<i>Little magazines still a craze for youths </i>

Children at a stall of the Little Magazine Chattar of Amar Ekushey Boi Mela have a look at poems, stories and novels written by the young.Photo: STAR

The sparse crowd around the vicinity of 'Little Magazine Chattar' at the Amar Ekushey Boi Mela paints quite a different picture than the rest of the fair, which is thickly populated.
A handful of people were seen sauntering around the stalls mostly consisting of students.
“The Little Magazine Movement has its history attached since the Language Movement. However, it formed into an institution in 1996 after a space was allocated for it at the fair,” said Shakil Hasan, a poet and an activist of the institution.
“Interest of the people in the Little Magazines is increasing each year, especially among young writers who visit our stalls to know how to publish their work,” he said.
There are 31 stalls of the Little Magazines at the book fair with names like Agrabij, Megh, Lamppost, Dar Kak, Shamprotik, Gram Theatre, Chal Chitra, and Nisharga are selling their magazines.
Masudur Rahman, a sales person at the stall of Shaluk expects the number of buyers to increase once the latest issues hit the fair, he said.
Shakil said some outstanding little magazines are also being published at the district level.
“However, lack of publicity leads to limited publication,” he said.