Dubai: Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has confirmed his participation at the opening ceremony of the Dubai International Poetry Festival (DIPF), Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation announced on Wednesday.
More than 100 regional and international poets will converge in Dubai for the festival, which will be held from March 4 to 10, 2009.
Soyinka, the first African writer and poet from Nigeria to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, will speak at the opening session of the festival, which will stand out for its diversified content of various forms of local, classical and modern poetry, and for the interest it has generated globally. Additionally, the festival has set a goal to harness the language of poetry in all its superiority and eloquence as an effective avenue for promoting cultural dialogue.
Jamal Bin Huwaireb Al Muhairi, Chairman of the DIPF Organizing Committee, said: "We have invited a premier group of poets from the Arab region and the world representing diverse cultures and different schools of poetry. We will offer the public an unprecedented opportunity to savour the poets' body of work and discuss with them the poetic concepts, techniques and literary style.
"We have also ensured that the festival will take place in multiple locations to be accessible to most poetry lovers who would like to follow and participate."
Born in 1934, Wole Soyinka is one of the prominent contemporary African writers and a firm advocate of African identity, culture and social order. Soyinka is also a playwright, novelist, critic, lecturer, translator, and a publisher.
