Our final news round-up of the week looks at the auditorium named in memory of a poet, the birthplace of Leopardi, which will open to the public, and the appearance of 2 poets in a Sci-fi programme.

New Auditorium to be Named for Poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz

A collaboration between the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) and the Pakistan National Council of Arts has announced that in commemoration of the 109^th birthday of the poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz they will be naming their new auditorium in his honour.

An inauguration ceremony was carried out by Shafqat Mehmood the Federal Minister for National History and Literary Heritage. During the ceremony, he said that poets and writers were the sensitive and intelligent people in society, the people who can help create a sense of togetherness, particularly amongst the younger generation. He also confirmed that the government in Pakistan were committed to assisting in the growth of those institutions in the country who specialise in science, literature, culture and the humanities. The auditorium has been named after Faiz Ahmed Faiz in recognition of his services not only to art literature but also to the Urdu language.

The ceremony was attended by a number of important figures from the world of literature including the poet’s daughter.

There were poetry and singing performances during the ceremony with some of Faiz’s poems put to music.

Poets Birthplace to be Opened to the Public

The birthplace of Giacomo Leopardi, the well-known poet from Italy, will be opening up its private chambers for the first time to the public. The chambers of Casa Leopardi where the poet was raised with his brothers will be opened as will the “noble floor”.

The house is located in Recanati, a town in the Marche region of central Italy. The poet was born there in 1789. This new access will give visitors the chance to see the art collections in the gallery, the gardens and perhaps most importantly the private chambers that belonged to the poet, which have not been used by his family for the last two centuries.

Leopardi is considered by many to be the greatest philosopher and Romantic poet to have been born in Italy. His father was a minor count who owed fealty to the Pape and he was raised in almost complete isolation in Recanti, a hilltop town. At the age of 10, he ditched his tutors and was considered something of a child prodigy.

By his late teens, he was writing some of his most famous poetry. He spent time in Rome, Milan, Florence and Bologna and during this time he met Alessandro Manzoni another great poet of the time.

Poetry and Sci-Fi

Fans of Dr Who and poetry will be intrigued by the trailers for the next episode of the popular sci-fi which will be aired in the UK on Sunday. Titled The Haunting of Villa Diodati the Dr and her team will travel back to 1816 where they will meet the poets Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

With the promise of monsters galore this episode promises to excite.