FLASH FICTION / Chand raat at Mohakhali

Folk-ballads are living archives that represent the imagination, values, ideas, and aesthetics of the people to whom they belong. Folk-ballads are living archives that represent the imagination, values, ideas, and aesthetics of the people to whom they belong.

Kabuliwala and Other Stories is a collection of twelve outstanding stories of Rabindranath Tagore, translated into English by Prof Shawkat Hussain, a former professor of the Department of English, University of Dhaka.

Etched a figurine, taking dots and lines and curves Xeroxed our desires weaving through the blurs

The very day in bless’d disarray, this is no time to stay in place. As begging kids and homeless dogs flee the chasing skies above,

This past March, Sahitya Akademi and Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL) arranged an online Literature Conference on “Environment and Literature” with participation from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Reversal of fairy tale tropes and themes of mental health and alienation run dominantly across One Minute Past Midnight (Nymphea Publications, 2022), a debut collection of poetry and prose by poet and teacher Arshi Mortuza. 

In Speak, Silence: In Search of W.G. Sebald (Bloomsbury, 2021), you write that the author’s British publisher, Christopher MacLehose, was in a dilemma to decide on Sebald’s genre of writing. After writing about his novel and his life for so long, how would you define Sebald’s genre?

One of the most searing scenes in Lee Lai’s magnificent graphic novel, Stone Fruit (Fantagraphics, 2021) is when a young child, Nessie,

What makes them my favourites, if I can’t remember the names of the engrossing characters or the details of the intricate plots in some of my “favourite” books?

Selvadurai’s book, set against the backdrop of escalating political tension in Sri Lanka prior to the 1983 riots, portrays the effect of the Tamil-Sinhalese clash on the personal lives of his characters, before giving a glimpse of the riots in the very last chapter.

Each hardcover spine contains the story of how Nora’s life would have turned out if she had chosen differently—if she had picked a different career path, moved to a different country or married a different person.

It was not very late when he saw her inside the cafe. 

The poems in this ambitious collection are by women poets writing in Bangla, who have emerged from the land that is now Bangladesh—having lived, or are still living here, or are now part of the first-generation diaspora.

Why is Wordle so addictive and why are a lot of people so obsessed with it?

Tongues and Bellies, published by Linen Press (2021), is described by its blurb as an anthology where “sensual and surprising stories play a tantalising game of hide and seek with lies and truth”.

Chevening scholar, author, and head of business development at The Daily Star, Shuvashish Roy, has published his first work of fiction, Chamakiya O Biggani Bhajaghata (Gyankosh Prokashoni, 2022), released at the Ekushey Boi Mela this year. 

Ranjana Biswas, an essayist and researcher, received the award at a ceremony held on March 22 at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Dhaka. 

Rokte Anka Bhor begins by depicting the events of the night of 25th March of 1971 and ends with Bangabandhu’s return home on 10th January 1972. Anisul Hoque has not merely recorded a series of historical events. History can become monotonous, but Rokte Anka Bhor becomes personal and meaningful through moving narration and fragments of history.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was rooted in the land and loved Bangladesh’s natural features. He wanted them to be as they were—green, open spaces full of water bodies and flora and fauna.

Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” comes to mind while reading Hemayet Uddin’s Diplomacy in Obscurity: A Memoir (University Press Limited, 2021).