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Sunday, January 31, 2016, Magh 18, 1422 BS, Rabius Sani 19, 1437 Hijri


International Poets Summit '16 opens today at Shilpakala Academy
Cultural Correspondent
Published :Sunday, 31 January, 2016,  Time : 12:00 AM  View Count : 14
To cherish the growing cultural diversity in the modern world, Kathak will organise the "International Poetry Summit 2016" today at the National Gallery Auditorium of Academy of Fine and Performing Arts, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the city. The summit will continue till February 3, before when at least fifteen poets of global recognition will have taken part in it. Md Abul Kalam Azad, principal secretary to the Prime Minister will grace the event as chief guest along with the Swedish ambassador Johan Frisell, who will be the guest of honour of the event. Shamsuzzaman Kha, director general of Bangla Academy will preside over the inauguration of the international summit. A number of renowned poets from the world over including-Bengt Berg, Milan Richter, Dr Benaissa Bouhmala and Dr Lee Kuei-shien will be the special guest of the event. The summit will host an award giving ceremony, book launches, discussion sessions and poetry recitations. Kathak Literary Award 2016 will be delivered as part of the summit. Three books will also be unveiled during the summit.
The summit will be held in cooperation with Bangla Academy, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, IFIC Bank Ltd, Bangladesh Tourism Board, Adorn Books, Independent University, Gallery Chitrak, Living ART, Creative Communications Ltd and media partners ATN Bangla, The Daily Shamakal and Radio Today 89.6FM.
A short-bio of each of the participating poets is as follows:
BENGT BERG
Bengt Berg was born in 1946 in Torsby, V?rmland, Sweden. He studied German and Nordic languages & Literary and Art studies at Uppsala University. He worked as a freelance writer and translator since 1975. Berg was a Member of the Swedish Parliament from 2010 to 2014.
Since 1990, Bengt has operated the publishing house, Heidruns F?rlag, and an Art Café in his home village Fensbol near Torsby in the Province of V?rmland.
Bengt Berg's debut poetry collection, Where the Dream Ends, appeared in1974; and since then he has written more than thirty books, mostly poetry. His poems have been translated into Nordic languages, as well as Arabian, Hebrew, English, German, Dutch, Greek, Romanian, Spanish, Turkish, Polish, Russian, Latvian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Hindi, Malayalam and Bangla. In 2014, he published his Collected Poems, Dikter genom 40 ?r.
He has participated in many poetry festivals, including Medell?n (Colombia), Granada (Nicaragua), Struga (Macedonia), och Druskininkai (Litauania), Nisan (Israel), Jan Smrek Festival (Slovakia), Kritya (India), T?rgul Festival de Poezie (Romania), Poetry on the Road (Bremen, Germany), Qinghai Lake Poetry Festival (China) among others. Berg has won several Swedish Literary prizes, among them some from The Swedish Academy.
MILAN RICHTER
Milan Richter (1948) is a Slovak poet, dramatist, essayist and translator. He has published 9 volumes of poetry since 1973, e.g. Roots in the Air (1992), From Behind the Velvet Curtains (1997), An Angel with Black Feathers (2000) and Secrets Wide Open (2008, selected and new poems), as well as 3 theatre plays: Kafka's Hell-Paradise, Kafka's Second Life (2006/7) and The ShortUnhappy Life of Marilyn Monroe (2013). His poems were translated into 35 languages and volumes of his selected verses were published in translation in 9 countries (Austria, Norway, Israel, Luxembourg, Spain, etc.).
Milan Richter translated more than 75 books and theatre plays from several languages, including selected poems of Emily Dickinson, R. M. Rilke, Harry Martinson, Pablo Neruda, Tomas Transtr?mer, Ernst Jandl, Ernesto Cardenal, Knut Odegard and others, Kafka's aphorisms, The Prophet by Khalil Gibran, H.C. Andersen's and O. Wilde's fairy-tales, Goethe's Faust, dramas by P. O. Enquist, etc.
In 1993-1995 Richter served as head of the Slovak Embassy in Oslo (Norway), accredited for Iceland. He was a permanent member of the European Academy of Poetry in Luxembourg and is a member of the Bjornson Academy in Norway. He received the highest orders of merit in Austria and Norway where he became the Bjornson Prize laureate in 2010. Currently he is chairman of Slovakia?s Club of Independent Writers.
BENAISSA BOUHMALA
Benaissa Bouhmala was born in 1951 in Mekn?s, Morocco. Currently he is serving as the Higher Education Professor of "Arab modern poetry" and "Critic of Modern Literature" at the "Ecole Normale Supérieure" Moulay Ismail University, Meknes, Morocco and Professor of Moroccan Modern Literature at the Research Unit "Modern Moroccan Literature" at the School of Arts & Human Sciences, Moulay Ismail University, Meknes, Morocco. Benaissa is the Member of "The House of Poetry in Morocco". He was also been the former editor in chief of Al-Bayt magazine, edited by "The House of Poetry in Morocco". Benaissa is the Member of "The Moroccan Writer's Union" and also the Member of the jury for the "Poetry in Arab Dialect Prize", organized by "The Margin for Poetry and Plastic Arts Association" in Guercif, Morocco.





DR LEE KUEI-SHIEN
Lee Kuei-shien (1937) was the President of Taiwan PEN and the Chairman of National Culture and Arts Foun-dation. His published works include "Collected Poems" in six volumes, "Collected Essays" in 10 volumes, "Translated Poems" in 8 volumes", "Anthology of European Poetry" in 25 volumes and "Elite Poetry Series" in 18 volumes, as well as his memoires "The Jigsaw Puzzle of My Life". His poems in English translation include "Love is my Faith", "Beauty of Tenderness", "Between Islands", "The Hour of Twilight" and "20 Love Poems to Chile". He won Merit of Asian Poet in Korea, Premier Culture Prize in Taiwan, Michael Madhusudan Poet Award in India, Poet Medal from Mongolian Cultural Foundation, and Oxford Award for Taiwan Writers. He was proposed as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002, 2004 and 2006, respectively.






LIN FO-ER
Lin Fo-er (1941) established Lin-Po Publishing Company in 1968 and founded" Taiwan Poetry Quarterly" in 1983 and then a first Mystery Magazine in Taiwan in 1984. As a publisher, poet and writer, he published sixteen books in total, including poems, essays and novels. He is considered as the best and the first Taiwanese mystery writer. His books of his own of poetry include "Mango Fields", "The Heart of Taiwan" and "Twelve Poems of The Saline Land".










LEE RUO-YING
Lee Ruo-ying (Lily Lee, 1950) was bestowed with Doctor degree in Literature from National Kaohsiung Normal University, then served as a professor in the same university until retirement. Now, she is Chief-editor of "Literature of the Saline Land " bimonthly. She published a collection of poetry "The Sketch" as well as academic books including "General Introduction on the Poetry in Tang and Sung Dynasties" and "An Analysis and Study on Rhetoric of Taiwanese Modern Poetry".









DR FANG YAW-CHIEN
Dr Fang Yaw-chien (1958) is a leading poet, writer, scholar, and editor in Taiwan. Currently he is Professor & Chairpe-rson of Taiwanese Languages & Literature at National Taichung University, Taiwan, and was the President of Taiwanese Literature Battlefront, and Taiwan ELiterature & Arts. He published 8 books of poetry, and more than 100 literary treatises & articles, and has been awarded several important literary prizes. His poetry mainly reflects Taiwanese spirit and history.









TAI CHIN-CHO
Tai Chin-cho was born in Tainan, Taiwan. She is a Section Chief of Urology Depart-ment, National Cheng-kung University Hospital. She writes prose and poetry, which mostly reflect sufferings and death of human beings.












CHEN XIU-ZEN
Chen Xiu-zen (1960) graduated from Depart-ment of Chinese Literature in Tamkang University. Her publications include an essay "A Diary About My Son", a collection of poetry "String Echo in Forest" consisting of traditional as well as modern poems and a book of new poems "Mask".




















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