Dagestanis have little interest in reading; and it is difficult to sell books, participants of "Tarki-Tau" Fair assert

Dagestan has no literary process, which should include publication of books and literary criticism, say the participants of the Dagestani Second Book Fair "Tarki-Tau", held in Makhachkala. Magomed-Rasul Rasulov, the Director of the "Dagestani Publishing House", has also noted the difficulties in distribution of books in the region and invited local authorities to participate in the process.

Writers in Dagestan have to sell their books themselves, but quite few of them have success, Mr Rasulov has added. According to his story, the problems of book sales could be solved if municipal administrations buy a small part of the circulation and distribute the books free of charge among residents of villages and cities.

Rasulov believes that there are people in Dagestan, who read in national languages, but they live in villages, where there are problems with book delivery.

According to Alisa Ganieva, a Dagestani writer, it is difficult to highlight some of the Dagestani writers, because the republic has a lot of untranslated literature in national languages.

"But I cannot but name the poets Fazir Mualim and Vadim Keramov, and a prose writer Gazimagomed Galbatsov. Their works have an unmistakable nerve of contemporaneity," she said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The Makhachkala residents, who have already visited the book fair, note a lack of interest in books among a broad range of people, as well as too many books about Dagestani officials, among the problems of modern national literature.