A rare congregation of renowned poets from India and abroad is planned here from July 21 to 23 as part of the third edition of the Poetry Fesitival being organised by cultural group 'Kritya'.
This year's event, being organised with the support of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the School of Thought, Belgium, is dedicated to the memory of veteran poet late K Ayyappa Panikar, a trail blazer of modernity in Malayalam.
According to Rati Saxena, Director, Kritya, the poets from abroad expected to attend the festival include Mahnaz Badihian (American-Iranian), Massimo Saneli (Itali), Heidi Arnold (US), Yasushiro Yotsumoto (Japan), Patrick Cotter (Ireland) and Argo Spier (Germany).
The Indian poets on the guest list include Arun Kamal (Hindi), Agni Shekhar (Kashmiri), Ananya Guha (English) and Aju Mukhopadhyay (Bengali).
The Malayalam section will feature leading poets ONV Kurup, Satchidanandan, Vishunarayanan Namboodiri and Sugatha Kumari.
In all, over 100 poets and artists would enrich the event by recitals, discussions and sharing of their experiences, Saxena said.
Kritya, a cultural NGO specially dedicated to poetry, held its previous festival in Jammu.
Kerala Governor R L Bhatia will inaugurate the festival here. State Culture Minister M A Baby will address a session on Performance Poetry.
