Once upon a time, in a small village nestled in the mountains of Afghanistan, there lived a little girl named Lila. She was a curious and adventurous child, always eager to explore the world around her. But there was one thing that Lila loved more than anything else, and that was winter.

Saleha Chowdhury has been nominated in the Ajibon Shommanona (Lifetime Award 2022) category. Translators Venkateswar Ramaswamy and Shahroza Nahrin were jointly nominated in the Borshoshera Onudito Boi 2022 (Best Translated Book of the Year 2022) category.

On a Thursday, I went back home, and I took a walk./ On the sidewalk, I saw a splash of maroon on a grey block.

You’re sitting on the couch/ And you’re tapping your feet at 135 miles per hour/ You’re waiting for something to happen

“Bhoot”, the Bangla word for ghost, derives from the Sanskrit word Bhūta, referring to living beings and the past. Later, it also came to mean ‘disembodied spirit.’ Ghost stories carry a special tradition in Bangla literature and the root lies in folklore and rural culture.

But I understand. I am part of a historic pattern. So not everything is personal. I can't help but fall into some of the traps and become prey to some of the vultures.

Rifat Munim highlighted how a moderator can be a catalyst to an engaging dialogue between the panellists and the audience,

Daily Star Books’ panel on January 8, Day 4 of the Dhaka Lit Fest sought to take the audience to a more existential aspect of what the festival attempts to do. Who chooses which stories deserve to become books? Who chooses whether news of those books will even reach readers? Does book criticism truly help the flow and business of literature within and across national borders?

There is absolutely no necessary relationship between the worship of goddesses and the treatment of women.

The difficulty of translation is one of the reasons why Nazrul is not discussed as extensively as Tagore in the west.

Dhaka Lit Fest just completed its 10th anniversary and, like always, took place at Bangla Academy.

Showers and storms give way To a surge of sunlight A fragrance of hope floats in On morning breeze

Delicate like butterfly wings, And yet as strong as boulders Her mind is a divine place, Eternal peace on her shoulders. 

Rahman emerged from his grave in the middle of the night. His return from the dead took place in no more than 10 days after his passing away.

Among them, journalist and writer Mashiul Alam has been selected as the best writer for the IFIC Bank Literary Award 2020. Celebrated poet and researcher Aminul Islam and litterateur Swikrit Noman have been selected as the best writers for the IFIC Bank Literary Award 2021. 

Seek if you must If you believe the truth shall set you free And then? We heal.

As an academic, I often share with students my writings that are related to the courses I teach. That was not the case with our educators when I was a student in the Department of English at Dhaka University. The reason was not because there were no writers among our teachers.

I don’t remember when they took it down. We asked the building supervisor, the cleaners, anyone who would listen, but nobody had a clue.

Football, bloody hell! Like the chapters of a book, slowly unfolding towards the eventual climax, this edition of the World Cup has been nothing short of breathtaking. From gorgeous goals to late drama, with a few major upsets sprinkled throughout, this year’s World Cup has probably been the most spectacular iteration of football’s greatest tournament.

It's June–the first day of Summer, You have never come home empty-handed, And I stand by our apartment door, Eye the lift as it totes between floors.