Two Bangladeshi writers—26-year-old Anmana Manishita, a lecturer at BRAC University, and 33-year-old Shazed Ul Hoq Abir, a lecturer at East West University—have been shortlisted for the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

Romance has never existed apart from inequality. The genre depends on distance—on obstacles that make love feel hard-won.

Here are five books that celebrate the curiosity that took us to the moon. Not for conquest, but for humanity, and for the simple, profound need to know.

The 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist has been announced, recognizing six outstanding works of fiction from around the world translated into English. The award, known formerly as the Man Booker International Prize, celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.

In my early 20s, I moved to New York and started going to a commuter college. I lived far from campus, so in order to get to school, I had to take a bus and then the subway, adding up to an hour of commute each way. My classmates all commuted from various parts of the city; some of them ran to work right after classes. Having been surrounded by friends all my life and not yet knowing how to enjoy my own company, I felt extremely lonely.

And womanhood? Well, it is messier. But it is mine. No longer something handed to me by men or mothers or traditions. Just mine.

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.

In classical studies of sensory experiences, philosophers such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty suggest that bodily sensations constitute our lived reality.

I sit on a chair. Sometimes I wish I were sitting on my old chair of humble plastic, but right now my chair is a plush armchair, with armrests no less, swaying and swooning on its cabriole legs of sturdy s-curve perfection.

If we look at Bangladesh in parallel to Europe during the 1968 uprisings, we find Dhaka itself boiling with mass unrest in 1969.

How to make literature enjoyable and foster a love for reading.

North South University’s Department of English and Modern Languages (DEML) concluded its first-ever Winter Fest spanning December 10-11, bringing together literature, performance, film, and visual art in a two-day celebration of creative expression on campus.

Through its blend of art, technology, and literature, “Celebrating Kafka” offers more than homage–it invites audiences to confront the absurdities of modern life and recognize that Kafka’s strange, unsettling world is still unmistakably our own.

A level Literature in English carries a reputation for being time-consuming and intellectually challenging. Yet, it's a brilliant subject for those passionate about language and storytelling.

I got to know Jowshan Ara better when I visited her home to interview her husband, Mahbub ul Alam Chowdhury, the poet who wrote the first poem on Ekushey.

While leaving the institute, a nurse gave me a packet of cigarettes as a token of friendship

Creating a video game, especially one that is storyline-based or an open-world role-playing game, is like creating an entirely new universe

You are wide awake again

Shahaduz Zaman stands out prominently as a significant figure in the contemporary Bangla literary landscape, utilising intertextuality throughout his works, and   infusing various texts and genres into his narratives.

Schools must revamp literature education to foster creativity.