Creative nonfiction / Growing up with a new nation: The Dhaka we once knew

Beneath the ocean of a cave  Are you not born with bareness?

She told me in her last visit— “Hold on to hope, my child.

Having jotted down the iambic stanzas on the chopping board and collected the veggies alive from the realms of metaphors that smell the labor of her regular gardening records;

I was raised in the old country, back in the old house where all my siblings had grown up long before I was born.

Melissa Lozada-Oliva takes us on a bumpy apocalyptic horror ride in her debut novel Candelaria. Spanning across three generations of women, the novel ushers together an unsettled past and an even more bizarre present.

“Mr Speaker Sir, what did Bangalee intend to achieve? What rights did Bangalee want to possess? We do not need to discuss and decide on them now [after independence]. [We] tried to press our demands after the so called 1947 independence. Each of our days and years with Pakistan was an episode of bloodied history; a record of struggle for our rights,” said Tajuddin Ahmad on October 30, 1972 in the Constituent Assembly. He commented on the proposed draft constitution for Bangladesh, which was adopted on November 4, 1972.

Throughout the session, Mohaiemen’s passionate, spontaneous, and engaging demeanour captivated the audience, fostering a deeper understanding of storytelling through images.

Tell me about this life you live behind the curtain…

What matters when there's a Motherland to defend? 

On the evening of February 10 the curtain fell for the last time on a performance that, over the preceding days, had cast an enchanting spell upon its audience.

Review of ‘Apni Ki Alien Dekhte Chan?’ (Afsar Brothers, 2024) by Wasif Noor

Pre-occupation Palestine had, to use Anglo-American poet WH Auden's words, "marble well-governed cities" full of "vines and olive trees." But Israel and its allies have turned it into "an artificial wilderness"

Dr Zaman, this year’s recipient of the Ekushey Padak, guided the audience to use the Pink Shelf regardless of gender, “I will also say that a man can be a greater feminist than a woman.

Mohsin would burst into laughter, saying, "Justice for rape? Is that even a crime worthy of justice?" Rabeya, laughing alongside him, would add, "People expect justice for rape these days? I'm speechless at their naïveté!" 

This International Women’s Day, Star Books and Literature brings to you a list of five books that delve into the history of feminist movements and feminist resistance.

With International Women’s Day being celebrated across the world tomorrow, we here at Star Books and Literature decided to take a moment to read and reflect on the many expressions of female rage in both ancient and contemporary literature

“All literature is regional; or conversely, no literature is regional”—is a common sentiment to have today, but I had first read those lines from Joyce Carol Oates, in her preface to a book of stories by one of Canada’s most gifted storytellers, Alistair MacLeod. In MacLeod’s short stories, his Cape Breton Island was a refrain through which the momentous lives of his ordinary characters came through.

Over the past couple of decades, Bangladesh has witnessed three significant social and political movements that have shaped the course of its history.

face to face, 20 taka in my pocket and this keyless map do you think love ever ends?

Pebbles strewn pavement Keep drawing me back