SOURCE: THE HINDU

Preliminary discussions to vie for the 'City of Literature' tag for Kozhikode have started under the aegis of the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation. A meeting of various stakeholders, including litterateurs, library associations, mediapersons and publishers, was held at the Corporation office on Friday, chaired by Mayor Beena Philip.

The first round of talks with the representatives of the University of Prague, Czech Republic, will be held on June 14. Friday's meeting was to discuss the topics that need to be presented before the representatives from Prague and prepare necessary documents. Groups were formed to present topics such as the cultural history of Kozhikode and collect details regarding Kozhikode-based litterateurs.

The meeting decided to invite poet K. Satchidanandan, the director of Kerala Literature Festival, to lead the discussions besides litterateurs such as N.P. Hafis Mohammed to present various topics.

The project is being proposed by the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) as part of its plan to develop six cities in the State as 'Creative Cities'. The branding is expected to help Kozhikode get a global reach. The city can organise innovative literary events featuring foreign writers.

As a preliminary step, Ludmila Kolouchova, a research student from the University of Prague, is studying the possibilities of Kozhikode in obtaining the tag while another research student Irene Ann Antony has joined her as a representative of KILA.