BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / A firebrand’s journey to Washington from Barisal
“Agunmukha” translates to “fire-mouth” in English. The word mirrors the tumultuous life of Noorjahan Bose, shaped by her early years in cyclone- and flood-prone small towns of Barisal; her experience of sexual violence at the age of 10; the loss of Imamuddin, her first love and husband, to smallpox; single motherhood; and her later marriage to Swadesh Bose, a Hindu man—an interfaith union opposed by society.
1 hour(s) ago
Books & Literature
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Through Agnes’ eyes: Reimagining Shakespeare’s lost years in ‘Hamnet’
1 hour(s) ago
Books & Literature
TRIBUTE / On his 76th death anniversary: The other side of George Orwell
7 hour(s) ago
Books & Literature
Beyond stereotypes: Rupert Grey’s ‘Homage to Bangladesh’
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
BOOK REVIEW: FICTION / Lessons in Chemistry : A novel that reads you
22 January 2026, 15:54 PM
Books & Literature
EDITORIAL / Why read?
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
REFLECTIONS / Moon, memory, manifesto: A personal, lyrical essay on Atrai
21 November 2025, 18:28 PM
Books & Literature
REFLECTIONS / The risk of becoming: Notes on translation and transformation
7 November 2025, 18:33 PM
Books & Literature
THE SHELF / 5 books on women’s everyday terror to read this Halloween: The horror that persists
31 October 2025, 13:45 PM
Books & Literature
THE SHELF / 8 books to read if you’re fascinated by the louvre heist
30 October 2025, 13:30 PM
Books & Literature
NEWS REPORT / NSU DEML launches inaugural certificate course in creative writing
17 January 2026, 16:00 PM
Books & Literature
EVENT REPORT / Bangladesh’s first interactive mental health book launched
15 January 2026, 13:43 PM
Books & Literature
EVENT REPORT / “Words are, to me, a way of understanding truth”: An hour of history and poetry at ULAB
Students at the University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh (ULAB) crowded into a packed classroom on a winter morning on Sunday, November 30, awaiting the start of a program that would be part interview, part poetry reading. “Meet the Poet: Shaheen Dil—In Conversation with Dr Mushira Habib” organised by the Department of English and Humanities was an hour-long dive into the life and work of poet Dr Shaheen Dil, a Bangladeshi writer and retired academic, banker, and consultant living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
5 December 2025, 13:50 PM
Books & Literature
EVENT REPORT / Making of a mother: Discussing ‘IVF and Childlessness In Bangladesh’
13 November 2025, 16:13 PM
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
EVENT REPORT / Zia Haider Rahman on his award-winning novel at NSU’s Colloquium series
7 November 2025, 11:48 AM
Books & Literature
THE SHELF / 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
Books & Literature
TRIBUTE / Remembering Razia Khan Amin: The pen that forged a generation’s courage
28 December 2025, 12:19 PM
THE SHELF / 5 books to rescue you from brainrot
17 October 2025, 14:45 PM
6 books that bring Bangladesh to life for diaspora teens
10 October 2025, 19:11 PM
BOOK REVIEW: GRAPHIC NOVEL / The tragedy of ‘Demon Slayer’
10 October 2025, 14:30 PM
THE SHELF / 7 lyrical fantasy books: Where prose becomes poetry
7 October 2025, 11:14 AM
BOOK REVIEW: NONFICTION / In which Arundhati gives it those ones
1 October 2025, 18:00 PM
FICTION / The truth factory
12 September 2025, 18:54 PM
How Caroline Kepnes has you rooting for a sociopath
I had heard about You from the moment I stepped into the world of bookstagramming. I’m ashamed to say, though, that I didn’t pick it up before watching the first season of the chilling yet hilarious (in my humble opinion) show, despite my friends raving about it.
3 November 2021, 18:00 PM
Mayurpankhi participates at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2021
Mayurpankhi, a children’s book publishing house based in Bangladesh, was invited as a guest this year at the Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair), one of the largest and most important international events in the publishing industry. It serves as a place for thousands of publishing industry professionals to come together and share their ideas, negotiate international book rights, and discuss new trade innovations.
3 November 2021, 18:00 PM
An island of one’s own
When one begins reading Karen Jennings’ An Island (Picador India, 2021), one might find it hard to believe that an atmospheric novel with such fluid prose initially struggled to find a publisher.
3 November 2021, 18:00 PM
Revisiting 'The Bell Jar': a feminist masterpiece that reverberates through time
Vivid imagery and symbolism of deep human emotion are found throughout Plath’s novel, as the readers are allowed a look into the mind of a 19-year-old girl who is trapped in the kind of society where women are perceived only as objects of desire and vessels for procreation.
3 November 2021, 11:41 AM
Young-adult mysteries to add to your reading list
Everyone, except Pippa, believes that Salil Singh killed his girlfriend, Andie Bell, five years ago. Before he could be charged, Salil was found in the woods, apparently having committed suicide.
31 October 2021, 08:16 AM
From ‘Kabuliwala’ to the fall of Kabul
It is crucial for neighbouring countries and global citizens to think about what the issues prevailing in Afghanistan represent and how the crisis there can be dealt with effectively.
30 October 2021, 18:00 PM
ULAB hosts colloquium, “From Kabuliwala to the Fall of Kabul: Afghanistan in Popular Imagination”
The Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) has organised a two-day International Virtual Colloquium on October 30 and 31 entitled “From ‘Kabuliwala’ to the Fall of Kabul: Afghanistan in Popular Imagination”.
30 October 2021, 11:08 AM
The Shelf: New in nonfiction this month
Amitav Ghosh traces back to the lineage of nutmegs originating in the Banda Islands to argue how colonisation deeply influences the geopolitics even in the contemporary world, a violent phenomenon that has led to natural disasters linked to climate change.
27 October 2021, 18:00 PM
In "Taxi Wallah", Numair Atif Chowdhury takes us, once more, through the cartography of a homeland
The version of Bangladesh we received in Babu Bangladesh (2019) was astonishing.
27 October 2021, 18:00 PM
Tanveer Anoy explores gender roles and identities in his second novel, ‘Duradhay’
Tanveer Anoy’s second novel, Duradhay (Anandam, 2021), felt like a punch to my stomach; a wake up call, to be more precise.
27 October 2021, 18:00 PM
Is book blogging in Bangladesh a privilege?
You walk into a room and come across stacks and stacks of books neatly arranged on shelves lining the walls, a couple of pristine white bedsheets, an intricate marble backdrop, and the smell of half a dozen candles blending together as your eyes are drawn to the centre of attention: glimmering, gold-foiled book covers. This is the commonly seen, romanticised setup for a book blogger’s photoshoot. Unfortunately, the real, behind-the-scenes process of blogging in Bangladesh can be quite different.
24 October 2021, 13:36 PM
Ujan Book Review Contest 2021 announces winners, reviews Korean literature in translation
Participants reviewed Bangla translations of two significant works of Korean literature—Korear Kobita (Korean Poetry) translated by Chhanda Mahbub, and Korear Golpo (Short Stories of Korea), edited by Soroishwarja Muhommod. Both translations were published by Ujan Prakashan and assisted by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, who also helped organise the contest.
19 October 2021, 09:05 AM
Breakthrough: A tale of love and prejudice
Suhail Aziz’s book, Breakthrough (Book Guild, 2020), is a memoir of a British Bengali and his intertwined personal story of love and prejudice. Aziz is best known within the UK Bengali community for his involvement with the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE).
17 October 2021, 05:46 AM
Books that changed the world: Gilgamesh through the sands of time
The epic antedates even the depiction of the famous Trojan war; it is, in effect, the oldest epic found till date.
13 October 2021, 18:00 PM
Is Bhashan Char really the answer to the Rohingya crisis?
Bhashan Char has lately become a topic of critical debate in the refugee relocation discourse. It is a reality that comes with a harsh reminder of demographic changes within the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and the limits of a highly populated state in supporting an incredibly high number of foreign nationals living in its territory.
13 October 2021, 18:00 PM
Abdulrazak Gurnahs 'Afterlives': The repercussions of colonialism, unveiled
Abdulrazak Gurnah, this year’s Nobel laureate in literature, seems to come as an admirable choice compared to the Nobel Prize’s controversial recent history.
13 October 2021, 18:00 PM
Gyantaposh Abdur Razzak Foundation conducts session on Manosh Chowdhury’s unpublished research
The Unpublished PhD lecture series, organised by Gyantaposh Abdur Razzaq Foundation, resumed on October 12, 2021 at 7 pm over Zoom after a two year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In its eighth episode, researcher and professor of Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University, Manosh Chowdhury, gave an illuminating talk on his doctoral thesis: “Popularizing Project: Some Aspects of Production of Culture and Discourses in Bangladesh”.
13 October 2021, 07:36 AM
Sangat Bangladesh holds memorial for feminist author and activist Kamla Bhasin
Sangat Bangladesh, a South Asian feminist network founded by Kamla Bhasin, held an event in Dhanmondi’s Rabindra Sarobar on Saturday to commemorate the feminist author, poet, development worker, and educator who passed away last month.
11 October 2021, 07:29 AM
WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY: Mental health issues in young-adult books
Young-adult books have recently been doing an exceptionally valuable job of incorporating mental health issues into their stories. Following is a list of books that represent various aspects of mental health issues and how people deal with them.
10 October 2021, 16:37 PM
Discounts galore for Dhaka’s book lovers
In celebration of Independent Bookshop Day, Bookworm Bangladesh, located on the Old Airport Road, are offering a 25 percent discount on all imported books for customers personally visiting their shop and 20 percent off on online orders. The offer ends on October 9.
9 October 2021, 07:54 AM