‘Kuwait Magazine’ marks World Poetry Day

The monthly edition of the literary periodical known as “Kuwait Magazine”published locally in Kuwait, has just come out for the month of March, dealing in a great part with celebrating the World Poetry Day. The World Poetry Day is on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO (the 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.

This month’s issue of the magazine acclaims the merits of poetry through a number of interviews with local poets. There are articles in it on the fragility of human relations in our time with one of them bemoaning the absence of true friendship and another harking back to the simpler life in old pre-oil-era Kuwait. Other articles deal with the ubiquity of social media, theater in Kuwait, art and Arabic movies worth seeing.

Book fair

In other news, Kuwait’s pavilion at the 21st Muscat International Book Fair is attracting large numbers of visitors, according to the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters’ (NCCAL) official Khalifa Al-Rabah. The council is presenting publications in different fields in the fair, Rabah said yesterday, adding that NCCAL is especially focusing on publishing cultural books. There are currently over 650 publishers from 27 Arab and foreign countries participating in the event, the official noted.

Meanwhile, official at a Kuwaiti publishing company ‘Al-Masarat’ Abdullah Al-Shamari said that the Muscat fair is considered as one of the top 10 book fairs in the Arab World, according to the Arab Publishers Association. He added that the fair, which kicked off on February 24, includes 40 events for culture, arts and literature.