Jonathan Franzen (Photo: Greg Martin)

Franzen, who recently appeared on the cover of Time magazine as the ‘Great American Novelist’ and is the first living American author to feature on it for a decade, has received wide praise for his latest book Freedom, published last month. Franzen was born in Chicago and grew up in St Louis. He is the author of The Corrections, winner of the 2001 National Book Award for Fiction, and Strong Motion, while his nonfiction works include The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History. He is also a frequent contributor of essays, stories, and journalism to The New Yorker.

The literary festival will also feature three Man Booker Prize winners and three Whitbread Prize winners. Irish novelist and playwright John Banville will appear next on October 20. He is a winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Booker Prize among other awards. His novels include The Book of Evidence, The Infinities and The Sea. He also publishes under the name of Benjamin Black. His latest book under that name is Elegy for April.

Also giving talks and readings are broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, 2010 Man Booker Prize nominee Rose Tremain, novelist and playwright Michael Frayn and novelist Penelope Lively. This year’s programme also includes explorations of the natural world and the evidence for global warming.

Full details of the literary festival line-up are available at www.uea.ac.uk/litfest

All events begin at 7pm in Lecture Theatre 1 at the University of East Anglia. Season tickets priced £42 (£36 concessions) and individual tickets priced £6 (no concessions) are available from the UEA Box Office on 01603 508050 or www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk/events