Kathmandu: Nepal is hosting a literary festival at the Patan Palace in Kathmandu for the first time, where 60 writers are expected to take part.
The Kathmandu Jatra is a literary festival that provides a platform to lesser known authors, BBC reports.
British author William Dalrymple had showcased his work at a cultural festival in Jaipur, which was held ten years back.
Jaipur Literary Festival has since become South Asia's largest event for writers.
"Nepal is in a moment of great change, and it's a young democracy,” Namita Gokhale, the advisor to the Kathmandu festival said.
"It needs a forum for dialogue, for conversation, for hearing each other's stories... What's most important is that it gives equal space, equal respect to Nepali traditional writers and English writers so they get a vital chance to talk to each other, to hear each other," she added.
Dalrymple, who is attending the event, said such festivals bring together authors writing in English as well as in regional languages, which has made them popular, especially in India.
"There are two very different worlds in publishing in India, one is the Indian writing in English which is the stuff readers in Britain and America would normally associate with India.
“Then there is in the opposite corner to them - a whole world of far less well-known writers who write in Hindi, and in regional languages - but whose writers are not at all known outside their languages”, he added.
Organizers hope the festival will mark the beginning in a new era in Nepali literature, which blends local story- telling with the tradition of South Asians writing in English.
ANI
First Published: Saturday, September 17, 2011, 14:32