Essay / Celebrating literary minds: Reflections on editing festschrifts

26 September 2026 • Essay
“Festschrift” is a German word coined in the 19th century by combining ”fest”, meaning “celebration” or “festival,” with ”schrift”, meaning “writing” or “script,” to signify “celebration writing” or “festival publication.”

Literary Curtains / Patriarchy inversed: Reimagining Rokeya’s Ladyland in 2026

“Ladyland is not perfect,” remarks Sultana, one of the protagonists in the much awaited play, “Project Ladyland 2026”. Produced by HerStory Foundation in collaboration with the British Council and Women of the World Foundation, the play was greeted by a full house this weekend. Staged at the Bangladesh Mohila Samiti theatre, the performance made a splash on Friday, August 14.
Event Report / Special Discussion Marks Abul Hasnat’s Birth Anniversary: ‘Nabiner Shahittya: Shwapna O Shwapnabhongo’
19 July 2026
A special literary discussion titled ‘Nabiner Shahittya: Shwapna O Shwapnabhongo’ was held on Friday, July 17, 2026, at 5:00 P.M. on the third floor of Bengal Shilpalay in Dhanmondi, Dhaka. This discussion was organised to commemorate the birth anniversary of distinguished poet, essayist, and literary editor Abul Hasnat. The event brought together prominent writers and editors to discuss the literary pursuits of emerging authors and the pivotal role editors play in nurturing new literary voices.
News Report / Jamir Nazir wins 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize following AI review
3 July 2026
Set in rural Trinidad, “The Serpent in the Grove” explores themes of betrayal, survival and the resilience of a woman's will.

How Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’ changed my life

Metaphors have never made more sense to me than when these two swapped but intertwined lives personified India and Pakistan, the two newborn countries, whose births were marked by blood, pain and trauma.
14 August 2022

How I feel about Virginia Woolf being part-Bengali

Maybe I loved her so because we were daughters of the same soil, to some extent, at least. It made me smile. But I also sneered at myself a little bit, because her soil had also ripped apart mine for over 200 years.
13 August 2022

Shamsur Rahman, Al Mahmud, Shaheed Quaderi translated in new Bangla Academy book

The poems of Shamsur Rahman, Al Mahmud, and Shahid Qadri have been translated by Kaiser Haq, M Harunur Rashid, Kabir Chowdhury, Zillur Rahman Siddiqui and Rifat Munim for the edition.
13 August 2022

Bangabandhu’s speech at the national literature conference in Bangla Academy

Honourable president [of Bangla Academy], president of the reception committee, guests from abroad, representatives from the diplomatic corps and the respected audience,
12 August 2022

ULAB Lit Salon to host discussion on Partition and its aftermath on August 13

The event will discuss the Bengal Partition of 1905, a second Partition of Bengal—and the Indian subcontinent in 1947—and the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. The Salon will showcase aspects of these partitions, living histories that bind India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
12 August 2022

International Youth Day: Why I enjoy reading YA books as an adult

We are drawn to stories about first experiences, and YA literature is rich with it. First experiences draw us in because they are the crucible for change.
12 August 2022

STAR BOOK TALK: The books that made Kaiser  

Based heavily on Rakib Hasan’s series of detective novels called Teen Goyenda, Hoichoi’s Kaiser is part tribute to the genre of detective novels and part beckoning call for viewers to return to the excitement of reading books.
11 August 2022

Niaz Zaman's 'An Ekushey Anthology': Reminiscing Ekushey, 70 years on

Zaman has classified the pieces in two groups: "the early stories focus on the events that took place on 21 February—the processions, the police action and the deaths—while the later ones show how the attitude to Bangla has changed in these 70 years.
10 August 2022

The books that made ‘Kaiser’

Hoichoi’s Kaiser, released on July 8, 2022, is part tribute to the genre of detective novels and part beckoning call for viewers to return to the excitement of reading books. Everything from the premise—based heavily on Rakib Hasan’s series of detective novels called Teen Goyenda—to the set design, character development and plot twists, rely on books as both objects and intellectual stimuli.
10 August 2022

To trace back a tapestry of trauma: Partition inherited

Perhaps the book's best aspect is how it allows space for the stories of those who perpetrated violence during Partition.
10 August 2022

Gaiman’s Paradox: When adaptations are overanalysed

The approach to critiquing any adaptation is to judge it as a separate piece of work, rather than as a companion piece for the book.
10 August 2022

Karma

A poem about the modern way of life
10 August 2022

‘Indigenous In the Edge’ outlines lives of 17 ethnic groups in Bangladesh

Members of each community have reviewed the information that attempts to offer insight into the histories, homes, the clans and tribes that make up each community, the food habits and religious and cultural practices, and the languages, written and oral, they employ. 
9 August 2022

Netflix’s ‘The Sandman’ re-creates Neil Gaiman’s world in its own image

If you didn’t read The Sandman, watch The Sandman. If you read The Sandman, don’t expect the same magic as in the pages.
7 August 2022

Book news: ‘Banglar Rock Metal’ charts history of Bangla band music

The “Bangladeshi rock band encyclopaedia” is authored by music journalists Milu Aman and Haque Faruk, depicting the chronological history of 180 music bands in the country.
7 August 2022

Tagore’s Gitabitan and the bookshelf of a Bengali household

It has been 81 years today since Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali polymath, poet, composer and the first Bengali Nobel Laureate, breathed his last. In these 81 years, much has changed in the world, including the modernisation of his compositions. Tagore’s songs—Rabindra Sangeet, as they are known—are still popular amongst Bengali music lovers.
6 August 2022

Shohorbanu

“Bhabi, do you remember Banu?” my paternal aunt Janu phupi asks Amma. We are in the middle of a grand celebration—I am getting married and today is my gaye-holud. My grandmother barks, “Don’t mention that ill-fated girl now. She tricked us all.”
5 August 2022

Sara Ahmed’s “complaint biography” and Affective Reflections on Our Institutional Ethics

The world is encountering an unprecedented scale of injustices all over. Each of us is replete with a never-ending number of complaints.
5 August 2022

DhakaYeah designs book cover for HarperCollins India

The novel, first published in Bangla as Narach, is set in late 19th century colonial Bengal. 
5 August 2022

I write a name.—An ode to imagination

Imagination is the capacity to explore that "something else way down." 
5 August 2022
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