Literary luminaries from across the country attended the Rock Pebbles’ Literary Meet held at the Biraja Women’s College here recently.
On the occasion, quarterly-Rock Pebbles, a peer-reviewed literary journal of international repute with a publication history of 32 years, was released.
Professor JS Anand from Chandigarh attended the event as the chief guest and opined that the existential angst of the people should be the diction of the poetry.
The poets, instead of producing the poetry of escape, should sing about the suffering of the struggling class, he added.
The literary jamboree was presided over by Jajpur VN Autonomous College English HoD Prof Dr Kusha Chandra Pradhan while
Professor Basudev Chakraborty of Kalyani University graced the occasion as speaker.
Releasing the book, “Pan Indian Poetry in English Spanning First Two Decades Of 21st Century”, Chakraborty expressed his ire that the poets, playwrights and novelists writing in English from India are mostly ignored by our universities while preparing their syllabus.
Rock Pebbles’ founder and editor Udayanath Majhi expressed that the
purpose of organising such festivals is to lure the youth mass into the magic world of creative writing.
Poet and translator Sulekha Samantaray was felicitated on the occasion.
Prof Harekrishna Meher and Prof Bairagi Pattanaik, Prof (Dr) Krishna Chandra Mishra of Rajiv Gandhi Central University of Arunachal Pradesh and poet Damodar Behera also graced the meet.
A poetry recitation was also organised to mark the programme. Poets and story tellers from West Bengal, Maharashtra, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh participated.