12. Mar 2010

ICORN Guest Writers Celebrate World Poetry Day

World Poetry Day is coming up this Sunday, and is celebrated one day early in Uppsala, as ICORN Guest Writer Anisur Rahman (Bangladesh) and former Guest Writer Faraj Bayrakdar (Syria) take part in an event dedicated to words, and to encounters between poets and audiences of all ages and backgrounds. The following day, Rahman and ICORN Guest Writer Zurab Rtveliashvili (Georgia) join a large group of colleagues to celebrate poetry and the free word in Stockholm. This event is co-organised by Shahrazad - stories for life .

World Poetry Day is on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999. The purpose of the day is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world and, as the UNESCO session declaring the day says, to "give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements."

(Photo: Fredrik Haglund)