International Poetry Festival: 2010 held at J.K.C College, Guntur, A. P.

An International Poetry Festival: 2010 was held at J.K.C College, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh on December 21, 2010. It drew an enthusiastic response from both emerging and established poets from India and the world. Works from about 125 poets were selected for the anthology titled Poet's Paradise compiled and edited by P. Gopichand and Nagasuseela—lecturers in English and organisers of the festival. This fest was in sequence to National Poetry Fests held in 2008 and 2009 respectively organized by J.K.C. College.

The festival was inaugurated by K. Basavapunniah, President of the Nagarjuna Educational Society (Guntur), who also unveiled the book. The electronic version of the book, PDF, was inaugurated by J. Narendrath, Secretary of the college. The poets, who recited their poems, were given a ceremonial welcome and were adorned with a drape ‘uttariyam' (upper vest) by the organizers in their honour.

The anthology is a good repository of poems from some of the reputed poets such as Uktamoy Khaldorova and Azim Suyun from Republic of Uzbekistan, Rati Saxena, Sahitya Academi award winner, Peter Waugh from Austria, Mukhesh Williams from Japan, Boban Bogatinnovski from Kumanovo, Kurt F. Svatek from Austria, Dipika Mukherjee from Neitherlands, Chandrasekhar Sharma from Bhutan, Mohammad Fakruddin, founder president of Haiku Society of India and recipient of the International Man of the Year from Bangalore.

Some of the poems rose voice for the empowerment of women, while others sang yearning for peace in today’s strife-torn world. For instance, Heera Nawaj, who spent early years of her life in US, spoke of women-hood in her poem Arise and Shine. Professor Smita Tiwari captured the natural landscape in her poem The Surreal. While Khurshid Alam an emerging poet captured the attention of the guests, poets, writers, students and other audiences with the recitation of his two poems. Many of the audience thronged to Khurshid after he came down from the podium and had a healthy chat on poetry and other literary genres.