TEHRAN -- The 7th Fajr International Poetry Festival will open during a ceremony on Khark Island in the Persian Gulf today.
The festival will run for 20 days on the island and the cities of Gorgan, Qazvin, Kerman, Hamedan, Ardebil, Mashhad and Shiraz, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini said in a press conference on Sunday.
He said that the organizers plan to select the poet who has been Iran’s most influential over the past decade by a poll that will be carried out during the festival.
Over 2000 poets from Iran and 15 other countries have been invited to the event.
Literati from the Persian-speaking countries are also scheduled to attend the festival.
Festival secretary Reza Hamidi said last December that experts from Poland and other European countries have applied to participate in the festival.
“Under the new regulations, they must travel to Iran on their own expense,” he added.
SB/YAW
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