Amidst the city’s societal and weather crises, Penprints Publication is organizing a literary meet on August 17, 2024, at a hotel in Kolkata to celebrate peace and harmony and remind people of their humanity through book launches, poetry sessions, discussions on Bengali poetry, author talks, and sessions on travel narratives and photobooks.

The meet was conceived by the couple Supriyo Chakraborty, Managing Director of Penprints Publication, and Sreetanwi Chakraborty, Editorial Director of the same. It commenced with an insightful talk on mime by Padma Shri laureate Niranjan Goswami.

Sreetanwi Chakraborty told the Statesman, “We have been organizing the ‘Lake Town Poetry Festival’ for the past three years, so this year we introduced book launches.”

She added, “In these tense and troubled times, it’s crucial that people express themselves through their writings, such as protest poetry and sessions that address broader humanitarian values. I appreciate that people came together despite numerous difficulties to discuss the highs and lows of life and society.”

The initial session, titled ‘Earth Elegies, Unshared Secrets, Apparitions, and the Mystery of Ninde Paani’, featured book launches by authors Ketaki Datta, Ajanta Paul, Sanhita Bandyopadhyay, and Kaberi Chattopadhyay.

The second session, ‘The Time is Out of Joint: The Need to Explore the Poetic Path to Harmony’, included the re-launch of ‘Ekalavya Speaks’ and discussions by poet and academics Sanjukta Dasgupta, Nishi Pulugurtha, Navamalati Neog Chakraborty, Sutanuka Ghosh Roy, and Ratna Guha Mustafi.

The program also featured a poetry session by Anasuya Bhar and captivated the audience with author talks in the segment ‘Chitrakalper Bhubane: Camerar Chokhe Jiban’ by renowned photographers Rajib De, Sandipan Mukherjee, and Rishipratim Guha Mustafi.

Celebrated poets such as Gopal Lahiri, Aneek Chatterjee, Kushal Poddar, Amit Shankar Saha, and Utpal Chakraborty, along with authors like Daipayan Nair, Meenakshi Mohan, and Tapeshwar Prasad, provided a new impetus.

The program concluded with a session on Bengali poetry titled ‘Kabitay Paritran: Byaktigoter Atikraman’, where poets Sumitava Ghosal, Rudrajit Paul, Saikat Majumdar, and Samik Sen energized the audience with their modern takes on rhyme, rhythm, theme, and stylistic details in Bengali poetry.