A postcard from PBS Manager Alice Mullen, who has been representing the Poetry Book Society at Bhutan Echoes Book Festival.
"A huge thank you to the British Council International Publishing Fellowship, Festival Co-Founder Mita Kapur and Festival Producer Kitso Pelmo at Bhutan Echoes: Drukyul's Literature Festival for the opportunity to shadow the festival team and learn about international book festival management. Bhutan Echoes is a 3 day book festival, powered by the India-Bhutan initiative in Thimpu. As the Bhutanese Director General of Tourism said at the festival launch: “there is a profound importance in coming together as a global community through books”.
At the festival I met the Swiss poet Rolf Hermann, Indian poets Sree Gaur, Janhvi Ahuja and Radha Chakravarty, whose Worldwide Community Poem was shortlisted for a Pushkart prize, plus talented young Bhutanese poets Yeshey Choden, Sonam Pem Tshoki and the bestselling writer-publisher Kunzang Choden, who kindly gifted me this Anthology of Bhutanese poetry from Riyang Books. It was an honour to learn more about poetry from this unique part of the world and I look forward to applying the lessons learnt from this global festival to our poetry symposium in future."