Interview / Diaspora, national identity and reality TV with Pajtim Statovci

9 June 2026, 21:48 PM ⁠⁠News
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.
News Report / From the ashes: Gaza’s first grassroots library rises amid genocide
12 April 2026, 21:43 PM
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.
NEWS REPORT / Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me secures 2026 NBCC Award, continues global recognition
28 March 2026, 17:07 PM
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.

The dawn’s return

Long, long ago, when the world was younger, wiser, softer, when the animals were braver and the people were gentler, when art lived and music sailed, and the skies were a true, honest blue, there lived a man who loved a woman, and they lived in a little house they loved very much. How they met o
5 September 2025, 18:58 PM

No one taught her this

One of the memoir’s most striking elements is Westover’s refusal to paint her family in simple black and white
4 September 2025, 14:15 PM

The imperfect art of leaving

In a recent conversation I had with a well-regarded photographer about his longitudinal study on a subject, he talked about Sufism and the structure of the raagas in classical music where a single refrain being repeated was actually an inward search for deeper meaning.
3 September 2025, 18:01 PM

Bridging divides: Aruna Chakravarti’s journey through Bengal’s hidden narratives

"You have done an excellent job. People who know English tell me that your translations are better than the originals," said the late Sunil Gangopadhyay to Aruna Chakravarti on her translation of his writings.
3 September 2025, 18:01 PM

Mother, memory, and defiance: Inside Arundhati Roy’s new memoir

The memoir situates Roy’s personal story alongside her public life as an outspoken critic of state power, globalisation, and inequality.
31 August 2025, 12:30 PM

Sonnet of the riverbank: Remembering Al Mahmud, the poet

Some poets arrive like rain on parched soil—needing no defense, only recognition. Al Mahmud (1936–2019) was one of them. And yet, in the usual crookedness of history, we have found ourselves having to defend what should already have been canonised. There was a time—not long ago—when his name uns
29 August 2025, 19:49 PM

Three songs: Kazi Nazrul Islam

Ami chiratare dur-e chole jabo.(I will go far away forever).I’ll go far away forever—.yet I won’t let myself be obliviated..I’ll turn air to knot your hair.when the bun gets loose..Immersed in your tune.when the sky dozes, wind weeps,.with teary ey
29 August 2025, 19:48 PM

I’m with the band (vicariously)

I was born too late for CBGB’s, too offline for MySpace and too far away from dive bars. I came to all of it two entire decades late so The Strokes wasn’t exactly the soundtrack to my reckless twenties but a band I happened to stumble into during a mid-pandemic spiral.
27 August 2025, 18:00 PM

The bard of love and rebellion in prose

Being a musician who grew up singing and listening to Kazi Nazrul Islam’s songs, I was quite familiar with his writing, particularly his diction, figures of speech, and sundry themes.
27 August 2025, 18:00 PM

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’: 97 years of pages, pixels, and performance

Similar to how the play starts, it also ends with the colourful, subtle image of the butterflies flying spontaneously, creating a strong symbolism encapsulating Paul's dream of freedom, nature, and his ambition of becoming a writer
23 August 2025, 09:45 AM

Showtime

Trigger warning: self harm, sexual and physical abuse “For a hundred million, Omar, are you ready?” said the host, with his everlasting grin.
22 August 2025, 19:26 PM

The whirring

“What will come out of all this?” The day starts with the devil flying overhead,
22 August 2025, 19:26 PM

Silence, our witness

This cracked, restless earth beneath our feet— granules of memory grinding,
22 August 2025, 19:02 PM

Revisiting the hidden scars and echoes of Bengal Partition

Bengal was partitioned twice. First in 1905 when the heightened protest against this reunited Bengal in 1911.
20 August 2025, 18:00 PM

No heroes in Shonagachhi

Don’t mistake A Death in Shonagachhi for a murder mystery, or you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment. Some moments will remain unexplained, threads will refuse to tie neatly, and certain ends will stay frayed. Strictly speaking, Rijula Das’s explosive debut can be classified as literary noir. More poetically, it is a soul-baring depiction of a community built in the most unexpected of places—a testament to resilience in the face of crushing blows, and a promise that love can overcome the agony of circumstances beyond one’s control.
20 August 2025, 18:00 PM

Letters across the silence

In Thorns in My Quilt, Mohua Chinappa offers readers a searingly honest and emotionally resonant series of letters addressed to her late father. But before these letters unfold, we are led into a history that anchors the personal in the political—a story of displacement, privilege, and loss that stretches from Dhaka to Shillong.
20 August 2025, 18:00 PM

‘Three Daughters of Eve’: A story which amplifies its relevancy with time

Elif Shafak has adroitly balanced the story between Peri’s suffering as a woman and religion’s role in mending our relationships and lives.
20 August 2025, 14:18 PM

A gilded cage

The automated blinds of the penthouse in Gulshan, an upscale area, rise with a soft hum, revealing a picture-perfect Dhaka morning.
15 August 2025, 19:18 PM

Space between the scrolls

Children pulled from rubble in Gaza, dust-white faces against red bricks—
15 August 2025, 19:00 PM

Jibon Ahmed’s photobook on the July uprising launches at Alliance Francaise de Dhaka

Ahmed shared his journey with Netra News and his undercover work for them shedding light on the countless enforced disappearances that took place in the country during Hasina’s regime.
9 August 2025, 13:45 PM
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