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.

Geetanjali Shree's Partition novel 'Tomb of Sand' wins International Booker Prize 2022

Indian writer Geetanjali Shree became the first author from the country to win the International Booker Prize for her Hindi novel set in the aftermath of the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent.
27 May 2022

The invisible colours of yearning for home

Through eight short stories, Rumana Chowdhury’s Dusk in the Frog Pond and Other Stories (‎Inanna Publications, Toronto, 2021) brings to
25 May 2022

Marketing pills or monetizing pain? One family’s greed destroys thousands

Empire of Pain is a wondrous achievement of investigative journalism.
25 May 2022

Ira Mukhoty's ‘Song of Draupadi’: An inside story of the Mahābhārata heroines

Their voices were muffled; everything the women said became ventriloquism. Mukhoty lets us hear those voices.
25 May 2022

‘Luminaries of the Word’: Student designs video game on Bangladeshi women writers

"I selected excerpts from eight famous works, books like Begum Rokeya’s 'Motichur' and 'Ekattorer Diary' by Sufia Kamal, and expanded on their implied or intended meaning as best as I could."
25 May 2022

After I Go

After I go
20 May 2022

Lost in Translation

Back in 2013, my wife’s job took her to Kunming, the capital province of Yunnan in China. Google translator back then was in its infancy, and the amount of
20 May 2022

What we readers want from Zoya Akhtar’s ‘The Archies’

From the trailer it looks like Zoya Akhtar's Archies has a wider cast of main characters than Riverdale, but what we want to see is the original comics' innocence revisited.
18 May 2022

Enter 'Alphabetica': Vowels form a unique minority in Roy Phoenix’s satire

At its core, Alphabetica is a satire on majoritarianism.
18 May 2022

Sabiha Huq's 'The Aviary': History depicted by three Mughal princesses and a Kashmiri queen

Sabiha Huq excavates and discusses overlooked texts written by Muslim women and questions the position of women within Islamic cultures in South Asia at large.
18 May 2022

For fans of ‘Heartstopper’, an Alice Oseman reading guide

I wanted to share my personal reading order of Alice’s work and a glance into what you can expect from each.
18 May 2022

The Myth Bridge: Goethe Institut Bangladesh and HerStory Foundation revisit women of folklore through Dungeons and Dragons

Going live from May 15 is The Myth Bridge, a live-action simulation game that “[brings] to life” and connects nine women characters from Bengali and German folklore. 
17 May 2022

UPL launches book, ‘Millennial Generation in Bangladesh’

The book in question, according to the blurb on UPL’s website, asks noteworthy questions like, “How do [Millennials] identify themselves in the social and national contexts and how can the nation's framework work for their life strategy?” 
15 May 2022

My Defeat

Life is a battlefield. Every living species fights a different battle; therefore, I can only talk about mine.
13 May 2022

Tracing the Roots

When I look back to find the definitive moment when my writing habits took root, I can’t find it. It is a distant vanishing point from which everything radiated, or maybe there was not a single point or node from where it all began.
13 May 2022

Zahid Newaz’s ‘Shutrodhor’: A journey into our time

Shutrodhor (Abishkar Publication, 2021) starts with the disappearance of Anwar Ali. The sky-blue shirt that he wore on the day of his disappearance ends up at Rosario Automatic Dry Cleaners,
11 May 2022

Reading tips for a full-time working mom

As I wrote in “Motherhood—the story of a transformed reader”, my essay for Daily Star Books on International Mother’s Day on
11 May 2022

ULAB English department to launch Literary Salon on Saturday

In an initiative that is first of its kind, the Department of English and Humanities at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh is launching the ULAB Literary Salon on Saturday, May 14.
11 May 2022

Is there a way out of the ethno-political cauldron in India’s far-east?

After describing why this region is India’s gateway to realising its eastern ambitions, Sudeep soon cuts to the chase, stating that the Naga peace process is central to establishing peace in Nagaland and Manipur.
11 May 2022

The 'idol-breaker' of Iran: poet Forough Farrokhzad

She would be the first woman in the history of Persian literature to publish poems that spoke openly of women, sexuality, longings, and equality.
10 May 2022
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