Poets Society expands to include writers
If you like literature but don’t exactly consider yourself a poet, the Belizean Poets Society is broadening its reach to include you as a member. Established in 2005, the group re-registered at the Belize Companies Registry and is now known as the Belizean Writers and Poets Society. Director of Operations for the Society, Kalilah Enriquez, says the time has come to expand.
Kalilah Enriquez, Director of Operations, Belizean Poets Society
“We’ve had a lot of people requesting to be members of the society, persons who didn’t necessarily consider themselves poets but who wrote short stories, wrote short short fiction, wrote short longer fiction, wrote short—even journalists. There some people who consider themselves writers but not necessarily poets who saw the benefit of joining an organisation like this. At the time we had limited ourselves to poets but almost three years into our existence now we see the benefit of expanding to include all of these people, bring them all under one umbrella organisation that we can represent, have more members, more like-minded people coming together working for the same cause.”
Marion Ali
“Does this local group link up with any international group like yourselves to maybe promote Belizeans more on the international scene?”
Kalilah Enriquez
“Currently no, but that is one of the reasons why we have decided to expand to include writers because we have made contact with an international group that represents Caribbean writers on a whole. They have indicated to us that for us to be a part of them we would need to be more inclusive to include not only poets but also writers and that is one of the reasons we decided to take this move.”
Enriquez says the Society will continue with its “Lik It’ Poetry Festival but they will now expand their range of activities. If you’re interested in becoming a member of the Society all you need to do is fill out an application form, which will be available at its launch ceremony tomorrow night. That event takes place at the Princess Hotel’s Calypso Restaurant starting at seven.
