KUWAIT CITY, March 1, (KUNA): A book about the cultural life in Kuwait since the earliest days of the nation has gone into its third printing, announced its publisher the National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters on Monday. Spanning the cultural renaissance in Kuwait in four separate chapters, author Dr Khalifa al-Weqayyan, deals in the first chapter with the nascent interest in cultural affairs by the early society of Kuwait, whose beginnings were modest in all facets of life.
In the second chapter, he notes the start of publishing books and periodicals, particularly in the seminal year of 1928, right up through the early sixties.
He reviews in the third chapter the various nationalist and reformist and democratic political attitudes among the population around the middle of the last century.
In the fourth chapter the author gives a wide rundown of the development of creative forces in writing poetry, novels and in the fine arts, theater, and music.
The first edition of the book, titled Culture in Kuwait:Beginnings and Growth, had been granted the award for best author writing about Kuwait at the 32nd Kuwait Book Fair.
Meanwhile, Kuwaiti publications on display at its pavilion at the 15th Muscat International Book Fair have been greatly popular among visitors, showcasing work by the Ministry of Information, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS), and the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature (NCCAL).
In a statement to KUNA, Director of Media Activities at the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information Awad Al-Fiker noted that the pavilion was cleared out of books shortly after the opening of the exhibition.
This indicates the intellectual awareness of the Omani public, who chose the publications that most intresting to them, especially the female gender.
The exhibition attracted people of different ages and gender. Al-Fiker said that the participants in the exhibition represented 620 different governmental bodies, displaying more than 60,000 titles.
He noted the ministry’s keenness to participate annually in the book fair given the great turnout at the pavilion, saying that the public was always interested in publications on display that were telling of the development of Kuwait’s culture and arts movement.
Twenty-seven Arab and foreign countries are participating in the book fair.