Bhubaneswar: This October Bhubaneswar, the temple city, is going to witness the biggest literary extravaganza in eastern India. 2nd Bhubaneswar Poetry Festival (BPF 2017), a national festival of literature, art, culture, debate and discourse, is going to be held on 14th and 15th October 2017, Saturday and Sunday.
To add more literary flavour of this festive season, BPF 2017, an initiative by Odisha’leading publication house PEN IN Books & OdishaStory.com, attempts to unite celebrated literary figures, artists, musicians, cinema professionals and politicians from Odisha and other states of the nation under one roof.
The two-day event will be held at Mayfair Convention, one of the finest event-venue in the state and the best destination for literary congregations. The first day of the festival will be dedicated to literature, while the second day will be dedicated for social debate,art, cinema and political discourse.
Senior poet Padmabhusan Ramakant Rath, Poet Padmabibhushan Sitakanta Mohapatra and Poet & thinker Haraprasad Das, Poet and author Sarat Kumar Dash will join the inaugural session on 14th October. The inaugural session will be followed by discussion on Poetry, Fiction, Lyrics and translation.
On 15th October the inaugural session will be graced by Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera, Senior Congress leadrer Niranjan Patnaik, senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra, Utkal Bharat president Aira Kharabela Swain and poet & senior politician Arun Kumar Sahoo.
The second day will witness various dialogue sessions on politics, Odisha’s development, protest and cinema. Artists, political representatives will join the event. Authors from different Indian languages including more than 70 Odia authors and poets, senior actress and director Bijaya Jena and bollywood lyricist and poet Dushyant are joining as speakers.
Today in a press meet at Hotel Keshari, Festival adviser, poet and thinker Haraprasad Das said, “The Bhubaneswar Poetry Festival is designed to be a landmark event for showcasing Indian Literature. It could take in its sweep the unfolding landscape of global literature, the new voice of Indian literature and the kaleidoscopic range of Odia creativity.”
“It hopes to bring together three generations of poets, authors and artists. The emphasis, of course, would be the contemporary new literature in all its splendor, written anywhere in the world, particularly in Odisha.,” further added Mr Das.
About a hundred invited speakers are scheduled to grace the occasion, said author and festival Director Subhransu Panda. Apart from literature Art, Political and social topics also will be discussed in BPF 2017, added Panda.
10 young Odia authors will be awarded with PEN IN Young Author Award 2017.
Poet and festival advisor Sarat Kumar Dash said, “Gradually our heritage city Bhubaneswar is becoming the cultural heart of the nation. Almost every month we are witnessing numerous national events in art, dance, song, literature and intellectual discourse. Each year Bhubaneswar, alone, is witnessing more than 10 national level literature festivals. This year at BPF, apart from literature,we adding topics on other issues like politics, social debate, cinema and music.”
Poet and festival advisor Shankarsan Parida added, “Last year BPF was started as an exclusive poetry festival, the first-of-its-kind in eastern India. But this year we are adding other literary aspects and Odisha’s socio-cultural issues.”
Odisha’s leading authors, politicians, musicians, poets, cinema directors, journalists, professionals from Bollywood and young authors from around the country are joining as speakers in this festival.
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