New York Writers Workshop (NYWW) has announced it will host its 2024 conference in Kathmandu, beginning 22 May through 2 June 2024.

Designed as the Himalayan Writers Retreat, the conference will feature prominent authors including world-renowned Himalayan poet Yuyutsu Sharma, distinguished American poet and editor Tony Barnstone, acclaimed Asian-American poet and Memoirist Ravi Shankar, NYU professor and distinguished writer Tim Tomlinson among others. The workshop will culminate in an international Himalayan Literary Festival hosted by White Lotus Book Shop, Kathmandu.

NYWW is an internationally known writing program and has held its previous conferences in Athens, Greece, Sardinia, Italy, and throughout the New York City area, with teaching faculty including prominent authors such as Forrest Gander, Kim Addonizio, and Julia Prendergast.

In the words of NYWW Director and NYU professor, Tim Tomlinson, “The Nepal chapter of the workshop is going to be a very rich, rewarding experience for its participants.”

“It’s a dream project,” opines Tony Barnstone, Professor of English, Environmental Studies, and Global and Cultural Studies, Whittier College, California. “I look forward to revisiting Nepal to join this marvelous international event.”

The Himalayan festival will be a fusion of authors participating in the NYWW workshop and authors from around the world with a special focus on Nepalese and South Asian Writing. The festival will be dedicated to the great Nepalese poet, Gopal Prasad Rimal. A book of Rimal poems translated into English will be released to honor the legendary poet.

“The 2024 NYWW is going to be a boon for the literary world worldwide,” says Yuyutsu Sharma, curator of the Nepal Chapter of the Conference and the Himalayan festival. “It is going to be the first of its kind in the South Asian region and usher new dimensions to multicultural literary discourse and bring forth a flood of creativity to strengthen the bond between creative writers of far-flung nations.”

The workshop will involve panels, workshops, readings, and cultural excursions, and its outcome will be featured in Pratik Magazine’s Special NYWW Kathmandu Issue.

The workshop sessions will be held in Kathmandu and Pokhara along the Lake Fewa at the foothills of the Annapurna, with two featured sessions to be held in Changu Narayan, the most ancient Hindu Temple, in Bhaktapur, and at Pashupati shrine on the shore of Bagmati river. A special session exploring creative writing in terms of trance and initiation will be held in the presence of Himalayan shamans.

“To teach with the New York Writers Workshop is my life’s most endearing activity, I eagerly look forward to its chapter in the Himalayan nation,” Ravi Shankar pointed out.