DHAKA LIT FEST, DAY 3: Big books, big ideas
The third day of the 10th Dhaka Lit Fest featured a big list of authors and topics yesterday.
Author and literary critic Nilanjana Roy moderated a session on "A World Without a Centre", with Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah, Bengali litterateur Amitav Ghosh, and novelist and political analyst Pankaj Mishra discussing how novels play a role in shaping a world that lives with the legacy of colonialism, and the of impacts of climate crises and technology.
Just an hour later, writer Rifat Munim unpacked the 2022 International Booker Prize-winning Tomb of Sand with its author Geetanjali Shree and translator Daisy Rockwell. At the same time, writer Parvez Hossain explored the new dimensions of the Bengali novel with authors Anisul Hoque, Shaheen Akhtar and Mohit Kamal.
In the evening, Oxford Professor of Vaccinology Sarah Gilbert shared her story of designing a "vaccine for the people", the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine, which immunised 70 percent of Bangladeshis from the coronavirus.
Other sessions throughout the day unpacked how literature can bring about reconciliation with national and subcontinental trauma. How are culture and politics impacted by "icons", and how film can help preserve the linguistic diversity of Bangladesh, particularly the languages and culture of Mro, Rakhine and Chakma people were some of the talking points.
Meanwhile, Bookworm Bangladesh held author-signing sessions with Geetanjali Shree, Daisy Rockwell, and Amitav Ghosh. HerStory Foundation, Mayurpankhi, and UPL each held sessions on recently released titles. Other bookstores shared that sales have been significant in volume, but it has paled against the registration charges they had to pay for participation.
Today will be the last day of this year's Dhaka Lit Fest. Abdulrazak Gurnah will speak with publisher Alexandra Pringle. There will be sessions on climate change, poetry, gaming, feminism, the culinary arts and more.
Daily Star Books' session on "Is A Book Worth Reading? Who Decides" will be held in the PSR Seminar Room at 1:45pm. It will be moderated by DS Books editor Sarah Anjum Bari, with speakers Prof Fakrul Alam, Prof Mashrur Shahid Hossain, Le Monde world fiction editor Florence Noiville, and German publisher Annette Kohn.