Can our walls make space for our dissent?
The walls of Dhaka city represent the volume and chaos of thousands of people jostling for ever-shrinking space.
3m ago
4 books I was grateful to read this year
It's true, I feel differently about books that I previously disliked or enjoyed reading and books that I want as a physical presence in my life
3m ago
Outliers take centre-stage in Shah Tazrian Ashrafi’s debut collection
It’s hard not to recall our many conversations about literature as I try to summarise Shah Tazrian Ashrafi’s debut collection of short stories. They were always short discussions, opening and closing off in spurts, as happens over text. Exclamations over a new essay collection by Zadie Smith, or a new novel by Isabel Allende.
4m ago
Rifat Munim on Bangladeshi fiction: ‘This is a diverse terrain you are going to tread on’
In the foreword, I wanted to capture how I, as a child, grew up listening to different stories: ghost stories, mythical stories from both Sanatana and Islamic religious scriptures, and fairy tales from 'Thakurmar Jhuli', compiled by Dakkhinaranjan Mitra Majumdar. It was a time when there were no boundaries for my imagination.
9m ago
The first semester is your shitty first draft
Like many veterans, I joined a creative writing MFA program because I wanted to evolve as a writer.
10m ago
A glimpse of the Istanbul we don’t know
Here was a woman who was but a dot amidst the throngs of people who watched the Bosphorus Bridge being opened in October 1973, as fireworks erupted over a Turkey that now seamed Asia to Europe.
1y ago
In conversation with South Asia’s preeminent literary agent, Kanishka Gupta
I always tell the authors to make subjective, qualitative decisions. So many of my authors say no to higher offers from publishing houses if they don’t feel comfortable with the publisher or editor.
1y ago
A bookstore is a time machine—Zeenat Book Supply through the ages
Last week, one of Dhaka’s oldest bookstores announced that they will be closing shop after running for 60 years
1y ago
December 15, 2022
Behind the scenes of the Dhaka Literary Festival 2023
Literature is our main area of interest.But we also want to highlight areas of intersection between literature and science, politics, pop culture, human rights, and new media.
December 11, 2022
Journalists need regular salaries, institutional support, says Nadeem Qadir at book launch
Qadir’s book includes insight on the origins and evolution of journalism in Bangladesh, firsthand experiences of journalists who have struggled and resigned from large media houses, research and case studies, and proposed solutions.
December 3, 2022
Unpacking the craft of creative writing
If you are reaching out to an agent, go and find out exactly what sort of work that agent publishes. Also, think in terms of what would differentiate your work with the work of 39 other authors.
November 18, 2022
In Iffat Nawaz’s debut novel, 1971 is not an open wound
Shurjo’s Clan uses magic realism to conjure Shurjomukhi’s freedom fighter uncles, who were martyred in Sylhet’s tea gardens during the 1971 Liberation War, and her grandmother, who took her own life shortly after the 1947 Partition.
October 18, 2022
Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka wins Booker Prize 2022
The novel opens with a photographer, the eponymous Maali Almeida, who has woken up dead in a celestial visa office, while his body sinks in the Beira Lake in Colombo. Maali has seven moons to find the man and woman he loves and lead them to "a hidden cache of photos that will rock Sri Lanka".
October 12, 2022
‘Sultana’s Dream’ in new Penguin Classics edition and audiobook
The Penguin Classics edition of Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag comes in a paperback, ebook, and as an audiobook narrated by Priya Ayyar, a television and film actor and award-winning audiobook narrator with a BFA and MFA from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
October 5, 2022
On the chaos of teaching English
I discover that teaching is more about reading people.
October 1, 2022
‘My job is to take someone’s experience and make it visible’
Daily Star Books editor Sarah Anjum Bari speaks with Fahmida Azim about her work with The Insider and about the responsibilities of visual storytelling.
September 24, 2022
‘Nil Chhaya’ reconjures ghosts of Bengal’s Indigo Revolution
‘Nil Chhaya' connects the Indigo Revolt to the oppressions faced by present day garment factory workers in Bangladesh.
September 15, 2022
The possibilities of slam poetry
The evening of September 8 at The Daily Star Centre saw an outpouring of verses to a live and very interactive audience. Daily Star Books and SHOUT jointly launched our series of Slam Poetry Nights—an evening, every month, of verses recited in the spirit of creative freedom.
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