Renowned Arab writer and poet Dr. Shihab Ghanem will be honored at a literary festival in Riyadh on Thursday. The three-day festival, titled "Literary Event 2016-Word beyond borders" is to be organized by the Chilla Sargavedi as part of its first anniversary celebrations, according to its Coordinator Noushad Kormath. Ghanem will inaugurate the festival at 7.30 p.m. Thursday at Noor Al-Mas Auditorium in Riyadh Exit-18. Well-known writer from Kerala E. Santhosh Kumar will deliver the keynote speech. Malayalam writer and novelist PJJ Antony of Jubail, and other writers will speak on the occasion. Prominent expatriate Indian writers, community leaders, cultural figures and media persons will attend the session. Santhosh Kumar will inaugurate the short story session, the first program of a daylong workshop on literature, books and reading on Friday. Jayachandran Neruvambram will be the moderator while M. Faisal will be the camp director. Writers including Joseph Athirunkal, Najeem Kochukalunku, Sabeena M Sali will speak. There will be an interaction of Ghanem with expatriate writers and readers. Several cultural and literary events will be held as part of the celebrations, Kormath said. A special poetic session to pay tribute to ONV Kurup, the most celebrated contemporary Malayalam poet, will be another highlight of the festival. Kurup, winner of several prestigious awards and honors including Jnanpith and Padma Vibhushan, died on Feb. 13. The programs also include poetry reading, literary dialogue, sharing reading experience, illustration of story on canvas, and visual presentation of the short story of the renowned Indian writer O.V. Vijayan. Kormath said Chilla decided to honor the Dubai-based Ghanem in recognition of his outstanding contributions especially in the Arab-Indo literary field. He has published 61 books, including 16 books of verse in Arabic and two in English, in addition to 24 volumes of verse translated from Arabic to English, and from various languages to Arabic via English. He has bagged several awards including Rashid Award for Scientific Excellence, Tagore Peace Award and World Poetry Society Intercontinental Award.
