Essay / The writing’s boring, so he’s a third-class writer

25 July 2026, 00:00 AM Essay
Some authors are gadflies, ever stinging and nettling the established order. Some write for more or less the same reason a carpenter works with wood, or a sous-chef does mise en place.
Poetry / You ask me
25 July 2026, 00:00 AM ⁠⁠Poetry
Book Review: Fiction / The queen who would not stay dead
23 July 2026, 00:00 AM Books & Literature
Fiction / Lira’s glasses
19 July 2026, 19:00 PM ⁠⁠Fiction

Tribute / The teacher beyond the classroom
18 July 2026, 00:00 AM Tribute
Flash Fiction / The knife seller
18 July 2026, 00:00 AM Books & Literature
Poetry / Home
18 July 2026, 00:00 AM ⁠⁠Poetry
Interview / Diaspora, national identity and reality TV with Pajtim Statovci
9 June 2026, 21:48 PM
Not every story ends with rejoicing. Not all questions are answered within one lifetime. Not everyone will get to fulfil their dreams. All my protagonists are incomplete until the end. And the end itself offers no catharsis. It’s the same darkness that was present when the reader met them the first time. I write about the world and the people within it the way I have experienced the world.
Event Report / Poetry collection Adivasi Premikar Mukh: The Portrait of an Adivasi Beloved launched at Bangla Academy
19 May 2026, 14:26 PM
The bilingual poetry collection Adivasi Premikar Mukh: The Portrait of an Adivasi Beloved, (Oitijjhya, 2026) by journalist, poet, and fiction writer Ehasan Mahamud was launched on Monday, May 18, at the Kabi Shamsur Rahman Seminar Room of Bangla Academy, Dhaka. The event was organised by Oitijjhya Publications and moderated by Mostafa Mushfiq.

Exiled poet Daud Haider no more

Poet Daud Haider, known for his timeless poem Janmo-i Amar Ajanmo Pap (My Birth, My Eternal Sin), died while undergoing treatment at a Berlin hospital early yesterday (Bangladesh time).
27 April 2025, 18:01 PM

Transnational identity: Negotiating the choices

Review of ‘Reframing My Worth: Memoir of a Bangladeshi-Canadian Woman’ by Habiba Zaman (FriesenPress, 2024)
27 April 2025, 10:15 AM

Mother, why is our sky so different?

Mother, why is our sky so different?
25 April 2025, 18:00 PM

The thief

Farid Shaheb earned a fair bit at the office today. These days, because of the Anti Corruption Commission and newspaper journalists’ incessant pestering, he can no longer directly take the money offered to him.
25 April 2025, 18:00 PM

Defeat

standing at the bus stop with my shoes full of water
25 April 2025, 18:00 PM

Reading Begum Rokeya, again and always

Begum Rokeya was once described as a “Spider Mother” (makar-mata or makarsha janani) in her biographical account but there is nothing sinister in this metaphor. The image of the spider here symbolises the quiet, patient, and selfless labour of an educator, caring for children who were not her own. Shamsunnahar Mahmud, her close co-worker, wrote: “Day after day in this way, with the blood of her own breast, Spider Mother began to revive hundreds of baby spiders into new life.”
23 April 2025, 18:00 PM

A priceless fictional heirloom

There are any number of ways one can approach Rahat Ara Begum’s collection of short stories, 'Lost Tales from a Bygone Era: An Anthology of Translation of Urdu Stories', assembled, contextualised, and published in this book by her loving grandchildren and their siblings
23 April 2025, 18:00 PM

Book recommendations for different personality types

This year’s World Book Day theme, “Read Your Way,” invites readers to embrace their own paths, rhythms, and preferences regarding books
23 April 2025, 15:00 PM

A tribute to the written word

'A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies'
23 April 2025, 09:00 AM

We didn’t mean to stop reading

There was a time, maybe not that long ago, when the only thing you needed for a perfect evening was a book
23 April 2025, 08:05 AM

Mould

A quiet, seniority in its touch, / A tenderness that feels like it's meant to last
18 April 2025, 18:00 PM

Escape

You thought you had escaped, didn't you? / Outran everything that weighed you down
18 April 2025, 18:00 PM

The burden of words

It was not often that I received odd parcels. True, my job at the paper did occasionally warrant a few peculiar hate-mail or rebuttals, but this was nothing of that sort
18 April 2025, 18:00 PM

A pantheon of parables

‘Fit for the Gods: Greek Mythology Reimagined’ (Vintage, 2023), edited by Jenn Northington and S. Zainab Williams, is a collection of classic myths with a twist
16 April 2025, 18:00 PM

Aparna Sanyal and the burden of representation in South Asian literature

Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal’s 'Instruments of Torture' is a powerful literary collection that delves into the psychological and societal torments individuals endure, particularly focusing on themes of beauty standards and the representation of women. Each story in the collection is named after a medieval torture device, serving as a metaphor for the emotional and societal pressures faced by the characters.
16 April 2025, 18:00 PM

Bangladeshi writer Faria Basher shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2025

“An Eye and a Leg” has been described as "a darkly humorous and surreal take on the trope of the ‘expiring’ South Asian woman"
15 April 2025, 15:00 PM

Delila’s quest (20 October 2014)

Li’l Del is walking all alone Li’l Del wants to find her way home.
11 April 2025, 18:00 PM

Home for rent

Mrs X's parents were not interested in spending money on their daughter's room because they would have to give her new furniture when she got married
11 April 2025, 18:00 PM

‘Sunrise on the Reaping’: Fan service and repetitive themes weigh down ‘Hunger Games’ prequel

Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series has captivated pop culture with its bold take on tyranny, sacrifice, and resistance, spanning Katniss Everdeen’s blazing defiance in The Hunger Games (2008) to her final stand in Mockingjay (2010) against Coriolanus Snow’s cold cruelty.
9 April 2025, 18:00 PM

Stitching fragments of a city lost in time

In the contested notion of creating a ‘nation,’ few ideas provoke as much ire among the everyday citizens of a bordered entity as the concept of a space—one that carries with it the weight of instilling an identity.
9 April 2025, 18:00 PM
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