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Sarah Anjum Bari

Sarah Anjum Bari is a writer and editor, pursuing an MFA in the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa where she also teaches rhetoric and literary publishing.

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BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Shards of clarity

Beginning to read Fine Gråbøl’s What Kingdom, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitkin, is like sitting in a silent room, alone, and a voice begins to speak as though from beside you.
16 January 2025, 18:00 PM
16 January 2025, 18:00 PM
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Can our walls make space for our dissent?

The walls of Dhaka city represent the volume and chaos of thousands of people jostling for ever-shrinking space.
11 August 2024, 05:00 AM
11 August 2024, 05:00 AM
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THE SHELF / 4 books I was grateful to read this year

It's true, I feel differently about books that I previously disliked or enjoyed reading and books that I want as a physical presence in my life
31 July 2024, 18:00 PM
31 July 2024, 18:00 PM
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INTERVIEW / Outliers take centre-stage in Shah Tazrian Ashrafi’s debut collection

It’s hard not to recall our many conversations about literature as I try to summarise Shah Tazrian Ashrafi’s debut collection of short stories. They were always short discussions, opening and closing off in spurts, as happens over text. Exclamations over a new essay collection by Zadie Smith, or a new novel by Isabel Allende.
26 June 2024, 18:00 PM
26 June 2024, 18:00 PM
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INTERVIEW / Rifat Munim on Bangladeshi fiction: ‘This is a diverse terrain you are going to tread on’

In the foreword, I wanted to capture how I, as a child, grew up listening to different stories: ghost stories, mythical stories from both Sanatana and Islamic religious scriptures, and fairy tales from 'Thakurmar Jhuli', compiled by Dakkhinaranjan Mitra Majumdar. It was a time when there were no boundaries for my imagination.
23 February 2024, 18:00 PM
23 February 2024, 18:00 PM
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ESSAY / The first semester is your shitty first draft

Like many veterans, I joined a creative writing MFA program because I wanted to evolve as a writer.
24 January 2024, 18:00 PM
24 January 2024, 18:00 PM
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A glimpse of the Istanbul we don’t know

Here was a woman who was but a dot amidst the throngs of people who watched the Bosphorus Bridge being opened in October 1973, as fireworks erupted over a Turkey that now seamed Asia to Europe.
15 May 2023, 08:55 AM
15 May 2023, 08:55 AM
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In conversation with South Asia’s preeminent literary agent, Kanishka Gupta

I always tell the authors to make subjective, qualitative decisions. So many of my authors say no to higher offers from publishing houses if they don’t feel comfortable with the publisher or editor.
4 May 2023, 09:13 AM
4 May 2023, 09:13 AM
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The One About Friends

Seven thirty pm on Star World was when it began for me. I was young—too young to be watching Monica and Chandler kiss, to get
19 September 2019, 18:00 PM
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Jokha Alharthi's 'Celestial Bodies': More than a glimpse into a culture

Just like the pools that drip from Abdallah's home into the longer al-Awafi alleys, these insightful, heartfelt snippets capture the lived experience of an Oman in transition over decades
12 September 2019, 18:00 PM
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OFF THE BEATEN TRACK

A tiny red gate jostles for space among shops, apartments, and the flurry of traffic in Block F of Lalmatia in Dhaka. Like the name
29 August 2019, 18:00 PM
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Toni Morrison, author of many voices

When I think of Toni Morrison’s oeuvre, the word ‘geod’ comes to mind. A composite whole—each novel, each essay tightly knitted, contained by the solidity and confidence of its author’s direction of ideas. You think you know what to expect, given the ubiquity of its
22 August 2019, 18:00 PM
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In defence of ‘chick-lit’

A portion of my bookshelf looks “girlier” than the others. It’s stacked with hardbacks and paperbacks in various shades of pink, pale yellow, glittering gold, and some pops of red and purple. Anyone who walks in and looks at this section of the shelf will know immediately that it contains different variations of love stories, of stories about girls going on holiday and bonding with their girlfriends and reconnecting with themselves, usually having cast off a toxic job or relationship. Think of your Nora Roberts, your Cecelia Aherns and Jojo Moyeses and, if you like to step back in time, your Judith McNaughts.
9 August 2019, 18:00 PM
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Why Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch is a movie in prose

The Goldfinch—the written version, Donna Tartt’s third literary triumph—opens upon a Christmas day in a hotel in Amsterdam. The “I” that speaks offers a brief recap of his murky dreams and departure from New York; what but he really (quickly) wants to get to is setting up the scene for us.
8 August 2019, 18:00 PM
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In the real and mighty jungle…

When we were kids, my younger cousin and I had a favourite game. Smaller and more agile, my cousin would hang off the side of the bed or a table, his squishy feet dangling and threatening to land painfully on the floor.
1 August 2019, 18:00 PM
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What do you read on the road?

My copy of Zadie Smith’s Autograph Man is special for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s the only one of my favourite author’s books that I haven’t read in its entirety.
25 July 2019, 18:00 PM
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Sanjoy Chakraborty’s journey with red

Laal Kono Rong Noy (‘Red is Not a Colour’), curated by Mustafa Zaman, is displaying the works of artist Sanjoy Chakraborty from July 12 to 25 at Dwip Gallery, Lalmatia. Sanjoy Chakraborty studied History of Art at Rabindra Bharati University, India and has
18 July 2019, 18:00 PM
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The secret life of booksellers

Petrichor is the word for when rain hits dry soil, releasing a fragrance almost impossible to describe—the earth smells wetter somehow; richer, browner, greener. It was petrichor I smelled as I roamed, shuffled, and tiptoed my way through rain-drenched parts
11 July 2019, 18:00 PM
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When art tackles the inadequacy of language

It was sometime in winter last year that co-curator Sharmilie Rahman invited a group of artists—Abdus Salam, Abir Shome, Emran
4 July 2019, 18:00 PM
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HBO’s Chernobyl: Flashback, premonition, or forewarning?

Directed by Johan Renck and written by Craig Mazin, HBO’s five-part miniseries aired earlier this month takes us back to the worst
20 June 2019, 18:00 PM
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On fasting away from home

“No, not even water,” I explain to my friend, whose eyes grow wide at my description of fasting during Ramadan. We’re walking down Boulevard Raspail on the sixth arrondissement of Paris, past rows of people sitting out on café tables, past a noodle shop, a Pizzeria, a sandwicherie, and a Lebanese restaurant. It’s a hot summer afternoon. The air smells of cheese and caffeine, and I still have eight hours to go before I can eat or drink anything.
27 May 2019, 18:00 PM
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A reminder that trees are alive

To call it ‘climate fiction’ would barely scratch the surface of what it really is. Richard Powers’ The Overstory—winner of this year’s
16 May 2019, 18:00 PM
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Why is a fat, grieving superhero funny?

As far as grand finales go, Avengers: Endgame—the curtain call on this batch of the Marvel cinematic saga—gets a lot of things right.
9 May 2019, 18:00 PM
Indian Wedding

Made in Heaven: As real and entertaining as any Big Fat Indian Wedding

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.”
25 April 2019, 18:00 PM
birangonas

A graphic novel tackles the ethics of interviewing birangonas

The book opens to a dark, ominous scene. An armed man in a soldier's uniform chases a woman through an open field, her saree unfoiling, smoke billowing from hedges and houses in the horizon.
18 April 2019, 18:00 PM
Books

When a book isn’t the answer

If you’re thinking about the title of this article, let me clarify: I’ve always believed the opposite.
17 April 2019, 18:00 PM
Persian language

A Tale of Two Languages: How the Persian language seeped into Bengali

Think of some of the words we use most often in our daily lives in Bengali. The word for 'pen'—kolom; the word for 'sky'—asmaan; 'river'—doria; 'land'—jomeen.
11 April 2019, 18:00 PM
Samsul Alam Helal

Development, but at what cost?

In a solo exhibition “Disappearing Roots”, Samsul Alam Helal explores the impact of gentrification in the Rangamati hill tracts.
4 April 2019, 18:00 PM

Pagination

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