Himalayan Literature Festival (HLF), Nepal’s inaugural literary festival will be held on
May 27 and 28 as a culmination of New York Writers Workshop in Kathmandu (NYWW-
K) May 22-June 2, 2024) and will feature over 40 guest writers from five continents
along with over 50 Nepalese writers.


The festival will be dedicated to great Nepalese
poet, Gopal Prasad Rimal.
New York Writers Workshop, an alliance of published authors and professional writers
from the New York City is organizing an international conference and workshops in
Kathmandu beginning 22 May through 2 June 2024. where approximately 40
international authors and faculties around the world are participating in various
enthusiastic workshops on memoir, short story, poetry, non-fiction, photography among
others.


NYWW is an internationally known writing program and has held its previous
conferences in Athens, Greece, Sardinia, Italy, and throughout the New York City area,
with teaching faculty including prominent authors such as Pulitzer Award winning
Forrest Gander, Kim Addonizio, and Julia Prendergast.
The writings from the workshop shall be showcased in the Himalayan Literature
Festival, a two-day literature festival, (May 27-28) hosted by Kathmandu-based White
Lotus Book Shop where the international authors, faculties shall interact with over 50
Nepalese writers in various public readings and panel discussion.


The festival will be a fusion of authors participating in the NYWW workshop and authors
from around the world with a special focus on Nepalese and South Asian Writing. The
festival will be dedicated to the great Nepalese poet, Gopal Prasad Rimal. A book of
Rimal poems translated into English will be released to honor the legendary poet.
Panels and discussions such as Meditation and Imagination: Strategies for developing a
practice and bringing its experiences to the page, Psychoanalysis, Shamanism, and the
Problem of Character: a place where three-act structure meets the Zen koan,
Translating the Ghazal as American Blues: Cross-fertilization of forms, Stories on the
Couch, Characters on the Prayer Mat: What’s motivating the characters in our
respective narratives, the personae of our poems? What’s bothering them? Dream,
Story, Prayer, Chant: Modes of expression, their borders, and their crossings and
Mapping Your Journey with Words and Images: The photograph, the text, and their
relationships shall seek prominence during the workshop and the festival.
In attendance at the ceremony will Tim Tomlinson, President, New York Writers
Workshop. Yuyutsu RD Sharma, Himalayan poet & curator of Himalayan Literature
Festival, Lourdes Rodriguez Tomlinson, Program Coordinator, New York Writers
Workshop, Dr. Ravi Shankar, Board Member. Our faculty consists of Jami Proctor Xu,
Poet, Essayist, Translator, Julie Krishnan-Williams, International Photographer and
Teacher, Dr. Tony Barnstone, Professor Whittier College, California.


Also present will be Australian novelist and Ambassador to Nepal, Felicity Volk,
Australian novelist and Son Van and Dariusz Lebioda, poets from Poland, Gorka Lasa,
poet from Panama, Peter Allenspach and his wife Da Mao, poets from the US, Ruth
Danon, US Poet, Maria Claire Heath, English Poet, Vasilis Manousakis, poet, writer, and
educator from Greece, Neville Sarony, writer and performer from Hong Kong,
Laksmisree Banerjee and Divya Joshi from Infia, Inderjeet Mani, novelist from Thailand,
Brian Hou, Hong Kong photographer, Jane Houng, Hong Kong writer, musician,
philanthropist, Piia Mustamaki, writer and educator, NYU Abu Dhabi, Lizzie Packer,
Australian writer, as well as aspiring writers Kathleen Butler, Kathryn Kempf, Ann
Gordon, and Marianne Sciberras . In addition, over two dozen Nepalese authors
including Dwarika Shrestha, Shailendra Sakar, Narayan Wagle, Raj Kumar Baniya,
Narayan Dhakal, Nayan Raj Pandey, Akhand Bhandari, Deepak Sapkota, Mohraj
Sharma, Ken Subedi, Hom Paribag, Shyam Rimal, Amar Aakash, Bhuwan Thapalyia,
Vijay Gurung, Rajni Mila and others will join us.


The workshops and festival aim cultural exchanges where the West and East meet
each other and share their common myths, traditions, values, thoughts with each other.
The workshop sessions will be held in Kathmandu and Pokhara along the Lake Fewa at
the foothills of the Annapurna, with two featured sessions to be held in Changu
Narayan, the most ancient Hindu Temple, in Bhaktapur, at Pashupati shrine on the
shore of Bagmati river and Chitwan Jungle Lodge.