Pragjyotishpur Literature Festival to be organised from September 29 in Guwahati

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Pragjyotishpur Literature Festival, organised by Shankardev Education and Research Foundation, will be organized from September 29 to October 1 in Guwahati at the District Library Auditorium and Xahitya Xabha Bhavan. With a motley of events like keynote talks, panel discussions, author speak, workshops on creative writing, prize money quizzes, in-conversation, multi-lingual poetry sessions, and book launches, it will bring together a host of celebrity authors and personalities from across the country. Topics of discussion include Exploring Tradition through Literature, Regional Indian Literature: Lost and Found in Translation, Contemporary Nature Writing, and Assam through the Cinematic Lens, among others. Writers from the state as well as from across the country will deliver on these as panellists. Apart from panel discussions, there will be interactive sessions with authors.

Chairperson of the National Book Trust, Milind Sudhakar Marathe, will be the Chief Guest in the Inaugural Session, while Padmashree awardee Lil Bahadur Chetri, a notable Gorkha writer from Assam, will be the Guest of Honour. The keynote speech will be presented by eminent news anchor Rubika Liyaquat. Award-winning authors and critics like Suvash Chandra Satapathy (Bhubaneshwar) and Dr. Bhushan Bhave (Goa) will deliver various sessions on pertinent topics and discussions.

A prize money quiz on our history and culture has been organised for children in classes 11 up to the PG level. Distinguished author and speaker Atanu Bhattacharyya will be holding a session on creative writing for students at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Another very interesting event would be the Multi-Lingual Poetry Session, where poets writing in different languages of Assam, like Assamese, Bodo, Karbi, Mising, Nepali, Bengali, Rabha, Tiwa, and others, will come together to recite their self-composed poems and regale the listeners.

During the event, awards will be presented in two categories: one for a prominent writer above forty years of age and the other for an upcoming writer below the age of forty.

Pragjyotishpur was an abode of learning, publications, and intellectual exercises, as these were the oldest traditions and practices for the residents. Many valuable books were written in this part of the world, where Madhav Kandali’s Ramayana in a local language signifies the dimension and intellectual capacity of an author. Pre-events have been organised in Bholanath College, Dhubri, Hanumanbax Surajmall Kanoi College, Dibrugarh, Dhemaji Balika Mahavidyalaya, Dhemaji, and North Lakhimpur College, where a healthy discussion on literature and the importance of such festivals in our society was deliberated on.

Also Read:   Assam: ‘Pragjyotishpur Literature Festival to showcase rich cultural history of Assam’

Also Watch: