Nepal Literature Festival to take place from December 13 to 16

POKHARA: The eighth edition of the IME Nepal Literature Festival is scheduled to take place from December 13 to 16 at Barahi Lakeside in Pokhara.

The information was made public at a press conference organised jointly by Bookworm Foundation and Random Readers Society here on Tuesday.

On the occasion, the Foundation's director Ajit Baral said that new speakers would be given a chance in response to complaints that familiar faces appeared at the forum every year.

More than 110 speakers including over a dozen foreign writers are expected to participate in the festival with more than 40 sessions. Participation of foreign writers is expected to boost the sector of Nepali literature, said Baral.

The festival's four editions were organised in Kathmandu and the rest in Pokhara. Pokhara was picked for the festival in a bid to promote literary tourism, said Baral, adding that the venue was also shifted due to the 2015 earthquake.

The Society's President Keshab Sharan Lamichhane claimed that the festival had helped explore Pokhara's literature.

The DSC Award for South Asian Literature will also be presented at the festival. The award carrying a purse of USD 25,000 is an international literary prize given annually to writers of any ethnicity or nationality writing on South Asian themes such as politics, culture, history and people.