Australia chapter of the International Nepali Literary Society (INLS) has been formed under the chairmanship of Deepak Bista.
According to press release issued by Bhuwaneshor Sharma, coordinator of the chapter, the meeting of the Nepalis living in Australia and have interest in Nepali literature, decided for formation of the chapter.
The first meeting of the chapter also pledged different initiatives to widen the scope of Nepali literature and its promotion in southern hemisphere.
The meeting initially decided to coordinate towards instituting INLS committees in other Australian cities and New Zealand to ultimately build a recognised INLS network across Asia Pacific region.
Sharma said INLS Australia would coordinate with Nepali organisations in other Australian metropolises to identify Nepali writers, including emerging aspirers and form separate INLS state committees.
“We believe that the initiative will help to identify Nepali talents in arts and literature in hibernation and make known each other among Nepali Diasporas across the region and the world,” he said.
The chapter also decided to launch a literary blog. The blog would be a first step towards providing a common platform for aspiring and established Nepali writers writing in Nepali and English to encourage writers to write and help recognise each other work towards producing literary journals in future.
The INLS said it would also work towards establishing a small library of Nepali books in future intended to help Nepali migrants to read and know about Nepali identity, literature and culture. The organisation has also plans to translate Nepali literature into English, teach Nepali language, culture and literature to foreigners and second generations of Nepalis and establish an annual literary conference.
The meeting held in Adelaide had unanimously elected Kamala Bhandari (Timilsina) as Vice President, Reena Rai as Treasurer, Santosh Koirala as Secretary, Navaraj Dahal as Program Coordinator and Bhuwaneshor Sharma as Coordinator.
nepalnews.com ia Feb 09 08