Sarah Anjum Bari

Sarah Anjum Bari is Editor of Daily Star Books. Reach her at [email protected] and @wordsinteal on Twitter and Instagram.

Rifat Munim on Bangladeshi fiction: ‘This is a diverse terrain you are going to tread on’

In the foreword, I wanted to capture how I, as a child, grew up listening to different stories: ghost stories, mythical stories from both Sanatana and Islamic religious scriptures, and fairy tales from 'Thakurmar Jhuli', compiled by Dakkhinaranjan Mitra Majumdar. It was a time when there were no boundaries for my imagination.

3w ago

The first semester is your shitty first draft

Like many veterans, I joined a creative writing MFA program because I wanted to evolve as a writer.

A glimpse of the Istanbul we don’t know

Here was a woman who was but a dot amidst the throngs of people who watched the Bosphorus Bridge being opened in October 1973, as fireworks erupted over a Turkey that now seamed Asia to Europe.

In conversation with South Asia’s preeminent literary agent, Kanishka Gupta

I always tell the authors to make subjective, qualitative decisions. So many of my authors say no to higher offers from publishing houses if they don’t feel comfortable with the publisher or editor.

A bookstore is a time machine—Zeenat Book Supply through the ages

Last week, one of Dhaka’s oldest bookstores announced that they will be closing shop after running for 60 years

Zeenat bookstore shuts its doors after 60 years

Zeenat Book Supply, a New Market staple for book lovers since 1963, will close shop on May 1, 2023.

Piracy a main reason for New Market’s Zeenat bookstore closing down

Zeenat Book Supply, a New Market staple for book lovers since 1963, will close shop on May 1, 2023. 

The Birangona in poetry and conversation

Using a Fulbright fellowship, Tarfia decided to come to Bangladesh to research the war and interview the women whom the Bangladesh government, in 1972, titled Birangona (war heroines). These interviews resulted in 'Seam' (Southern Illinois University Press, 2014).

February 24, 2024
February 24, 2024

Rifat Munim on Bangladeshi fiction: ‘This is a diverse terrain you are going to tread on’

In the foreword, I wanted to capture how I, as a child, grew up listening to different stories: ghost stories, mythical stories from both Sanatana and Islamic religious scriptures, and fairy tales from 'Thakurmar Jhuli', compiled by Dakkhinaranjan Mitra Majumdar. It was a time when there were no boundaries for my imagination.

January 25, 2024
January 25, 2024

The first semester is your shitty first draft

Like many veterans, I joined a creative writing MFA program because I wanted to evolve as a writer.

May 15, 2023
May 15, 2023

A glimpse of the Istanbul we don’t know

Here was a woman who was but a dot amidst the throngs of people who watched the Bosphorus Bridge being opened in October 1973, as fireworks erupted over a Turkey that now seamed Asia to Europe.

May 4, 2023
May 4, 2023

In conversation with South Asia’s preeminent literary agent, Kanishka Gupta

I always tell the authors to make subjective, qualitative decisions. So many of my authors say no to higher offers from publishing houses if they don’t feel comfortable with the publisher or editor.

April 20, 2023
April 20, 2023

A bookstore is a time machine—Zeenat Book Supply through the ages

Last week, one of Dhaka’s oldest bookstores announced that they will be closing shop after running for 60 years

April 14, 2023
April 14, 2023

Zeenat bookstore shuts its doors after 60 years

Zeenat Book Supply, a New Market staple for book lovers since 1963, will close shop on May 1, 2023.

April 13, 2023
April 13, 2023

Piracy a main reason for New Market’s Zeenat bookstore closing down

Zeenat Book Supply, a New Market staple for book lovers since 1963, will close shop on May 1, 2023. 

March 25, 2023
March 25, 2023

The Birangona in poetry and conversation

Using a Fulbright fellowship, Tarfia decided to come to Bangladesh to research the war and interview the women whom the Bangladesh government, in 1972, titled Birangona (war heroines). These interviews resulted in 'Seam' (Southern Illinois University Press, 2014).

March 13, 2023
March 13, 2023

The pleasure of knowing your neighbourhood

Safe, vibrant public spaces are so rare in Dhaka that the months from January to early March feel like a gift from the universe when the Bangla Academy comes alive with the Dhaka Lit Fest, followed by the Dhaka Art Summit and the February extravaganza of the Ekushey Boi Mela. Since 2020, the Gulshan Book Fair has added to the series of treats for those of us who crave creative festivals in this city.

March 9, 2023
March 9, 2023

A legacy of women's freedom in art

Schwartz’s narrator speaks in the choral “we”, and like a daisy chain, they connect all these women’s shared yet individual experiences of feeling closed in, being violated, feeling misunderstood by society, until they all shed their names and managed to “escap[e] the century”.

push notification