CROSS Hills Library is set to play host to an author later this year as part of an annual campaign aimed at connecting writers with communities.

Read Regional aims to celebrate new books written by authors from the North of the country and will be run in partnership by New Writing North, North Yorkshire County Council and 22 other library authorities across the region.

Founded in 2008, it has previously promoted authors including Melvin Burgess, Ann Cleeves, Kim Moore and Mari Hannah.

This year's campaign will encourage readers to take a risk with their reading habits, by picking up a book by a new writer, or by reading an unfamiliar genre.

Ten of this year’s selected titles are debuts, and the wide variety of literary fiction, crime fiction, memoir, creative non-fiction, poetry and writing for children, offers readers the chance to try something different.

It will include 80 author events across the North between March and June, including workshops, book group discussions and readings.

Libraries across Craven will create special displays of the books, while readers will also be able to download a reading guide for each title and follow the authors as they write about their experiences on the New Writing North blog.

Following the spring campaign, the Read Regional titles will remain in stock in libraries, adding to the wealth of new northern literature readers can borrow from local libraries.

On Thursday, June 8, at 7pm, author A A Dhand - writer of Streets of Darkness - will visit Cross Hills Library.

For more information and to buy tickets for the event at Cross Hills, contact the library on 01609 534502