Essay / Celebrating literary minds: Reflections on editing festschrifts
26 September 2026
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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.”
Creative Nonfiction / Birthdays to remember
26 September 2026
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Creative non-fiction
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Lost in translation, looking for home
25 September 2026
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Books & Literature
INTERVIEW / In conversation with Lucky Karim: The story behind ‘Born Lucky’
25 September 2026
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Books & Literature
Inside Asia’s Hidden Heritage Treasures: ANN releases new e-book on continent’s shared culture
24 September 2026
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Books & Literature
News Report / NSU Writing Center offers certificate course for professionals
21 September 2026
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News
Fiction / The winter ballot
19 September 2026
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Fiction
Poetry / Four poems on healing
19 September 2026
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Poetry
Poetry / Sacred sorrows
19 September 2026
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Poetry
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 / Kobitabela: a soulful afternoon
9 September 2026
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.
The shelf / 7 Asian healing fiction recommendations for rainy days
18 June 2026
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The Shelf
You know when the sky trades its brightness for a low, silver hue, and you wrap your fingers tightly around your tea, seeking that small, steady pulse of warmth. This is the essence of healing fiction. Often rooted in the Japanese concept of iyashikei, these stories focus on the quiet spirit through small, everyday moments. You may have already heard of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop or We’ll Prescribe You a Cat. While those popular favourites have opened a door for many, there are a few other tales worth the read.
Reflections / In the age of AI allegations
13 June 2026
Fiction / Body Selim
18 April 2026
Submission and surveillance in Suzanne Collins’ dystopia
Twelve years ago, Suzanne Collins introduced us to The Hunger Games (Scholastic Press), a dystopian world where children fight to their televised deaths in a brutal annual competition.
2 September 2020
BACK TO SCHOOL: Campus novels worth revisiting
Instead of the thrill of meeting friends and professors in a bustling, energised campus, going back to school only involves a computer this September.
2 September 2020
There will be darkness again
As humans we teeter on the oddest of precipices. We are only animals: apes unusually adept at surviving Earth’s harsh playbook for life. Like the multitude of organisms we share it with, we live, multiply, and without exception, we die.
2 September 2020
A Book, a Bookstore, a City and the Aftermath
During the long lockdown in early 2020, I took stock of my shelvedunread books. A mint-green hardback covered book-spine caught my eye;A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
28 August 2020
Take My Breath Away
They say that life is not measured
by the number of breaths we take
But by the moments
that take our breath away.
28 August 2020
The Door
She knocks on the door,
The door-bell is broken; a sculpture of unknown figure hangs on the wall,
The door is solid, but not made of Mahogany wood.
28 August 2020
Crimes that history cannot absolve
Korean literature has been enjoying a literary renaissance for quite some time through translation, from the likes of Hang Kang’s beguiling yet gruesome novel, The Vegetarian (2007) to Yeonmi Park’s heart wrenching memoir, In Order to Live (2015).
26 August 2020
Bollywood’s ‘The Fault in Our Stars’: Okay? Not Okay?
When The Fault in Our Stars (2012) first released, it brought on a powerful surge of change, not only in our reading lists, but in our perception of terminal and mental diseases and even to the genre itself.
26 August 2020
The stillness of human wandering
When we think of migration, the images in our collective narratives are constructed primarily with masses of people on the move, leaving places they belong in for foreign lands. In her latest book, Sonia Shah, an American science journalist and author, critically takes apart the boundaries around human wandering both in our lands and our mind-sets.
26 August 2020
New publication on UK Bengali settlement out on Kindle
Migration of Bengalis from South Asia to the outside world started with taking up jobs as lascars (sailors) in the British East India Company's ships which carried precious goods from the Indian subcontinent, such as spice, tea and cotton. In addition, from the second half of the nineteenth century, Bengali educated and wealthy gentlemen began travelling to England mainly to pursue higher education.
22 August 2020
Substitute Cook
Last November, our elderly maid servant Fatema’s ma who works full-time at our house, wanted to take leave to get her son married. Of course, I agreed immediately. But she would be gone for about two weeks and hence she proposed that her eldest son’s wife might work in her absence.
21 August 2020
Poetry
The river wept, as we left
But its tears were not for us.
21 August 2020
Moving On
Flowers on Facebook —
Violet, red, yellow, orange —
splashed a welcome
into a garden never visited
21 August 2020
Maya
I’m telling you
amidst the whispering cropped-headed paddy field,
in the lore of these reeds,
in the orchestra of these auburn after-harvest field
by the seedlings that crack this soil--
I am their spokesperson.
21 August 2020
Are we reading ‘A Seaman’s Wife’ the right way?
Something that has always fascinated me about Bangladeshi literature is it’s attachment to and exploration of space—be it in prose, poetry, or music, almost all Bangladeshi and even Bengali literary work engages with how we are impacted by land, home, country, season, and other natures of charged atmosphere.
19 August 2020
Humanity, freedom, and magic realism in the face of authoritarian powers in Iran
The novel is told from the perspective of a 13-year-old girl. Bahar died in a fire after her family home—a secular and intellectual space—in Tehran is stormed by fanatics.
19 August 2020
SHUTTER STORIES: Books to read on World Photography Day
Ironically a book without images or photographs, On Photography collects American philosopher, filmmaker and activist Susan Sontag’s essays on the history of photography, its inherent voyeurism, and how it affects the way we perceive and experience the modern world through an often capitalist lens.
19 August 2020
A Burning: Good Books Are Hard to Read
Good books – even as they are arresting – are often hard to read. This is not because they are difficult in themselves so much because oftheir content.
14 August 2020
I’m Not Here to Shed Blood this Day
Like everyone else present here, I, too am so fond of roses,
14 August 2020
Poetry of Nirmalendu Goon
How Freedom Became Our Own Word
14 August 2020
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