10-strong Bangladesh team to join SAARC poetry festival in Bangalore

The top ten poets and literary critics are going to attend the SAARC Literary Festival on South Asian Poetry to be held in India’s Bangalore.

The team is slated to fly out of Dhaka on Wednesday morning, a member of the team, poet Mohammad Nurul Huda said.

Syed Shamsul Haq will lead the team, also comprising Nirmalendu Goon, Ruby Rahman, Habibullah Sirajee, Syed Manzoorul Islam, Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, Ranjit Kumar Biswas, Md Abdur Razzak (Shantanu Kaisar) and Aslam Sani.

Poet Huda said the meet would help advance creativity and peace, and develop human beauty and relations in the SAARC region.

The Bangladesh government was footing the bill of the team, he said.

SAARC Cultural Centre organised the four-day programme in cooperation with Indian cultural ministry and Sahitya Akademi.

Anyone beyond the team can participate at the festival upon payment of $300.

Four country panels will be held after the inauguration on July 2.

India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives will form the panels besides Bangladesh.

A team from Pakistan is also slated to join the festival.

Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, Nurul Huda, Syed Manzoorul Islam and Shantanu Kaisar will represent Bangladesh in the panel.

During the programme, Chowdhury will also present a paper on post-independence poetry of Bangladesh.

Ekushey Award-winning poet Huda will present a paper on the new poetry of Bangladesh.

Manzoorul Islam’s paper is on Bangladeshi English poetry.

Sirajee, Haq and Rahman will recite poems.