Over 50 Bengali writers flock under one roof in Toronto

Toronto poet laureate Anne Michaels has said that Bangla is one of around 150 languages spoken in the city of Toronto, which is known for its multiculturalism and social cohesion.

“Literature is our hope. Language is our strength,” she told the audience at the first ever conference of Bengali writers in Toronto on Saturday evening.

“Language and literature create the community, and it comes out of the community,” she told the audience, adding that “we want the community to grow and the writers play an important role in it.”

Toronto-based Bengali Literary Resource Centre (BLRC) organised the conference to bring Bengali writers into one fold. Some 50 of them were present at the conference.

The BLRC Sahityo Potrika (literary journal), with write-ups from around 65 writers, was also launched on the occasion.

Praising the initiative of the BLRC, the Toronto poet laureate said, “No one did it before. It’s a wonderful initiative to make the society more vibrant.”

Toronto poet laureate Anne Michaels visiting a stall at the conference.

She extended her support to the activities of the BLRC and the Bengali writers living in Toronto.

An internationally acclaimed poet and novelist, Anne Michaels is Toronto’s fifth Poet Laureate. 

Among others, Subrata Kumar Das, editor-in-chief of the literary journal and one of the organisers of the BLRC, spoke on the occasion.

During the second half of the programme, the writers shared their literary and writing experience with the audience. There were around 15 book stalls at the conference venue at Peard Road in East York. 

BLRC was founded in 2015 in Toronto as a platform of Bengali writers living in Canada.