Today’s poetry news update takes a look at the poet who is struggling to self-publish his work, the annual festival in celebration of William Wilfred Campbell and finally, the Tibetan monk and poet honoured with a peace prize.
Language Barrier an Issue to Self-Publishing
A Canadian poet who has previously used Amazon in order to self-publish his work has found that he is no longer able to.
Mahyar Mazloumi, who writes poetry in Farsi, has found that the Amazon feature that he has previously used is no longer available. He is petitioning the company to allow him to once again publish his work in Farsi, a move that would see him taking a stab at censorship once again.
Amazon used to use CreateSpace – a platform which assisted authors in the publishing of their work in either e-book or paperback form. This platform was capable of supporting Farsi, but in 2018, Amazon moved to Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and this does not.
The post says that if his work is translated into English it will lose a significant amount of its meaning. His online petition to Amazon has already received over 20,000 signatures.
Mazloumi says that he believes there is a demand for books in Farsi as there are tens of millions who speak the language all over the world. Most of these readers are located in Iran, and there is heavy censoring applied to books and all other types of art form in the country.
In order to publish a book in Iran at the moment, it is necessary to submit the draft and then amend it according to the long list of additions, corrections and deletions that are offered before it can finally be published. Self-publication offers a viable alternative to authors.
Amazon have said that they are looking into the issue.
William Wilfred Campbell Festival
The 6th Annual festival on honour of the poet William Wilfred Campbell took place earlier this week.
Wiarton council recently passed a bylaw which ensures that the 23rd of June will be known as William Wilfred Campbell Day in the future, and that the annual poetry festival in the poet’s honour will take place at the same time.
Campbell was born in 1860 in Kitchener. He had English and Scottish heritage. He was a poet of national acclaim, and there a number of plaques placed all over the town in his honour.
The poetry festival included a poetry competition and also a number of poetry recitals both of the poets works and also the works of other local poets.
Global Peace Prize for Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh the Tibetan zen master and poet, known to his followers as “Thay” – meaning teacher, has been awarded a Luxembourg Peace Prize this year. The announcement was made on 21st June by Schengen Peace Foundation, who were founded in 2005.
The award was given to Thay for” Outstanding Inner Peace”. This is a category that awards a prize for an institution or people who promote a healthy outlook of both mind and body.
Due to his age – Thay is 93 – he was unable to attend the awards ceremony in Luxembourg in person, so two monks from his order accepted the award on his behalf.
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