Veteran Iranian author Mahmoud Dowlatabadi attended the 25th Prague Writers’ Festival held earlier this month in the Czech capital.
The festival brought together prominent writers and thinkers from across the world, who addressed topics of violence and war.
Speakers from Iran, Iraq, the US, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic made speeches during the event, ISNA reported.
Dowlatabadi spoke on fear, violence and war and quoted from one of his books, ‘The Colonel’, which is about many elements of a revolution. Though it has been published overseas in English, German, French, Italian, and Norwegian, it is not available in Persian yet.
The event was held at the senate of the Czech Parliament and was open to the public. It provided a chance for the common people to interact with the speakers and discuss issues with them. The festival was broadcast live on Czech television and the Internet.
“I was supposed to attend three programs, a book reading session and two interviews with the publisher of my book,” Dowlatabadi said, “but due to the presence of an Israeli writer, I changed the schedules,” he added.
Dowlatabadi, 75, is a master in combining rural speech with the lyrical features of Persian poetry. He is particularly gifted in portraying the social and ethical problems of the poor, especially in rural areas where he grew up. His most famous novels are ‘Kelidar’ and ‘Missing Soluch’.
