Star Books Report

The bilingual poetry collection Adivasi Premikar Mukh: The Portrait of an Adivasi Beloved, (Oitijjhya, 2026) by journalist, poet, and fiction writer Ehasan Mahamud was launched on Monday, May 18, at the Kabi Shamsur Rahman Seminar Room of Bangla Academy, Dhaka. The event was organised by Oitijjhya Publications and moderated by Mostafa Mushfiq.

Adivasi Premikar Mukh: The Portrait of an Adivasi Beloved (Oitijjhya, 2026), a bilingual poetry collection by journalist, poet, and fiction writer Ehasan Mahamud, is set to be launched today, Monday, May 18, at the Kabi Shamsur Rahman Seminar Room of Bangla Academy, Dhaka. The event is organised by Oitijjhya Publications and begins at 4:00 PM.

Bengal Shilpalay in Dhanmondi, Dhaka hosted a two-day literary event on May 15 and 16, consisting of a memorial lecture and a discussion session organised by Bengal Foundation and Kali O Kalam. The event, organised with the participation of prominent researchers, writers, and artists of the country—brought up literature, culture, social thought, and various contemporary issues.

The winners of the 2026 Pulitzer Prizes have been announced, recognising publications, publication staff, individual journalists, and authors across 23 award categories for journalism, reporting, criticism, photography, authorship, and overall excellence in their fields. The winners for each category were announced on May 4,2026 via live broadcasts on the Pulitzer Prizes website and YouTube channel.

Two Bangladeshi writers—26-year-old Anmana Manishita, a lecturer at BRAC University, and 33-year-old Shazed Ul Hoq Abir, a lecturer at East West University—have been shortlisted for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Two Palestinian writers, Omar Hamad and Ibrahim Massri, have been working since late 2025 to build a library in Gaza during the ongoing genocide. The Phoenix Library is located in the heart of Gaza City and, per a post from the library’s Twitter/X account, is fast approaching its official opening date despite the Gaza Strip and all of occupied Palestine still being subject to Israeli apartheid violence.

Celebrated author and activist Arundhati Roy’s 2025 memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me (Penguin, 2025) continues to solidify its place in the zeitgeist and its cultural impact well into 2026, with its recent win at this year’s US National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Award in the Autobiography category.

Rishad Choudhury, a historian and Assistant Professor of History at Oberlin College, has been awarded the 2026 Bernard S. Cohn Prize by the Association for Asian Studies for his book Hajj Across Empires: Pilgrimage and Political Cultures After the Mughals, 1739-1857 (Cambridge, University Press, 2004).