Event Report / “We do not live outside history”: Dr. Azfar Hussain on humanism, fascism, and the July Uprising

26 July 2026, 16:24 PM ⁠⁠News
“It is one of those questions that politely pretends to be a title, but secretly aspires to be a life’s work,” began Dr. Azfar Hussain on an overcast evening on the July 23, 2026, addressing a packed forum hall at the University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh (ULAB), alluding to the title of his public lecture: What Does It Mean to Be Human in the Age of 'Posthumanism' and Global Fascism?
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
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.

‘Emily’ and creative freedom in literary biopics

It got me thinking that we are fascinated by the behind-the-scenes lives of our cultural obsessions, and the personal lives of authors can come to feel like public possessions just as much as their works. It is this sense of ownership that can risk conflict over films about literary icons. 
20 August 2022, 13:08 PM

Rickshawallah

Under the blazing sun, The man stands- strong hands holding on to brake, and legs tapping out a rhythm on pedals, pearls of sweat glistening down the small of a tanned back,
19 August 2022, 18:00 PM

When Your Mother is Sick – A hermit-crab fiction

Keep relatives at a distance, they will never visit but will always give untimely advice or spill half-true family secrets. 
19 August 2022, 18:00 PM

Muting Shakespeare: Watching Richard III in Shakespeare in the Park

Shakespeare in the Park is a New York institution.
19 August 2022, 18:00 PM

How Partition impacted the Dhaka book trade

With the expansion of the publishing business, bookshops also sprang up in various parts of Old Dhaka, particularly in Chawkbazar, Islampur, Mughaltuli and Patuatuli. It is estimated that the number of bookshops in Dhaka till 1900 were no less than 40. 
19 August 2022, 10:06 AM

Geetanjali Shree's 'Tomb of Sand': A woman and her many borders

There is a plot embedded here, but this novel is so much more: a long, winding journey, centred on a family, with acute eyes on love and distances within a family, but also through language, Partition and imposed borders, and so much more.
17 August 2022, 18:00 PM

Habibur Rahman's 'Thar': Unpacking the language of the Bede community

Rahman defines the Thar language and its characteristics, origins, and variations and the ethnic identity of the Bede people.
17 August 2022, 18:00 PM

Partition and the Dhaka book trade

In the first instalment of ‘Books On Record’, our new digital series on book history, Shamsuddoza Sajen writes about the impact of the Partition of India on Dhaka’s book trade. Read the article on The Daily Star website and on Daily Star Books’ Facebook and Instagram pages.
17 August 2022, 18:00 PM

Syed Waliullah: husband, artist, thinker, writer

The book includes excerpts from Syed Waliullah's diary, snapshots of his editorial for Contemporary magazine, handwritten edits on his pieces for Shaogat magazine, and a comprehensive bibliography of the author's work and achievements.
17 August 2022, 18:00 PM

2023 International Booker Prize judges announced

Chairing next year’s judges’ panel will be Leïla Slimani, the French Moroccan novelist known for books like Lullaby (2016) and Adèle (2019).
17 August 2022, 14:40 PM
17 August 2022, 01:48 AM

Mashiul Alam joins prestigious Iowa International Writing Program

Journalist and author Mashiul Alam has been selected as a resident of the 2022 Iowa International Writing Program (IWP), among the world’s most prestigious creative writing residencies.
16 August 2022, 14:21 PM

Post-Partition period in books: Prabhas Chandra, Tajuddin, and Ahmed Kamal offer testimonies

On the 75th anniversary of the 1947 Partition, we look back at the testimonies of the veteran politician, Prabhas Chandra Lahiri; the young political activist, Tajuddin Ahmed; and Professor Ahmed Kamal's book comprising research on and stories of the time.
15 August 2022, 12:58 PM

‘Mujib’ graphic novels: ‘Drawing a young Mujib and ensuring its acceptability was my biggest challenge’

I had to go through any and every film I could find that was set around the 1950s and after to understand how the society was during that time.
15 August 2022, 09:50 AM

Musing on the Revolutionary Poetics of Sukanta Bhattacharya

On Sukanta Bhattacharya and his revolutionary poetics
15 August 2022, 03:28 AM

How Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’ changed my life

Metaphors have never made more sense to me than when these two swapped but intertwined lives personified India and Pakistan, the two newborn countries, whose births were marked by blood, pain and trauma.
14 August 2022, 13:15 PM

How I feel about Virginia Woolf being part-Bengali

Maybe I loved her so because we were daughters of the same soil, to some extent, at least. It made me smile. But I also sneered at myself a little bit, because her soil had also ripped apart mine for over 200 years.
13 August 2022, 10:40 AM

Shamsur Rahman, Al Mahmud, Shaheed Quaderi translated in new Bangla Academy book

The poems of Shamsur Rahman, Al Mahmud, and Shahid Qadri have been translated by Kaiser Haq, M Harunur Rashid, Kabir Chowdhury, Zillur Rahman Siddiqui and Rifat Munim for the edition.
13 August 2022, 05:23 AM

Bangabandhu’s speech at the national literature conference in Bangla Academy

Honourable president [of Bangla Academy], president of the reception committee, guests from abroad, representatives from the diplomatic corps and the respected audience,
12 August 2022, 18:00 PM

ULAB Lit Salon to host discussion on Partition and its aftermath on August 13

The event will discuss the Bengal Partition of 1905, a second Partition of Bengal—and the Indian subcontinent in 1947—and the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. The Salon will showcase aspects of these partitions, living histories that bind India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
12 August 2022, 13:03 PM
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