Essay / A beginner’s guide to ‘Khwabnama’

31 July 2026, 00:00 AM Books & Literature
In the year 1996, just a year before his untimely death, Aktaruzzaman Elias had published his magnum opus, Khwabnama.

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
Interview / Kishwar Chowdhury on Bangali culture and culinary storytelling
11 June 2026, 00:00 AM
When the MasterChef favourite Kishwar Chowdhury and writer Samai Haider caught up to talk about Chowdhury’s debut cookbook Smoke, Rice, Water (Hardie Grant Books, 2026), the conversation quickly morphed into something much larger than publishing deadlines and recipe testing.
News Report / Marjane Satrapi, voice of exile and resistance, dies at 56
4 June 2026, 17:58 PM
Satrapi offered a deeply personal account of life under Iran’s Islamic regime while creating a story that resonated with readers worldwide

Sad men behaving badly

In January 2023, I was sitting in the crowd, listening in on a panel at the 10th and possibly the final edition of the Dhaka Lit Fest. Sheikh Hasina had already been in power for almost 15 years, and it felt like the sun would never set on Awami League, at least not in my lifetime. 
6 November 2024, 18:00 PM

Post-July remembrance

With the departure of an autocrat and the period of semi-expected-still-frightening chaos after, comes the period when we have to sit down to think of what comes ahead, know what we must not do, and get some direction on how we are supposed to go on. In light of this, the following articles and/or chapters have been curated for perspectives that might be needed in this unprecedented situation we’ve found ourselves in.
6 November 2024, 18:00 PM

The hawk and the mice

Bolstered, the six little mice lead their army up–up–up the trunk of the poor, ravaged oak they were so desperate to save. 
6 November 2024, 13:45 PM

Unravelling Yuval Noah Harari’s ‘Nexus’

Review of ‘Nexus’ (Random House, 2024)
2 November 2024, 14:30 PM

Ira in my town

After many years, Ira has returned to my town. She hops four towns to get here. We are supposed to meet today. I’ve been ready since morning. We will meet by the lakeside.
1 November 2024, 18:00 PM

The old and new Bangladesh from the eyes of a historical fiction writer

In the West, South Asian literature is primarily dominated by works from India and then Pakistan. This dominance has made it difficult for Bangladeshi authors to receive the attention they deserve for their work
1 November 2024, 18:00 PM

5 books posed as literary cannibalism

Literary cannibalism refers to the retellings of Western classics written by colonised or formerly colonised countries. These authors aim to decolonise the mindset of the readers of the popular literary classics. Decolonisation is a violent process, and by comparing this genre with cannibalism it demonstrates the brutality of it.
30 October 2024, 18:00 PM
30 October 2024, 18:00 PM

Story of an ‘Unaccompanied Minor’: A tribute to Matthew Perry

It's almost as if Matthew Perry was destined to write this book.
28 October 2024, 16:20 PM

The veil of shadow

He had consistently disregarded the villagers' accounts of bhoot-prets as local folklore. To him, they were just stories to scare the gullible
28 October 2024, 14:29 PM

Trapped in the bite

I woke up with the taste of blood in my mouth
27 October 2024, 13:45 PM

Mother saves her corpses before lunch

Mother woke before sunrise with the weight of the house pulling at her bones and moved against the cold floor, the chill biting at her ankles. In the corner hung the gutted rabbit, its blood pooling on the floor. Her fingers trembled, as she bathed herself in it, coating her skin red.
25 October 2024, 18:00 PM

The ghost of Arun Das

Raise no alarm, if on a night dimly lit,
25 October 2024, 18:00 PM

Bangali ghosts vie for the fishes

That night, the wind howled like the wolves as Shyam and Alameen rowed silently, their boat traversing through the misty air and the water rippling gently beneath them.
25 October 2024, 18:00 PM

A tale of forgetting and remembrance

Being an ardent admirer of K-pop culture, I wonder why I was hitherto unaware of this gem of a book, One Left by Kim Soom, and the excruciatingly painful truth it delineates.
23 October 2024, 18:00 PM

Of dewdrops and grit

‘Shabnam’ is a dewdrop in Persian. Shabnam (1960) is the name of Syed Mujtaba Ali’s passionate love story that stretches beyond the history of nearly a century ago.
23 October 2024, 18:00 PM

Silence

A star fell on the ground in the windy night
18 October 2024, 18:00 PM

October: An unfinished poem

Glamorous lightweight raindrops  from the October sky keep 
18 October 2024, 18:00 PM

A surreal graphic novel by Subimal Misra

As I read Subimal Misra–I was therefore seized by the urge to bring out his stories, or "anti-stories", in graphic form
18 October 2024, 18:00 PM

On the national anthem of Bangladesh: An apologetic discourse (part two)

The question here should be: Why does the nationality of the poet matter if the sentiment and emotional dimensions are the central focus that keeps the dynamic of a national anthem active?
18 October 2024, 13:58 PM
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