500 Years of Belarusian Book Printing

GOMEL, 29 August (BelTA) – Ten days of Belarusian literature will be held in Gomel on 30 August – 8 September in honor of the 500^th anniversary of book printing in Belarus, BelTA learned from Vladimir Gavrilovich, Chairman of the Gomel Oblast branch of the public association Union of Writers of Belarus.

Members of writer associations from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine as well as young authors from the three countries — over 100 wordsmiths in total — will take part in the ten-day event.

Close attention will be paid to writers, who are just starting their writing careers. In particular, an international forum of young writers will be held in Gomel on 31 August to reveal and support the authors, who are not members of writer unions.

Slavonic Literature Dazhynki will become the central event of the ten days of Belarusian literature. Slavonic Literature Dazhynki will open in the Gomel Oblast Universal Library on 1 September. Winners of oblast contests and national contests will be honored in the library as well.

Slavonic Literature Dazhynki has been held since 2007 and represents an important event in the cultural life of Gomel Oblast. The number of participants and the geography of the event grow larger every year. The forum is meant to popularize Belarusian literature, share experience between writers from different countries, detect, support, and encourage young wordsmiths.

The ten days of Belarusian literature in Gomel Oblast will be full of various cultural events such as a children literature day, a Slavonic literature day, a poetry day, a prose day, a dramaturgy day, all kinds of workshops, meet-the-artist events and so on.

Writers from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine will also travel to Polotsk where they will take part in the celebration of the Belarusian Written Language Day.