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.

When fanfiction swapped out fans for publishing deals

It sounds flippant to put it that way but, the Aeneid, at its core, really is a continuation fic—picking up where Homer’s Trojan War ended and following Aeneas, a minor character in the canon, as he stumbles through an entirely new narrative along with original characters and incredibly expanded lore.
16 April 2026, 00:00 AM

Noboborsho

May love guide our path forward May joy bring us together. Shubho noboborsho and long live resistance.
15 April 2026, 16:44 PM

Boishakh in fragments: Food, storms, and memory

In London, the celebrations are smaller and more intentional. They are arranged around busy schedules, often taking place in someone’s home rather than out in the open. There are food, music, and conversation—familiar elements, but quieter and on a smaller scale. There is a different kind of intimacy here: a sense that the celebration exists because we must make space for it, all of us gathering to recreate something of what we remember.
14 April 2026, 18:03 PM

Two Bangladeshi writers make 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlist

Two Bangladeshi writers—26-year-old Anmana Manishita, a lecturer at BRAC University, and 33-year-old Shazed Ul Hoq Abir, a lecturer at East West University—have been shortlisted for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
14 April 2026, 16:54 PM

Rabindranath Tagore and the evolving spirit of Pohela Baishakh

But it goes without saying that Rabindranath, as the most famous member of the Tagore family and one of the cornerstones of Bengali culture, is thoroughly intertwined with the most significant day of the Bengali calendar. His thoughts on PohelaBaishakh are complex and evolved over the years, alongside his own development as an artist and the changing societal circumstances, as can be seen through his three essays on this day.
13 April 2026, 23:12 PM

Not just child’s play: Bengal’s rhymes as cultural memory

Folklorists have long recognised multiple categories within Bengali folk literature—songs, proverbs, riddles, and rhymes. Rhymes are not homogeneous; they appear in distinct functional types: nursery rhymes, social or satirical rhymes, occupational rhymes, ritual rhymes, and those associated with games. That diversity signals not triviality, but embeddedness. In their rhythmic repetition are folded patterns of labour, hierarchy, crisis and adaptation.
13 April 2026, 20:12 PM

From the ashes: Gaza’s first grassroots library rises amid genocide

Two Palestinian writers, Omar Hamad and Ibrahim Massri, have been working since late 2025 to build a library in Gaza during the ongoing genocide. The Phoenix Library is located in the heart of Gaza City and, per a post from the library’s Twitter/X account, is fast approaching its official opening date despite the Gaza Strip and all of occupied Palestine still being subject to Israeli apartheid violence.
12 April 2026, 21:43 PM

On ‘Bridgerton’: When romantic escapism clashes with the realities of class

Romance has never existed apart from inequality. The genre depends on distance—on obstacles that make love feel hard-won.
10 April 2026, 00:00 AM

Love, wounds, and the making of ‘Hemingway’s Women’

Some books announce their ambition quietly. Others reveal it at a glance.
10 April 2026, 00:00 AM

5 books that capture the soul of lunar exploration

Here are five books that celebrate the curiosity that took us to the moon. Not for conquest, but for humanity, and for the simple, profound need to know.
7 April 2026, 19:50 PM

Melbourne: Where weather performs live

When I first landed in Melbourne in January, the heat greeted me like a shockwave. 45 degrees Celsius, feeling like 48.
4 April 2026, 04:10 AM

4 fictional case studies in incel pathology

You should never judge a book by its cover, but you can definitely judge a person by the covers lining their bookshelf.
4 April 2026, 04:05 AM

“Six books that reverberate with history, humanity, heartbreak, and hope”: 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist announced

The 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist has been announced, recognizing six outstanding works of fiction from around the world translated into English. The award, known formerly as the Man Booker International Prize, celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
2 April 2026, 17:32 PM

A wintry account of the human experience

In my early 20s, I moved to New York and started going to a commuter college. I lived far from campus, so in order to get to school, I had to take a bus and then the subway, adding up to an hour of commute each way. My classmates all commuted from various parts of the city; some of them ran to work right after classes. Having been surrounded by friends all my life and not yet knowing how to enjoy my own company, I felt extremely lonely.
2 April 2026, 00:00 AM

Stories from under the waves

Finding an independent bookstore in a new city is one of my most cherished travel experiences.
2 April 2026, 00:00 AM

Somebody’s son, nobody’s daughter

And womanhood? Well, it is messier. But it is mine. No longer something handed to me by men or mothers or traditions. Just mine.
1 April 2026, 18:37 PM

Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me secures 2026 NBCC Award, continues global recognition

Celebrated author and activist Arundhati Roy’s 2025 memoir Mother Mary Comes to Me (Penguin, 2025) continues to solidify its place in the zeitgeist and its cultural impact well into 2026, with its recent win at this year’s US National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Award in the Autobiography category.
28 March 2026, 17:07 PM

Faded blue suitcase

We once lived in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City. Those days still return to me, especially when my grandmother’s death anniversary comes around.
28 March 2026, 03:44 AM

Growing up with a new nation: The Dhaka we once knew

Children of 1972–73 came of age alongside Bangladesh itself. In Azimpur’s close‑knit colony, a telephone became a neighbourhood lifeline, television was a shared ritual, and the Buriganga was our afternoon escape.
28 March 2026, 03:42 AM

Notice for the poems that won’t be written

One of these days, you will lose one or two limbs to the slow erosion of years, the same silence that took Grandfather’s stories mid-sentence.
28 March 2026, 03:37 AM
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