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

For most of the publishers, pavilion planning commenced as early as mid January and the organisers left no stone unturned in terms of planning the layout.

With Ekushey Boi Mela now in full swing, the excitement surrounding the discovery of new releases should be hanging palpably in the air.

Wandering through the bustling lanes of Boi Mela, amidst the cacophony of voices and the rustle of pages turning, I found myself lost in a curious examination of the Bangla love story.

Amanda Montell states that gender is directly linked to power in many cultures, as is language. It’s just that we are unable to identify the difference. People use language to express gender. Gender also impacts a person’s speech and how that speech is perceived.

Boi Mela is more than a clickable link we see on our phone screens; it is more than the controversies and public debates.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a mom in Dhaka must be in want of a balcony-garden

That was the first time in my life I’d smelled charred meat. I could tell it was different from the kind you’re supposed to eat, and my mother had to hold me as I threw up violently on the side of the street.

Review of ‘The Displaced Rohingyas: A Tale Of A Vulnerable Community’ (Routledge, 2024), edited by SK Tawfique M Haque, Bulbul Siddiqi, and Mahmudur Rahman Bhuiyan.

Surveying the decorated wall now vibrantly alive with Winnie the Pooh and Harry Potter characters, Sarah allowed herself a satisfied grin.

Much like most media geared toward women, romance novels have frequently received flack for its supposed shallowness, absurdity, and flamboyancy.

For eons piano keys unmoved Lay silently asleep

Review of Priyanka Taslim’s ‘The Love Match’ (Simon and Schuster, 2023)

Speakers talked about the losses and the gains of the meaning of text after having undergone translation, about the responsibility and the power that a translator holds in taking an author’s words and transforming it for a different reader base.

With rows upon rows of book stalls offering everything from timeless classics to contemporary bestsellers, navigating through this maze of books can be both exhilarating and overwhelming

Dense textbooks with words more twisted than the shapes my lips could contort themselves into—for the longest time, my perception of non-fiction didn’t deviate from this singular image.

Reading this book was uncomfortable, like a car crash waiting to happen, it was hard to read and even harder to put down.

Shahaduz Zaman is a familiar face in Bangladeshi literature, whose literary career spans decades of fruitful work. He regularly writes columns for Bangla newspapers, has written a few notable biographical fiction, such as Ekjon Komolalebu (Prothoma, 2017), based around the life of Jibanananda Das, and has garnered some duly needed appreciation for ethnographic work on the history of medicine during the liberation war.

If you are into a lot of angst, this webtoon is perfect for you. It’s not a typical love story of second chance, but an emotional roller coaster ride.

But I bloom like a flower:/ Soft and strong.

Review of "Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir" (Penguin, 2018)