Tasnim Naz

In August 2026, we sat down with Lucky Karim—a fellow at Refugees International and a refugee and human rights activist from Burma (Myanmar).

Shazia Omar’s Being Water is a deeply introspective novel about grief, trauma, and the slow, often painful journey towards healing. Soon to be published by Om Books International, the book explores the ‘low hum’ of repressed trauma and the exhausting effort of maintaining a functional facade in the wake of tragedy.

The story marks a quiet departure from Obayed Haq’s recent releases, while also hinting at the pitfalls of modernity. In today’s fast-paced world, amid the noise and light pollution of everyday life, Obayed Haq’s protagonist reminds readers to slow down, or at least to take a long, hard look at our easy enmeshment with the “modern” life.

Dr Seely’s story in Bangladesh begins in Barisal Zilla School in 1963, while working as a volunteer for the American Peace Corps.

The event commenced with a promise of memorable tales about memory, femininity, modernity, identity, and more

Obayed Haq’s Bangla novel, Arkathi, is almost a bildungsroman tale filled with adventure and self-reflection. In true bildungsroman fashion, where the protagonist progresses into adulthood with room for growth and change, a bulk of Haq’s novel talks about the spiritual journey that an orphan, Naren, takes through a forest in order to mature, and comes out on the other side to realise a community’s deep, hidden truth.

'I would like to see more writing coming out of Bangladesh,' Shazia Omar said. 'We are still behind'

Anne was a realistic novelist—and one who was very much ahead of her time. She was a fiery feminist, and dismissive of creating any Gothic atmosphere