⁠⁠Features

⁠⁠Features

REFLECTION / ‘She and Her Cat’ and the quiet power of presence

The cats don't always understand the human specifics, but they recognise sadness. They notice routines. And most of all, they stay

1w ago

ESSAY / Who is feminist literature for?

For today’s feminists, the focus isn’t just on challenging or breaking social norms, but also on asking, who gets to break these norms? And to what extent?

1m ago

INTERVIEW / Embracing the bizarre and ‘An Eye and a Leg’

The Asia regional winner of the 2025 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Faria Basher, in an interview with The Daily Star, opens up about her journey from lifelong reader to emerging writer.

1m ago

INTERVIEW / An evening at Bengal Parampara Sangeetalay and Dhaka Sessions

In one of their most recent episodes, Dhaka Sessions featured three young artists from Bengal Parampara Sangeetalay to perform in the intimate and literary, lush space of Bookworm Bangladesh

2m ago

ESSAY / Panic, puke and Palahniuk

Now, two decades later, the question lingers: Did "Guts" really cause waves of fainting spells, or did the legend grow legs of its own?

2m ago

REFLECTION / Ammu reads

Throughout my school years, Ammu would assign a different writer for me to read during each vacation

2m ago

ESSAY / Philosophical fraternity of Rabindranath Tagore and Anwar Ibrahim

In a lecture, Rabindranath proclaimed, “I hope that some dreamer will spring from among you and preach a message of love and therewith, overcoming all differences..."

2m ago

LITERARY CURTAINS / ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’: Reverberating despair and dread through a theatrical production

All Quiet on the Western Front (Little, Brown and Company, 1929), a semi-autobiographical novel authored by a German World War I veteran, Erich Maria Remarque, is one of the greatest anti-war works of literature—one that was published nearly a century back and still holds relevance today

3m ago

On the national anthem of Bangladesh: An apologetic discourse

The recent attack on “Amar Shonar Bangla” stems from this type of attempt to categorise the national anthem, leading to further allegations against it

9m ago

Unconventional realities and intense friendships

Saikat Majumdar writes with a sharp poignancy that arrows straight to the core of the heart.

9m ago

Sertraline is killing my poetry

At some point, it started turning into hyper-productivity, because more task completion meant more serotonin. My writing, on the other hand, shifted from my internal world to the problems of the external world.

9m ago

Nawab Faizunnesa was here

The Dhaka-Cumilla bus tickets are Tk 250 for non-AC, Tk 350 for AC, and Tk 400 for AC VIP. Window seats must be negotiated on the spot. The journey takes three to six hours, past the old capital of Sonargaon, where the moisture in the air inspired the muslin, across the Gomati river and into Cumilla town on the Tropic of Cancer.

9m ago

Poets from Palestine: Verses written in tears and blood

Resistance takes many shapes and forms, from taking up arms, to facing police batons, to picking up a pen

9m ago

In harmony

These are our shared dreams that inspire a sense of community–we are all in it together.

11m ago

Evil never looked this good

Even without a full-blown sympathetic backstory, a villain’s motivations can be complex.

1y ago

Musings of a romance reader

Navigating the lines between gender politics, feminist beliefs and love for romance

1y ago

A perfect cup of literary ‘saa’

Priyanka Taslim greets me with a gentle smile as we meet over Zoom. She is eloquent and our conversation flows organically, akin to an adda over a cup of saa (cha).

1y ago

Uncovering history through storytelling

In conversation with Reem Bassiouney on the Sheikh Zayed Book Award, 'Al Halwani', and bridging the cultural gap

1y ago