The Punjabi Writers Forum is organizing a multilingual literary conference on Sunday, September 22. The Punjabi Writers Forum, also called Punjabi Lekhak Manch, Vancouver, is the oldest Punjabi literary organisation in Canada. Formed in 1973 as Punjabi Literary Society, Lekhak Manch is celebrating 40 years of creative writing this year and has organized  a series of literary events to mark the occasion.
The first inaugural event was held in March this year with two sessions of paper reading and panel discussion. The first session was dedicated to the Ghadar Centenary and papers on poetry of Ghadar movement were read followed by a panel discussion. There was also recitation of poetry written during the Ghadar movement. The afternoon session was dedicated to discussion about literature dealing with Dalit issues .
The second literary event was organized in Abbotsford and was hosted by the local Punjabi Sahit Sabha. In this event contemporary Punjabi novels and short stories being written in Canada were the topic of discussion. Papers were also read on Punjabi poetic forms Dohra and Kundlian.
The third and last commemorative event celebrating 40 years of creative writing by Punjabi Lekhak Manch will be held on September 22 at Newton Recreation Centre at 13730, 72nd Avenue in Surrey. The program will be a multilingual literary event where speakers will focus on contemporary English, Greek, Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi literature and writing in English by South Asian writers. The evening will end with poetry recitation, popularly known as Kavi Darbar in Punjabi.
For more information about the event contact Jarnail Singh Sekha at 604-543-8721, Nadeem Parmar at 604-298-2920, Ajmer Rode at 604-526-2342 or Jarnail Singh, artist, at 604-825-4659.