Sarah Anjum Bari

Sarah Anjum Bari is a writer and editor, pursuing an MFA in the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa where she also teaches rhetoric and literary publishing.

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

March 2, 2021

Faiz Ahmed: A visionary labour lawyer and leader of undivided Pakistan

History often has a way of challenging our biases towards our present. Perhaps the one thing common to humans of all generations is our steadfast belief that our own time, unlike any other time in the past, is the most developed, the most inspiring.

February 23, 2021

Tahmima Anam, Monica Ali, Leesa Gazi, and Nasima Bee discuss ‘Sultana’s Dream’ for The British Library

On February 22, 2021, The British Library hosted “Sultana’s Dream: Contemporary Fiction of Bangladeshi Origin”, a free virtual session on Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s feminist utopian novella.

February 21, 2021

The circulation of Bangla books

While writing a text, a literary text in particular, many authors tend not to think about its afterlife. Imagining, experiencing, and putting the story down on paper takes precedence during those moments of creation.

February 18, 2021

Razia Khan: Life and Literature Archived

For anyone looking to immerse themself in the literary culture of Bangladesh, Professor Razia Khan Amin’s name and presence are unavoidable.

January 19, 2021

Farida Hossain, Writing with Grace

On October 9, 1965—a day before the World Children’s Day celebrations—the Engineering Institute of Dhaka rang with the melody of young voices, their footfalls and bright costumes. Children from across the two Pakistans had been invited to take part in a competition of musical performances.

January 16, 2021