Whether fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or slam poetry is their forte, talented individuals working with the US embassy’s literary culture exchange program in collaboration with Quixote’s Cove (QC) have been busy holding lectures and writing workshops. [break]
A two-day workshop was held at Jatra, Thamel on Friday and Saturday.
Poet Nathalie Handal and the director of International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa, Christopher Merril, held a joint session for poetry and creative non-fiction.
“What surprised me the most was the incredible voice of the youth - their English, sophistication of thought and their talents.This was most surprising and also the most beautiful,” said Handal talking about the participants in her workshop.
Abhas Dharananda Rajopadhyaya, 22, who was also at the workshop, shared, “The best thing was learning about the technique of contemporary international writers.
They focused on details, establishing connections; we got feedback, and I knew all of this but it was new to me because of the practical way of writing.
” In his fiction workshop, writer Joshua Ferris led the group through the writing process that stemmed from a participant’s sentence “Luk took the toothpick out of his teeth and put it back with the other toothpicks.” As far as writing goes, his advice is pretty straight forward “If you want to be a fiction writer, you just have to work.”
Picking up with a few Word Warriors from December as well as new performance poets, Bob Holman, professor at Columbia University, said, “The most fun was the intellectually blowing moment when we realized that the classical music of Sanskrit contains a Nepali oral tradition that mirrors the root of American slam poetry.”
Filmmaker Ram Devineni was also present on the occasion to hold a session on film-making.
If you missed the workshops, don’t miss out on the lecture on Contemporary American Literature and literary traditions in the United States scheduled to be held on May 2, 1 pm at Tribuhwan Universnity, Kirtipur.
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