Kent Haruf's novels Plainsong, Eventide and Benediction are set in the fictional Holt County, Colorado, based loosely on the area where Kent grew up. Though he says the landscape hasn't shaped his literary style, you can see Kent's fictional world in every one of these pictures.

All images (c) Max Liu

Set in Hampstead in the sweltering heat of the summer of 1989, Meeting the English follows Struan Roberts, a Scot newly arrived in London and bound for the house of Phillip Prys, a literary giant who has suffered a massive stroke and who now needs constant care. To Struan, the leafy streets of Hampstead and the excruciating heat of London are entirely foreign, as are the strange and careless people who live there. It is to be a life-changing summer . . .

Sunjeev Sahota's first novel, Ours Are the Streets, was published by Picador in 2011. He is currently working on his second novel about a group of illegal immigrants living in Sheffield. 'I think – I hope – I’m around halfway through a first draft,' he says.

Here's his life in books.

Robin Robertson will be reading from his selected works alongside Frank McGuinness