Established in 2018, the Chair Poetry Evenings – Kolkata’s International Poetry Festival has since become one of the largest poetry festivals in the world. The very first edition of the festival saw poets from Belgium, Slovakia, France, Ireland and various parts of India take part in it. Chair Poetry Evenings presents poets from around the globe “with an eye to tell stories through those voices which have enabled poetry to come thus far over time.” Events from the festival are hosted across several venues in Kolkata. Presenting eminent names in poetry from across the world, the festival has featured poets from over 20 countries reading in 25 different languages so far. It is “one of the few festivals where a poetry reading is held on a river cruise down the Ganga.”
Organised by the Chair Literary Trust, the “participants in the festival have ranged from Poet Laureates to Man Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Sahitya Akademi and other international award winners”. Some of the noteworthy names to have featured in the Chair Poetry Evenings so far include Ben Okri, Vijay Sheshadri, Forrest Gander, Manglesh Dabral, Rajesh Joshi, Arun Kamal, Ruth Padel and Brian Turner.