dates and details of festival events can be looked up on Bradford Library's Reader2Reader website at www.reader2reader.com.