A new prize for Scottish fiction is to be premiered at Glasgow's annual literary festival, Aye Write!, which officially launched its programme yesterday.

The Clare Maclean Prize for Scottish Fiction is dedicated to the memory of the late partner of Professor Mike Gonzalez, the professor of Latin American Studies at the University of Glasgow, and will offer a Scottish writer a winning cheque of £3000.

The annual award will henceforth be given to the Scottish or Scottish-based writer who has written the best book of the year and the prize-giving will become a fixture at the annual literary festival.

For this year's inaugural prize, the winner will be chosen from a shortlist of six books; Old Men in Love by Alasdair Gray, Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith, Gold by Dan Rhodes, The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks, The Devil's Footprints by John Burnside, and Day by AL Kennedy.

On March 15, at the culmination of the festival, for which The Herald is the media partner, the awards will be introduced by Roddy Woomble, from the rock band Idlewild, and the winner will be announced.

At the launch of the third Aye Write! programme at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow yesterday, Professor Gonzalez said that Ms Maclean had been a passionate and voracious reader of books.

"I wanted to do something in memory of Clare, who passed away in February last year, and she was always such a great reader. She always kept me up to date with all the new books that were coming out, and she did that with all her friends too," he said.

"We thought that there may be a bit of a battle finding six books for the shortlist, but in fact this collection just leapt to the fore."

The judges of the prize are Professor Gonzalez, Rob Maslen, a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow, and Rosemary Goring, the literary editor of The Herald.

There is also a literary prize for younger writers. The Sceptre Prize will be awarded to a student at the Edwin Morgan Centre for Creative Writing at Glasgow University, who will win £1500 and be considered for publication by the Sceptre company.

Yesterday the full programme - which is printed today in The Herald Magazine - for the Aye Write! Bank of Scotland Book Festival was officially launched. The main festival takes place between March 7 and 15. Among those taking part this year are Hanif Kureishi, Louis de Bernieres, Tony Parsons, Joanne Harris, Blake Morrison and Hollywood star Kathleen Turner.

However, the Big City Read will be run as a precursor to the festival, with 15,000 free copies of a book of poems by Edwin Morgan, called From Saturn to Glasgow, being given away - see page 24 of today's Herald Magazine for details.

The organisers of the festival said that the previous two Aye Write! festivals have succeeded in their aim in encouraging literacy in the city, leading to an increase in library use and encouraging a love of books, reading and writing.

Karen Cunningham, the director of the event, said that its extensive schools programme was a vital part of the festival - more than 10,000 children took part in 2007 - and this year she expects more.

"Schools are a main priority for us, we know we have great problems with literacy in Glasgow, so part of the programme's aims is to make the children excited about reading, and not make it something that just has to be done as part of their education," she said.

"Children will be getting sent books in advance of the festival, which they can then read, and then a series of authors will be going into the schools to talk about their work, which should be exciting for the children - and the authors."

For schools, entry is free to the festival, and Aye Write! is also providing transport for children to get to and from the Mitchell Library.

The Bank of Scotland is also funding Books to Go, an incentive scheme for children and young people who take out books at the city's libraries.