Gilan Culture and Islamic Guidance Department plans to organize the second International Imam Reza (AS) Weblog Festival coinciding with the Fifth Imam Reza (AS) Artistic and Cultural Festival, which will be held from November 12-22.
According to MNA, the event will seek to draw the attention of the youth to Islamic tenets by using information technology.
The festival will focus on literary pieces, a letter to Imam Reza (AS) and poetry about him, spiritual dimensions of Imam Reza (AS) personality, photos of Imam Reza (AS) shrine and his impact on the lives of Iranians.
Enthusiasts can refer to the site www.Guilanblogtest.ir to fill in the related form and submit a maximum of five pages of material by October 22 at the latest.
The weblog festival’s award ceremony, in which leading figures will be honored, is to be held on November 12, concurrent with the birth anniversary Hazrat Masoumeh (SA), the sister of Imam Reza (AS), the Eighth Imam of the infallible household of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Top three works will be awarded expense-paid visits to Mecca in Saudi Arabia (5 million rials) while two others will receive the costs of a pilgrimage to Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi province.
Three best works in the foreign section will be presented $1,000 each.

A music group titled ’Iranian children’, organized by Soudabeh Salem, plans to perform a concert based on poems by renowned Iranian mystic and poet Jalaleddin Mohammad Rumi, known as Molana.
Speaking to CHN, Salem said that some of the pieces are based on Molana’s famous works such as ’Parrot and Merchant’ and ’Listen to the Reed Instrument’.
She added that other pieces are inspired by the rhythm of the poems, since this feature as well as the content of the poems is interesting for children.
Salem also said, “It is our duty to inform the public about Iranian literature, which is closely linked to traditional music. Thus, they would differentiate significant musical pieces from the weak types.“
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has designated 2007 as the ’Year of Molana’.

Some 100 paintings by contemporary Iranian artists, exhibited at Art London 2007 from October 4-8, were well received by visitors.
The event which was sponsored by Iran Heritage Foundation in London, brought together 30 Iranian artists, mostly residing in Iran.
According to CHN, the paintings express the paradox of frustration and hope which characterizes the environment in which contemporary Iranian art thrives.
Stating that visitors showed keen interest in purchasing Iranian artworks, director of the exhibition Ralph Ward-Jackson, said, “It was a great opportunity to cooperate with Iran Heritage Foundation and the country’s artistic society.“
Over 75 leading British and international galleries participated in Art London which featured paintings, sculpture, photography, works on paper and ceramics, ranging in price from £300 to over £100,000.
Anahita Rezvani-Rad, Farhad Moshiri, Shahriyar Ahmadi, Mostafa Dashti, Azarnoush Ebrahimi and Rezvan Sadeqzadeh, were among the artists whose works were displayed at the event.

A noted painter has said that transforming the house of noted contemporary poet Sohrab Sepehri into a museum is a good idea but there is a strong need for more museums to feature the works of other veteran artists.
Speaking to Fars news agency, Nosratollah Moslemian expressed pleasure over the news that Sepehri’s works will be displayed in this museum and hoped that the project will be materialized.
Commenting on the traits in Sepehri’s works, he also said that Sepehri managed to establish himself in the society as a poet and painter whose works influenced others beyond his time. This, he observed, shows the depth of his impact on art.
One of his main characteristics is that he could present his views about the world properly through his works, Moslemian said.
Stating that reflection of Sepehri’s thought in his works is a most important event for Iranian artistic ambience, he further said that few artists could have been able to convey his perceptions and attitude about the world so comprehensively. He further pointed out that Sepehri gained more fame in poetry than painting and this was due to the domination of poetry as well as its long history.
Moslemian further said that poetry as a media can convey concepts better than painting and presenting ideas through painting is more difficult than that in poetry.
Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980) was a notable modern Iranian poet and a painter. He was born in Kashan, Isfahan province. He is frequently considered one of the five famous modern Iranian poets to practice ’New Poetry’ (a kind of poetry that often has neither meter nor rhyme). He died in Tehran of leukemia. His poetry is full of humanity and concern for human values.

Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing, the prolific English novelist who crafted her reputation as a critic of colonial African society and whose career has spanned an occasionally bewildering range of styles and genres, has been awarded the Nobel prize for literature at the age of 87, reported FT.
The Swedish Academy described Ms Lessing as “that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny“.
She is the 11th woman to receive the literature prize since its inception in 1901, and the 34th woman Nobel laureate across all categories.
Ms Lessing is best known for her series of novels Children of Violence , written in the 1950s and featuring her heroine Martha Quest, whose growth in consciousness reflected the author’s concerns over social justice.
Her first, semi-autobiographical novel, The Grass is Singing , addressed the culture clashes and racial discrimination she encountered during her childhood in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where she moved with her parents at the age of six.
Ms Lessing, born in Iran, left school at the age of 14 and went on to work as a nanny, telephonist, office worker and stenographer before having several short stories published.
In 1939 she married Frank Charles Wisdom, with whom she had a son and a daughter. The couple divorced in 1943 and two years later she married Gottfried Lessing, whom she had met in a Marxist group and with whom she had a son.
She moved to Britain in 1949, joined the British Communist party and became a fierce critic of the South African regime.
In 1956, Ms Lessing was declared a prohibited alien in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa, a ban that was lifted in 1995.
In the 1960s the author broke new ground with The Golden Notebook, which examined the multiple aspects of the life of a woman, Anna Wulf, in an experimental style. The burgeoning feminist movement regarded it as a pioneering work.

Iranian illustrators put up a strong showing in the International Exhibition of Japanese Illustrated Children’s Books titled ’Dreamy Color Box’, which is currently underway in Tokyo and will continue until January 13.
Kimiko Sakai, an organizer of the event, told IRNA that the sketches on display include works which were awarded at the 15th Noma International Illustrations Competition in 2006.
The exhibit features works by 33 artists from Asia, Africa and South America along with 150 illustrated children books which were published in these continents.
Works by 17 Iranian painters who won prizes in the Noma Contest are on display and this means that more than half of the paintings featured in the exhibit are by Iranian artists, he further said.
At the 15th round of International Noma Illustrated Paintings, Narges Mohammadi from Iran won the grand award of the event.
’Princess Who Never Laughed’ is the name of a book illustrated by Mohammadi.
Mohammadi’s illustrations were widely displayed at the international event.

A collection of 170 puppets from 17 countries and Iranian cities is on show.

Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) will set up a puppet museum showcasing traditional dolls from around the world and Iran.
According to ISNA, a collection of 170 puppets from 17 countries and Iranian cities is on show these days.
According to an expert with the institute, these puppets are mainly traditional and national. A collection of marionettes will also be added as a preliminary step towards establishing a museum.
It is believed that the origin of these dolls goes back to Iranian culture and history.
Earlier, dolls from the Qajar era with an antiquity of more than two centuries were donated by the Asghari family to the Theatrical Production Center of IIDCYA.