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.

Ramadan Maghfirat: How I channelled my rage into inspiration for Sehri Tales

I channelled my hurt, anger and frustration into poetry and flash fiction that had nothing to do with my agitator and her cronies.
21 April 2022

‘IS CHINA ENCIRCLING INDIA?’: A question worth asking

Aminul Karim rightly believes that China's race for dominance will continue unabated. He also believes that in spite of that, a kind of Asian peace "should prevail". No one will contest this idea, but whether it will prevail depends to a large extent on the behaviour of the protagonists.
20 April 2022

WORLD BOOK DAY: Books about books

For World Book Day on April 23, we bring together a list of books about books as a means to glimpse at and tap into the vast knowledge, power, and pleasure that is to be found in these complex objects. Are they, indeed, just objects? Or historical artefacts? Or weapons?
20 April 2022

Amitava Kumar's 'A Time Outside This Time': An elegant meditation on the lies we tell

At the start of Amitava Kumar’s latest novel, A Time Outside This Time (Aleph Book Company, 2021), the main character Satya, an Indian-born US-based journalist, is at a swanky artists’ retreat in Italy where he is reading 1984
20 April 2022

The longstanding fascination with Regency romance

How is it that the privileged lives of the British upper classes, in a period of time which lasted arguably less than a decade, have managed to leave behind such an impressive legacy in English literature?
18 April 2022

aqua green, your icy blue

now i see you in summer the kind  that came, before rain  could  settle us April, the beginning of it -
15 April 2022

“In the sky of knowledge, there are no borders”

“Today it seems to me that every festival in Santiniketan offered homage to the seasons in some form or other… Much later I learnt that the festivals of Santhals and other Adivasis are the expressions of respect for farming and forest life. There are forms of nature worship based on an advantage of the earth as a primal mother.”
15 April 2022

Baishakh Scenes from Days in Old Dhaka

The Baishakhi fairgrounds is just a stone’s throw away from the Doyagonj Bridge, where grandpa always takes Rony for afternoon walks.
15 April 2022

From Syed Shamsul Haque’s Stanzas of Summer & Spring

My city has turned off all its lights. And then someone has muddied, all the road-marks and signs.
15 April 2022

Amartya Sen’s ‘Home in the World’: The life of an intellectual

“When I was born, Rabindranath persuaded my mother that it was boring to stick to well-used names and he proposed a new name for me…Amartya”, writes the author and economist.
13 April 2022

Christy Lefteri's 'Songbirds': The invisible life of migrant domestic workers

“Absence is the highest form of presence.” This Joycean quote could not be truer for Nisha.
13 April 2022

KALBOISAKHI

The very day in bless’d disarray, this is no time to stay in place. As begging kids and homeless dogs flee the chasing skies above,
8 April 2022

SAARC Literary Festival: Speaking up for a Cleaner World

This past March, Sahitya Akademi and Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL) arranged an online Literature Conference on “Environment and Literature” with participation from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
8 April 2022

Kabuliwala and Other Stories: A NOTEWORTHY VENTURE IN THE FIELD

Kabuliwala and Other Stories is a collection of twelve outstanding stories of Rabindranath Tagore, translated into English by Prof Shawkat Hussain, a former professor of the Department of English, University of Dhaka.
8 April 2022

Expect

Etched a figurine, taking dots and lines and curves Xeroxed our desires weaving through the blurs
8 April 2022

Arshi Mortuza explores mental health and identity crises in ‘One Minute Past Midnight’

Reversal of fairy tale tropes and themes of mental health and alienation run dominantly across One Minute Past Midnight (Nymphea Publications, 2022), a debut collection of poetry and prose by poet and teacher Arshi Mortuza. 
8 April 2022

Carole Angier on writing the biography of WG Sebald

In Speak, Silence: In Search of W.G. Sebald (Bloomsbury, 2021), you write that the author’s British publisher, Christopher MacLehose, was in a dilemma to decide on Sebald’s genre of writing. After writing about his novel and his life for so long, how would you define Sebald’s genre?
6 April 2022

Lee Lai's 'Stone Fruit': Jokes, rhymes, and the depths of relationships

One of the most searing scenes in Lee Lai’s magnificent graphic novel, Stone Fruit (Fantagraphics, 2021) is when a young child, Nessie,
6 April 2022

Why it’s okay to forget the books you read

What makes them my favourites, if I can’t remember the names of the engrossing characters or the details of the intricate plots in some of my “favourite” books?
6 April 2022

Sri Lankan lives in turmoil: A riotous rendition of “Funny Boy”

Selvadurai’s book, set against the backdrop of escalating political tension in Sri Lanka prior to the 1983 riots, portrays the effect of the Tamil-Sinhalese clash on the personal lives of his characters, before giving a glimpse of the riots in the very last chapter.
5 April 2022
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