Essay / How Tumblr folk tales are rewriting digital dread into quiet sanctuaries
4 HOUR(s)
•
Essay
When it comes to digital folklore, we always think of Slenderman, the SCP Foundation’s cosmic bureaucracy, and occasionally viral creepypastas and fanfiction. We have convinced ourselves that the computer could only reflect our paranoia.
Essay / The menstruating body and the making of ‘womanhood’ in literature
17 September 2026
•
Essay
Book Review: Fiction / Finding stillness in ‘Being Water’
17 September 2026
•
Books & Literature
Essay / ‘The Odyssey’ and what we lose when myth belongs only to its heroes
15 September 2026
•
Essay
News Report / BRAC Institute of Languages and The Daily Star redefine English Education for youth
13 September 2026
•
News
Book review: Fiction / Finding home, identity, and art in ‘Parsa’s Pithas’
11 September 2026
•
Reviews
Essay / Out of the archives, into the feed
11 September 2026
•
Books & Literature
Event Report / Kobitabela: a soulful afternoon
9 September 2026
•
News
Creative Nonfiction / Two nights that lit Azimpur
5 September 2026
•
Creative non-fiction
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.
News Report / Jamir Nazir wins 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize following AI review
3 July 2026
Set in rural Trinidad, “The Serpent in the Grove” explores themes of betrayal, survival and the resilience of a woman's will.
News Report / Kazuo Ishiguro set to return with new novel in 2027
20 June 2026
Ishiguro’s novels have, over his 40-plus-year career, ranged from historical fiction to fantasy to science fiction.
The shelf / 7 Asian healing fiction recommendations for rainy days
18 June 2026
•
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
Rabindranath Tagore and the evolving spirit of Pohela Baishakh
But it goes without saying that Rabindranath, as the most famous member of the Tagore family and one of the cornerstones of Bengali culture, is thoroughly intertwined with the most significant day of the Bengali calendar. His thoughts on PohelaBaishakh are complex and evolved over the years, alongside his own development as an artist and the changing societal circumstances, as can be seen through his three essays on this day.
13 April 2026
Not just child’s play: Bengal’s rhymes as cultural memory
Folklorists have long recognised multiple categories within Bengali folk literature—songs, proverbs, riddles, and rhymes. Rhymes are not homogeneous; they appear in distinct functional types: nursery rhymes, social or satirical rhymes, occupational rhymes, ritual rhymes, and those associated with games. That diversity signals not triviality, but embeddedness. In their rhythmic repetition are folded patterns of labour, hierarchy, crisis and adaptation.
13 April 2026
From the ashes: Gaza’s first grassroots library rises amid genocide
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.
12 April 2026
On ‘Bridgerton’: When romantic escapism clashes with the realities of class
Romance has never existed apart from inequality. The genre depends on distance—on obstacles that make love feel hard-won.
10 April 2026
Love, wounds, and the making of ‘Hemingway’s Women’
Some books announce their ambition quietly. Others reveal it at a glance.
10 April 2026
5 books that capture the soul of lunar exploration
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.
7 April 2026
Melbourne: Where weather performs live
When I first landed in Melbourne in January, the heat greeted me like a shockwave. 45 degrees Celsius, feeling like 48.
4 April 2026
4 fictional case studies in incel pathology
You should never judge a book by its cover, but you can definitely judge a person by the covers lining their bookshelf.
4 April 2026
“Six books that reverberate with history, humanity, heartbreak, and hope”: 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist announced
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.
2 April 2026
A wintry account of the human experience
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.
2 April 2026
Stories from under the waves
Finding an independent bookstore in a new city is one of my most cherished travel experiences.
2 April 2026
Somebody’s son, nobody’s daughter
And womanhood? Well, it is messier. But it is mine. No longer something handed to me by men or mothers or traditions. Just mine.
1 April 2026
Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me secures 2026 NBCC Award, continues global recognition
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.
28 March 2026
Faded blue suitcase
We once lived in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City. Those days still return to me, especially when my grandmother’s death anniversary comes around.
28 March 2026
Growing up with a new nation: The Dhaka we once knew
Children of 1972–73 came of age alongside Bangladesh itself. In Azimpur’s close‑knit colony, a telephone became a neighbourhood lifeline, television was a shared ritual, and the Buriganga was our afternoon escape.
28 March 2026
Notice for the poems that won’t be written
One of these days, you will lose one or two limbs
to the slow erosion of years, the same silence
that took Grandfather’s stories mid-sentence.
28 March 2026
'Songs of Desire and Defiance' explores spiritual anatomy and womanhood
In the early 2000s, remixed versions of Bangla folk songs flooded neighbourhood corners during evening street matches and nighttime ceremonial events, which blurred the elusive nature of melancholia and yearning in the beats and celebration.
27 March 2026
The spark of ‘Red Spark’
Though human beings speak in prose in everyday life, the astonishing truth is that poetry is humanity’s first artistic love.
27 March 2026
Literature born from the fight for Bangla
Reading these literary works born from the 1952 Language Movement today reminds us of the sacrifices endured by those who fought for Bangla and shows how literature has always been one of the sharpest ways to preserve memory and keep their struggle alive.
26 March 2026
From history to mystery: 6 ‘thought daughter’ books to make you think
You know that feeling: you’re standing in front of your bookshelf, fingers trailing over spines, and you’re not just looking for a story. You’re looking for a companion—a voice that feels like a thought-daughter, a story born from the mind but nurtured by the heart, one that asks big questions but whispers them in your ear.
Lately, my own shelf has been whispering back, and it’s been telling me to pass these whispers on to you.
24 March 2026
Show in Mobile App
Off
Show Sub Category
Off
Show in Homescreen
Off