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

February 20, 2020

Beyond the book—this is how the youth read

Those of us who love literature are haunted by an ever-looming threat: that reading as a practice around the world is dwindling.

November 29, 2019

THE LAST HUSTLE

The soft light of the setting sun illuminates the entire section every time I walk in, mostly because I AM ALWAYS LATE. On one side white balloons hang, on another side a dart board.

November 8, 2019

Children’s activities at Dhaka Litfest 2019

Every November, Dhaka Lit Fest creates a hub of stimulating activities and conversations for the culturally inclined.

October 25, 2019

Did we need two Booker Prize winners?

After six months of reading 151 books longlisted into 11, narrowed down further to six, the Booker Prize judges on October 14 announced this year’s winner—the “best novel” produced in English in the UK and Ireland (regardless of the author’s nationality) over the past one year.

October 18, 2019

Jamdani: A fabric of then and now

Along the banks of the Sitalakhya river in Narayanganj, some 20 villages in Sonargaon, Rupganj, and Siddhirganj in particular, women villagers starch yarn in lime and toasted rice to make warp yarn—the vertical, lengthwise weaves that make up a fabric.

October 4, 2019