A few months ago when my friends were busy preparing my profile for Astrid Lingered Memorial Award, I was asked to write a note on my future projects. That day I wrote about holding a book festival for kids in Kashan town and I can now gladly say that mission is accomplished!
How to hold the festival was the most important thing in my mind. It was the first book festival for kids, which fulfilled all its requirements through local investment. Hotels and traditional hostels in Kashan were the main providers.
It was a five-day festival with plenty of amazing events. More than 60 Iranian writers and illustrators attended the festival, talking with their fans in schools, book stores and libraries. There were various workshops for kids and adults as well as poem and story reading sessions and a book and illustration fair. Selectees of this year’s int’l Isfahan film festival for children and youth were also shown and some theatre groups performed for kids.
The main theme of the festival was water. So the best books on the subject, written during the last five years, were judged and awarded. Besides, there was a completion for those whose books haven’t published yet. During a two-day workshop 8 young writers and 8 illustrators were helped to prepare their works to get published. The workshop was held in Kashan’s puppets museum and I was in charge of the first day which was a wonderful experience.
Coming up with the idea, I also played an active role in holding the festival. The Flying Turtle jury members and I had a big meeting on book reading with more than 100 teachers. After that, we had a friendly meeting with children and young adults. I also gave a speech in the prize-giving ceremony.
However, I guess the cooperation in recording more than 30 books for blind kids were the greatest part of the festival. The head of Torfeh library for the blind had asked me to record one of my books for the library before the festival began. I shared the idea with my fellow writers and it was enormously acclaimed. So numerous books were read by their authors in Torfeh recording studio during the festival and are now available for anyone interested.
