Beyond stereotypes: Rupert Grey’s ‘Homage to Bangladesh’

Rupert Grey, a descendant of Charles Grey and best known professionally as a leading libel and copyright lawyer stood against this statement. “If Bangladesh is a basket case,” Grey tells The Daily Star, “then it is so in the best possible way.” For him, the term collapses under the sheer vitality of the country. A single square metre of a Bangladeshi street, he argues, holds more energy than entire neighbourhoods in London. Where life in England often unfolds in rigid routines, Bangladesh thrives in spontaneity—where a hanging lighter at a tea stall can become a moment of shared choreography.
25 January 2026, 12:24 PM Books & Literature
FLASH FICTION / The rickshaw artist
24 January 2026, 01:52 AM Books & Literature
FLASH FICTION / Pirouette of a phoenix
24 January 2026, 01:48 AM Books & Literature
POETRY / Memories
24 January 2026, 01:36 AM Books & Literature

EDITORIAL / Why read?
22 January 2026, 00:00 AM Books & Literature
THE SHELF / 7 new books to look out for in 2026
22 January 2026, 00:00 AM Books & Literature

INTERVIEW / Reclaiming the unwritten: Kanika Gupta on colonialism, embodiment, and the art of remembering

Gupta shares her insights on reclaiming forgotten histories, reimagining myths, and connecting ancient narratives to contemporary ecological and social concerns.
22 November 2025, 11:51 AM Books & Literature
EVENT REPORT / An eco-critical look at Sultan: Reading the manuscript of ‘Sultan Er Krishi Jiggasha’
With the aid of Duniyadari Archive, Pavel Partha’s soon-to-be-published book Sultan Er Krishi Jiggasha is a new addition, which looks at Sultan’s work from an eco-critical perspective.
8 November 2025, 11:43 AM Books & Literature
NEWS REPORT / “Curious love letter”: Wole Soyinka responds after US cancels visa
He responded to the situation with grace, mentioning “I like people who have a sense of humour".
30 October 2025, 10:45 AM Books & Literature

Beyond stereotypes: Rupert Grey’s ‘Homage to Bangladesh’

Rupert Grey, a descendant of Charles Grey and best known professionally as a leading libel and copyright lawyer stood against this statement. “If Bangladesh is a basket case,” Grey tells The Daily Star, “then it is so in the best possible way.” For him, the term collapses under the sheer vitality of the country. A single square metre of a Bangladeshi street, he argues, holds more energy than entire neighbourhoods in London. Where life in England often unfolds in rigid routines, Bangladesh thrives in spontaneity—where a hanging lighter at a tea stall can become a moment of shared choreography.
25 January 2026, 12:24 PM

The rickshaw artist

In Dhaka, the traffic doesn’t run; it limps. At seven in the morning, the buses are full, coughing black air, CNGs wheezing past, rickshaws threading between them like colourful tops.
24 January 2026, 01:52 AM

Pirouette of a phoenix

Emily’s right leg trembled as she stood alone on the wooden stage, the darkness that surrounded her felt almost alive.
24 January 2026, 01:48 AM

Memories

My memoirs of 2025, do you know I want to forget you?
24 January 2026, 01:36 AM

Lessons in Chemistry : A novel that reads you

Lessons in Chemistry is a powerful read for anyone who feels alone in a male-dominated world. For those who have been vilified for having a voice, dignity, and the courage to exist unapologetically in a world that resists change, this novel proves galvanising.
22 January 2026, 15:54 PM

Why read?

There is a curious bite to the air now. Notwithstanding the terrifying levels of AQI that threaten to permanently damage our lungs, heart, and brain, the air feels promising—of new beginnings, of renewed potential, of reevaluating the old and embracing the new.
22 January 2026, 00:00 AM

7 new books to look out for in 2026

First on our list, we have the fiction debut of Jennette McCurdy, author of the widely fascinating and heartbreakingly hilarious memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died (Simon & Schuster, 2022). A 17-year-old is the protagonist of this story, a girl with too much hunger and not enough steadiness, who walks into a creative writing classroom and latches onto the one adult who seems to notice her.
22 January 2026, 00:00 AM

Md Ashanur Rahman receives the International Creative Arts Award 2025

On January 18, 2026 novelist and essayist Md Ashanur Rahman was awarded The International Creative Arts Award 2025 by the International Creative Arts, Language & Development Research Centre of the University of Dhaka for his outstanding contribution to literature and its role in Enriching Minds and Inspiring Lives. 
19 January 2026, 17:38 PM

NSU DEML launches inaugural certificate course in creative writing

The six-week intensive program offers beginners and budding writers mentor-led guidance in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, focusing on Bangladeshi cultural narratives
17 January 2026, 16:00 PM

Potatoes are burning in the fryer

To love is to hold the knife To love is to do the math To love is to carry a box full of fruits To love is to buy flowers, Either way you carry the burden of it, of love.
17 January 2026, 00:00 AM

The creation of heart

One morning, God asked His angels to make a heart. They did not know what a heart was.
17 January 2026, 00:00 AM

A trim reckoning

So, Ma and I had our eyes glued to our screen while Reaz smeared toothpaste over his face and chanted slogans in front of his school.
17 January 2026, 00:00 AM

Bangladesh’s first interactive mental health book launched

The book features 15 chapters covering essential topics such as attachment styles, love languages, and shadow work.
15 January 2026, 13:43 PM

Unveiling ‘The July Resolve': Stories of resilience & resistance

On the chilly afternoon of January 10, Bookworm Bangladesh, in collaboration with Voices Shaping Society, hosted the book launch of The July Resolve, a collection of 36 narratives that depicts the strength and struggles of people from all walks of life during the Monsoon Revolution of 2024.
14 January 2026, 16:01 PM

Symphonic overtures of Nietzsche-Marx-Bakunin in Nazrul’s ‘Bidrohi’

Kazi Nazrul Islam’s Bangla poem “Bidrohi” (first published in January 1922), in Bijli magazine during British colonial rule, is more than just anti-imperialist literature—it is a striking philosophical rendition.
10 January 2026, 00:00 AM

Violence bears no apostrophes

Spectral land—you are bleeding hollow; flesh and bone at the precipice of ruin,
10 January 2026, 00:00 AM

Hibari’s Morning: Shedding light on an uncomfortable reality

This story spans for two volumes, separated in 14 chapters. Yet the author deliberately gives the reader the insight into other characters, or rather the abettors before Hibari, the victim herself. It is only in the later chapters do we catch a glimpse of Hibari’s inner world, and it is heartbreaking.
8 January 2026, 12:49 PM

Love letters written in zero gravity

Like many American kids who grew up between 1981 and 2011, I dreamed of becoming an astronaut and orbiting the Earth in a Space Shuttle.
7 January 2026, 18:00 PM

6 books that I read at the end of last year… I hated 5 of them

You know that feeling when you crack open a new book and you’re convinced that this is the knight in all its paperback shining armour that will save you from your reading slump? Yeah.
7 January 2026, 18:00 PM

Grief, guilt, and memories in the pages of Annie Ernaux’s ‘A Woman’s Story’

There are two things that struck me the most in the book: firstly, Eranux's thoughts during the funeral, and secondly, her statement about her mother’s appearance after Alzheimer's Disease had gripped her.
4 January 2026, 13:34 PM