The 16th Vietnam Poetry Day is scheduled to take place from February 27 to March 2 in Hanoi with a wide range of activities, said poet Huu Thinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Writers Association.

The 15th Vietnam Poetry Day at Van Mieu - Quoc Tu Giam

Themed “Literature accompanying the nation”, the event will begin with a workshop featuring Vietnam’s current poetic issues on February 27, followed by another seminar on fiction reform on February 28 in response to the novel contest in 2017-2020 launched by the association.

Poetry contests and art performances will take place on March 1 at Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam (Temple of Literature).

The 16th Vietnam Poetry Day will officially kick off on March 2, the 15th day of the first lunar month, at Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam.

This year’s event will welcome four members from Japan’s poets association to exchange with Vietnamese poetry lovers. 

Additionally, a special space will be designed for children. 

Poet Huu Thinh said the organising board has selected ‘sail’ as a symbol of this year’s event.

A photo exhibition on Vietnamese writers who participated in the General Offensive and Uprising in the Spring of 1968 will be held on the margin of the event.

Such activities are important steps to turn the Vietnam Poetry Day into the Vietnam Literature Day, Thinh added. 

Since its debut on Nguyen Tieu (the 15th day of the first lunar month) in 2003, the Vietnam Poetry Day, the biggest poetry festival in the country, has become a national tradition, taking place in the spring of each year. 

Starting out as an initiative of the Vietnam Writers' Association, the Poetry Day has been organised in many provinces and cities to honour poetry, which has been an integral part of Vietnamese culture for thousands of years.-VNA