An editorial council set up to preserve, protect and promote the literatures of small ethnic groups of the Chukotka Autonomous Area has held its first meeting, reads a statement on the official website of the area government.

The meeting was chaired by Yelena Yevtyukhova, head of the department of small indigenous peoples in the administration of the Chukotka governor.

The participants discussed the implementation of a program to support the ethnic literatures of Russian peoples in 2016-2017 and selected poets whose works would be published in a collection of poetry of Russian peoples. The candidates must have verses written in the ethnic languages of Russian peoples after 1991. The council has selected three candidates from Chukotka: Zoya Nenlyumkina, Valentina Itevtegina (Veket) and Yekaterina Rultyneut.

The editorial council of the Chukotka Autonomous Area was created to promote the literatures of small ethnic groups living in Chukotka as part of the common Russian cultural and literary environment and to help popularize them to the public at large.