International Literary Forum participants share ideas on the modus vivendi for members of the literary profession
The debate on the role of writers’ unions in the literary process concluded day one of the AWPUR International Literary Forum. The roundtable was chaired by Maxim Zamshev, chief editor of Literaturnaya Gazeta.
Svetlana Vasilenko, first secretary of the Executive Committee of the Russian Writers Union, told the roundtable about the writers’ organizations formed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union – how they found their feet and branched out into the provinces, what they do, and how they make a living today.
“Yevgeny Yevtushenko was, hands down, the prime mover of the RWU,” Vasilenko recalled. “We were brimming with enthusiasm, but we did not realize that, apart from creative zeal, every organization needs a resource base, a room... When AWPUR came along, our creative drive was finally combined with something tangible. We have the desire to write books, but we also want to see them printed, we want people to buy and read them.”
Moldovan writers faced unforeseen difficulties on the cusp of the new epoch, and had to find new fulcrum points, according to Olesya Rudyagina, who chairs the Russian Writers Association of Moldova (“My soul is Russia, and my breath is Moldova. It was entirely impossible to take the two apart”). The association hosts a Russian literature festival and young authors competitions in Moldova. It also publishes the Russian Field journal (“The only fatso in Moldova”).
Writers’ communities are, first of all, about a vibrant environment, communion of generations, support, acceptance, and respect, stressed Karima El Azizi, head of the International Affairs Office of the Sharjah Book Authority. A Moroccan, El Azizi studied in Spain and India, and lives in the UAE. She is aware that creative alliances can be very different, yet very close in what really matters.
“In Morocco, writers’ groups form a close-knit community sharing the same esthetic values. India’s National Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi) promotes cross-cultural dialogue and minority languages. The Emirates Writers Union strives to promulgate classic and contemporary Arabic literature worldwide.
Koichuman Momunkulov, Director of the State Book Chamber of Kyrgyzstan, gave an account of how the 90th anniversary of the National Writers’ Union was marked in the country. Hilda Twongyeirwe, Executive Director of the Uganda Women Writers’ Association, admitted she had “read Leo Tolstoy long before discovering African authors”:
“We had no writers’ associations at all for a long time. There was no one to do the educating and the edifying. A modicum of literary life began to germinate in the 1960s, when a writers club was organized under the auspices of Makerere University. Today, our association works with women writers in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan.”
“Hilda and I assisted with reviving the Afro-Asian Writers Union in 2014,” added orientalist Oleg Bavykin. “It used to be a strong group that took Afro-Asian literature practically to a global level. There is no question but that alliances are needed. We have enthusiasm enough and to spare, all we need is support.”
Svetlana Vasilenko, first secretary of the Executive Committee of the Russian Writers Union, told the roundtable about the writers’ organizations formed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union – how they found their feet and branched out into the provinces, what they do, and how they make a living today.
“Yevgeny Yevtushenko was, hands down, the prime mover of the RWU,” Vasilenko recalled. “We were brimming with enthusiasm, but we did not realize that, apart from creative zeal, every organization needs a resource base, a room... When AWPUR came along, our creative drive was finally combined with something tangible. We have the desire to write books, but we also want to see them printed, we want people to buy and read them.”
Moldovan writers faced unforeseen difficulties on the cusp of the new epoch, and had to find new fulcrum points, according to Olesya Rudyagina, who chairs the Russian Writers Association of Moldova (“My soul is Russia, and my breath is Moldova. It was entirely impossible to take the two apart”). The association hosts a Russian literature festival and young authors competitions in Moldova. It also publishes the Russian Field journal (“The only fatso in Moldova”).
Writers’ communities are, first of all, about a vibrant environment, communion of generations, support, acceptance, and respect, stressed Karima El Azizi, head of the International Affairs Office of the Sharjah Book Authority. A Moroccan, El Azizi studied in Spain and India, and lives in the UAE. She is aware that creative alliances can be very different, yet very close in what really matters.
“In Morocco, writers’ groups form a close-knit community sharing the same esthetic values. India’s National Academy of Letters (Sahitya Akademi) promotes cross-cultural dialogue and minority languages. The Emirates Writers Union strives to promulgate classic and contemporary Arabic literature worldwide.
Koichuman Momunkulov, Director of the State Book Chamber of Kyrgyzstan, gave an account of how the 90th anniversary of the National Writers’ Union was marked in the country. Hilda Twongyeirwe, Executive Director of the Uganda Women Writers’ Association, admitted she had “read Leo Tolstoy long before discovering African authors”:
“We had no writers’ associations at all for a long time. There was no one to do the educating and the edifying. A modicum of literary life began to germinate in the 1960s, when a writers club was organized under the auspices of Makerere University. Today, our association works with women writers in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan.”
“Hilda and I assisted with reviving the Afro-Asian Writers Union in 2014,” added orientalist Oleg Bavykin. “It used to be a strong group that took Afro-Asian literature practically to a global level. There is no question but that alliances are needed. We have enthusiasm enough and to spare, all we need is support.”