Poetry Reading at Spiny Babbler

Greta Rana, president, International PEN Nepal Chapter, was the featured poet at the first Spiny Babbler poetry reading held on May 16, 1999, according to a press release of Spiny Babbler. During the 90-minute program, Chirag Bangdel, author of But to Dream also made a special presentation of his work and talked about future creations. According to Para Limbu, chairperson of Spiny Babbler, many people who read and wrote poetry in the English language have asked the organization to set up a forum where they can discuss, read, and share their creations.

According to Limbu, the focus of the reading is in three sectors. One is the "featured poet". The poet makes a special presentation and shares her/his learning and humanity and takes questions regarding publishing, writing techniques, and poetic content. Another focus of the forum is the "readings": Anyone at the gathering may read their poem or share a poem that they especially love. The third focus of the forum is "introductions" that help interaction between poets and readers.

Among the special highlights of the program was a special Spiny Babbler publication produced through the print medium and also placed on the Internet. The publication contains the poems read out by the featured poet Great Rana during the program and issues pertinent to poetry readings at Spiny Babbler. Greta Rana, besides being the president of the International PEN Nepal Chapter and a senior editor at ICIMOD, has published more than seven books and had actively worked to protect the writers' freedom of expression, the issue covered her activities and ten of her poems. For future editions, anyone who is interested in coming to the poetry reading may submit and have their work published. Such publications will be produced for every poetry reading and distributed free and may be accessed by Spiny Babbler readers worldwide through the Internet.