The Shelf / The quiet grief of becoming ordinary
19 June 2026, 00:00 AM
The Shelf
What to read / What we’re reading this week
14 May 2026, 00:00 AM
What to read
Book Review: Nonfiction / Fara Dabhoiwala’s history misses the one thing that truly matters
1 May 2026, 00:00 AM
Non-fiction review
Reflection / Harper Lee at 100: An enduring echo of justice
28 April 2026, 20:10 PM
Literature
Tribute / Humayun Azad and the courage to dissent
24 April 2026, 00:00 AM
Books & Literature
Interview / Writing what silence carries: Mohua Chinappa on memory, pain, and inheritance
24 April 2026, 00:00 AM
Features
Not just child’s play: Bengal’s rhymes as cultural memory
13 April 2026, 20:12 PM
Culture
Book Review: Nonfiction / Love, wounds, and the making of ‘Hemingway’s Women’
10 April 2026, 00:00 AM
Books & Literature
An Ekushey Book Fair breaking with tradition
21 September 2025, 13:05 PM
Books & Literature
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / An outlandish jumble of cults, cannibalism, and colonial violence
19 March 2025, 18:00 PM
Books
Poems of Jibanananda Das
Had I but an eternal life
(“Ananta Jibon Jodi Pai Ami”)
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Fragrance
Just as Azhar Kha was about to leave the room putting his shirt on, Lily made an entrance, “Baba, you promised!”
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Daughters of the sun
Rehana takes hesitant steps towards her house. Her Niqab renders the landscape a transparent shade of black smoke.
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Memoir of a Serpent Woman
I am Ranire, the serpent woman who lives in the rubbles of Al-Hammar Palace. Yes, you heard right—the accursed and legendary half woman and half snake that wanders in the desert land of Ukh-Tarar.
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Life Theft Auto: Vice City
“CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER”—the instruction pops up on the brand new 32-inch curved monitor’s screen. “Hmm… Which one? Which one should I select?” Genghis Khan murmurs.
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Of Itching and Scratching
I, an itching palm?
—William Shakespeare
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Tagore Poems
Krishnakali
I call her Krishnokoli, my dark blossom,
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Editor’s Note
It’s that time of the year again, when we offer an array of literary items -- short fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Two poems of Federico García Lorca
If I die,
leave the balcony open.
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Street Music
Saturday morning: on the brick plaza
at the corner of Fourth and Catheri
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
NAH!
I am sure it was sometime in 1965 that a classmate at St. Gregory’s, Muhammad Ali Rumee, piqued my curiosity by describing a new movement in letters launched by some friends of his elder brother.
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
A Serenade of Love
In a soggy London street he stood, shaking his dreadlocks like wind-struck branches of a willow and moving his weathered bow on the shiny strings of his broken violin.
10 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Why Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch is a movie in prose
The Goldfinch—the written version, Donna Tartt’s third literary triumph—opens upon a Christmas day in a hotel in Amsterdam. The “I” that speaks offers a brief recap of his murky dreams and departure from New York; what but he really (quickly) wants to get to is setting up the scene for us.
8 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Farewell my friend: A review of 'Babu Bangladesh!'
The first 20 years of Babu's life are entwined with the stories surrounding the Sangsad Bhaban. The description of the building is an ode in prose form, vibrating with emotion, bringing the building to life.
2 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Literary Tourism: Exploring Charles Dickens’ Rochester
When my niece Mubasshira and her husband Morsed told me that they had moved from East London to Kent, I had little idea of the area in which they relocated. Prior to my two-week trip to the UK this year, they gave me their address which contained the name of
2 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Inner Battle
Please for once do not judge -
2 August 2019, 18:00 PM
Ocean bloom
Aqua blooming ripples of ocean, wisping hair
2 August 2019, 18:00 PM
I Sing the Sea
I sing the sea
2 August 2019, 18:00 PM
The Story of Kusum’s Family
When the twelve-year old Kusum was returning home, she stole a glance at the setting sun for one last time. It was dipping over the heads of tallest coconut trees lined along the furthest edge of horizon. She let out a sigh — for some indefinable reason she wanted to
2 August 2019, 18:00 PM