CHENNAI: Singapore will be hosting the first international conference on Diaspora Tamil literature in October this year as part of the Singapore Writers Festival.Briefing reporters in the city on Wednesday, Naa Aandeappan, the president of Association of Singapore Tamil Writers and chairman of the conference-organising committee, said: “The World Tamil Writers Conference (WTWC) will be held for three days from October 28 at the Republic Polytechnic and the theme of the international conference is Diaspora Tamil Literature: New Perspectives, New Paths.” “We expect the participation of more than 300 literary scholars from various countries and from Tamil Nadu alone, about 100 scholars are expected to attend,” Aandeappan told reporters.The conference will bring together over 20 eminent scholars, authors and editors from at least 10 countries such as Australia, US, Canada, France, Germany, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, UK and Singapore. “We have been considering it for more than 10 years but the plan did not work out for several reasons. It has long been the dream of this association to organise a WTWC,” he said.“After much deliberation and planning we approached the National Arts Council (NAC) under Singapore’s Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts last year and they readily agreed to support the Conference,” he added.Students from the State doing research on Singapore and Malaysia’s Tamil literary works, would be given a concession, if they wished to participate in the conference, Aandeappan added.The three-day conference, which has been divided into seven sittings, will provide an overview of the development of Tamil literary writings across the diaspora and an analysis of special characteristics and current trends.Maalan, ex-editor of Express group’s Tamil daily Dinamani, will be presenting a paper at the conference.
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