Fiction / The winter ballot
19 September 2026
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Fiction
“I’m sorry, but choosing anywhere near the capital will delay your citizenship process by at least five years,” said the woman at the counter of the immigration office. “The capital itself will cost you a lifetime.”
Poetry / Four poems on healing
19 September 2026
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Poetry
Poetry / Sacred sorrows
19 September 2026
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Poetry
Essay / How Tumblr folk tales are rewriting digital dread into quiet sanctuaries
17 September 2026
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Essay
Essay / The menstruating body and the making of ‘womanhood’ in literature
17 September 2026
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Essay
Book Review: Fiction / Finding stillness in ‘Being Water’
17 September 2026
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Books & Literature
Essay / ‘The Odyssey’ and what we lose when myth belongs only to its heroes
15 September 2026
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Essay
News Report / BRAC Institute of Languages and The Daily Star redefine English Education for youth
13 September 2026
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News
Book review: Fiction / Finding home, identity, and art in ‘Parsa’s Pithas’
11 September 2026
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Reviews
Literary Curtains / Patriarchy inversed: Reimagining Rokeya’s Ladyland in 2026
“Ladyland is not perfect,” remarks Sultana, one of the protagonists in the much awaited play, “Project Ladyland 2026”. Produced by HerStory Foundation in collaboration with the British Council and Women of the World Foundation, the play was greeted by a full house this weekend. Staged at the Bangladesh Mohila Samiti theatre, the performance made a splash on Friday, August 14.
Event Report / Kobitabela: a soulful afternoon
9 September 2026
Event Report / “Our Story”: Where parents and children made memories by hand
15 July 2026
A unique and heartwarming workshop, designed to celebrate the beautiful journey of parenthood through creative expression and quality time
Event Report / Letters across a lifetime: The 20th staging of Love Letters
21 June 2026
On June 19, 2026, the occasion was the 20th staging of “Love Letters”, A. R. Gurney’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, translated and adapted into Bangla by writer and translator Professor Abdus Selim. Directed by veteran theatre actor and director Tropa Majumdar and staged by Group Theatre at the Dr. Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium, the production brought together the acting power couple, Ramendu Majumdar and Ferdausi Majumdar. Their performances transformed what could have easily been a simple reading of letters into something deeply intimate and profoundly human.
The shelf / 7 Asian healing fiction recommendations for rainy days
18 June 2026
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The Shelf
You know when the sky trades its brightness for a low, silver hue, and you wrap your fingers tightly around your tea, seeking that small, steady pulse of warmth. This is the essence of healing fiction. Often rooted in the Japanese concept of iyashikei, these stories focus on the quiet spirit through small, everyday moments. You may have already heard of Days at the Morisaki Bookshop or We’ll Prescribe You a Cat. While those popular favourites have opened a door for many, there are a few other tales worth the read.
Reflections / In the age of AI allegations
13 June 2026
Fiction / Body Selim
18 April 2026
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
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
‘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
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
Space between the scrolls
Children pulled from rubble in Gaza, dust-white faces against red bricks—
15 August 2025
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
Kumu: Nani’s salt
My nani’s nickname was Bokul—like the flower. In English, it’s called the Spanish Cherry or Mimusops elengi, though no translation quite captures its softness.
8 August 2025
Give back the forests, take away this city
Every night, a market forms near the mill gate. When it’s time for that market to close, Fulbanu stands on the high bank of the pond, waiting for her husband’s return.
8 August 2025
For wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving
Approximately 105 people die every minute globally. This is nothing but data until in some specific wretched minute, someone dear to us adds a plus one to that digit. When those we love die, their losses dig enormous holes in our beings. Though invisible to the physical eye, these freshly cut hollows ache like any deep wound would, they bleed out more blood than we carry in our veins. A severe soreness spreads over us without any remedies, without offering us a recovery timeline. There is no telling when grieving ends or if it ever actually does.
6 August 2025
When the waters rise and the food disappears
The quote above seems to capture the heart of this novel set in a near-future dystopian Kolkata rendered uninhabitable by political corruption, inequality, and the ominous package of climate crisis–floods, famine, overheating.
6 August 2025
July 18
Do you remember the sunset on the 18th of July? What colour was it?
1 August 2025
To fold a city into silence
The bus stop was empty as usual, I sat waiting for a sight of one. Then he came. A man in a faded red shirt with a bag hanging on his back, running as if the devil himself had taken out a lease on his shadow.
1 August 2025
Echoes through the balcony
Saiyara didn’t wave a flag to voice her rights on the streets. She had never marched in a protest line, never chanted beneath the dark blanket of smoke-heavy skies. Her revolution was quieter, and it carried a little soul swaddled in a bassinet beside her, traces of milk on her lips and dreaming
1 August 2025
The Booker 2025 longlist announced: A global showcase of the power of fiction
The 2025 Booker Prize longlist was revealed on Tuesday, July 29, showcasing a diverse ensemble of literary brilliance, with novels that spanned continents, genres, and narrative styles
31 July 2025
Between protest and power: Shahriar’s portrait of a nation in flux
Literary experts often caution against writing a novel immediately after a major political upheaval, arguing that personal involvement may cloud objectivity.
30 July 2025
Tracing an uprising in strokes
Graffiti has long played a powerful role in revolutions around the world. From the walls of Paris in 1968 to the slogans of the Arab Spring, street art has served as one of the most immediate and accessible forms of resistance.
30 July 2025
‘Jodi Lokkho Thake Otut’: Self-help done right
Review of ‘Jodi Lokkho Thake Otut: Shafolyer Khola Koushol’ (Anyaprokash, 2025) by Asif Iqbal
27 July 2025
The lost rhythm
Summer has imprinted crow’s feet under my eyes, .Yet I have aged only a quarter. .That’s was when .I dunked myself—starting with the crown of my head—into the ocean where The southern sun resides, to imprint upon my face its sheen, .rhythm of miracles, and to honour it wi
25 July 2025
Maturing
Always the same whining about
the distances, always the same
25 July 2025
Ashen bloom
The air tasted of burnt sugar and broken vows–sweetness clinging to the char. It began with a whisper, then the slow, inevitable searing of what we believed was solid ground.
25 July 2025
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