Bhubaneswar Poetry Festival 2016 To Begin On Oct 8

Bhubaneswar: The first ever annual national poetry event ‘Bhubaneswar Poetry Festival’ will be held on October 8 at Hotel Mayfair Lagoon in the capital city of Odisha.

To add more literary flavour to this festive season, Bhubaneswar Poetry Festival (BPF) 2016, an initiative by PEN IN Publication & Media, attempts to unite celebrated literary figures and young poets from Odisha and other states under one roof.

BPF is the first of its kind in Odisha as well as in eastern and north-eastern regions of India, claimed a release.

Leading cities like Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Bengaluru host such festivals. Bhubaneswar is the fifth Indian city to host an exclusive poetry fest.

This first edition of BPF will focus on the generations of poetry and how modern poetry is transforming the landscape of literature.

“Since Odia has been accorded Classical Status, the organizers we strongly felt the need of creating a platform that brings in the experts and the young minds together. We are inviting more than 500 Odia poets to be a part who have shown keen interest to join the festival as participants to share and learn,” said the release.

There will be book releases of poetry anthologies. Odia Poetry compilation “30 under 30” will be released during the festival. To encourage young poets, a poetry collection of Srujanee Mishra, a young school going student, will also be released during the festival.

It should be noted that “30 under 30” is a talent hunt organized by PEN IN Publication and Media to locate and encourage new voices in Odia poetry. Out of 158 entries by young Odia poets, under-30 age group of the state 30 poets are selected. A collection containing poems of the selected budding poets with the same title will be released during BPF 2016. All 30 poets will be felicitated by esteemed guests.

“There will be five discussion sessions and five poetry recitation sessions excluding the inaugural one. All discussion sessions will have 6 poets each excluding the moderator and poetry session will have 5 poets each,” said author and BPF festival director Subhransu Panda.

Leading literary figure, noted poet and BPF festival advisor, Haraprasad Das said, “Bhubaneswar Poetry Festival is going to be a landmark event in Odisha and in India for showcasing poetry. It could take in its sweep the unfolding landscape of global poetry, the new voice of Indian poetry and the kaleidoscopic range of Odia poetry. It hopes to bring together three generations of poets practicing the art of poetry and in the process redefine the eternally renewable source of poetry. The emphasis, of course, would be the contemporary new poetry in all its splendor, written anywhere in the world, particularly in Odisha.”

BPF festival advisor, poet and Bhubaneswar Income Tax Commissioner Sarat Kumar Dash said, “Gradually our heritage city and the now the Smart City Bhubaneswar is becoming the cultural heart of the nation. Each year the city is witnessing more than 10 national level literature festivals. But this festival of poetry is unique. Odisha has a great tradition of Poetry, since the 7th century. To execute our literary enthusiasm and to showcase poetry, in particular, we are organizing the BPF.”