The first-ever writers’ conference left many young aspiring Bhutanese writers motivated in Phuentshogling. The day-long conference held yesterday saw more than 40 young and aspiring writers from Bhutan collaborating with Indian authors to make a better market for Bhutanese writers.
The conference was a platform for young writers to share their love for literature and the challenges they face while they pursue writing. Some shared that while they enjoyed the art of writing, there aren’t buyers considering the poor reading culture among Bhutanese.
One among the participants was Kezang Dawa who pursued his passion for writing and published a book despite being a driver by profession. But because there is a dearth of customers in the country, he said he is running into a loss.
However, the Indian authors from West Bengal, Assam and Odisha promised that they will help young Bhutanese writers sell their books online. This left the participants encouraged to write more.
“This conference encourages us to write more, be it poetry or story, and never to fall back on negative feedback of the people,” said Pema Yangchen.
Kezang Dawa who is a student and PhuntshoWangdi, an author of a poetry book organized the event.
“Young writers get discouraged because they think people won’t read their piece. Here we encourage them to come forward and showcase their skills in literature. I am just a class 8 graduate. But here we have university graduates and teachers participating in the conference. Despite having the skills, they couldn’t come forward without a platform,” said Kezang Dawa.
“Through this conference we the aspiring writers are able to get a platform to show our skills. We are publishing Bhutan’s poetry analogy in February. I am organizing it. After that, we will also launch an international poetry magazine and Bhutan’s poetry magazine. And have plans publish more,” added Phuntsho Wangdi
The organizers said they will be organizing similar events annually in spite of not receiving any financial support from anyone for the event this time.
Sonam Penjor
