The Sixth Biennial Convention of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina will pay tribute to veteran Iranian writer Mahmoud Dowlatabadi.
IBNA: The Association for the Study of Persianate Societies (ASPS) is an organization for researchers and scholars interested in the culture and civilization of the Persian-speaking societies and related areas in the Iranian civilizational area.
The Association's biennial conference has been held in India, Pakistan, Georgia and Armenia since its inauguration in Tajikistan in 2002. Eight regional branches give the ASPS an international presence.
This year, noted Iranian writer Mahmoud Dowlatabadi will be praised by ASPS.
The ceremony has been arranged by Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, a professor at the University of Maryland and a member of the organizing committee of the congress, ASPS has reported on its website.
Artistic Director Ariana Barkeshli from Dutchess Community College is due to give a piano performance at the ceremony as well.
Born in 1940, short-story writer and novelist Dowlatabadi was the most prominent Iranian novelist of the 1980s. Self-educated and forced to work from childhood, he spent part of his younger adult years as a stage actor in Tehran.
‘The Colonel’, ‘Kalidar’, ‘Desert Strata’, ‘The Trip’, ‘The Legend of Baba Sobhan’, ‘Missing Soluch’ are among his credits.
‘The Colonel’ has not been released in Iran yet however it is available in German, English and Italian. The work has been nominated for several literary prizes so far including the Man Booker Prize.
Over 250 scholars from different countries are participating in the ongoing congress (September 2-6, 2013) in which topics such as “Iranian National Traditions”, “Safavids: History and Diplomacy”, “Themes in Persian Myth and History”, “Ancient Contacts Between Iran and The Balkans”, and “Social and Political Currents of Modern Iranian History” are being discussed.
Source: Iran Book News Agency (IBNA)
