Images of Nepal, lingering in the annals of social media and casual conversations with friends, often evoke conversations about natural beauty, spectacular architecture dotting its numerous hills, and intimate hospitality. Sandwiched between the behemoths, India and China, Nepal’s history is a striking case of contradictions slaloming many structural challenges such as religious fundamentalism and ultranationalism engulfing the region today.
V. Ramaswamy is a translator and writer based in Kolkata, India. I had first heard of him in early 2022, when a new book of translations of Shahidul Zahir was being written about in newspapers here in Bangladesh and in India.
The 77-year-old is the first author of Kannada-language literature to receive the prestigious literary award for translated fiction
I rush to the mirror. My gums are pristine, no wound, no sin. But when I look back at the fruit, the truth reveals itself: the flesh is blackened, writhing with tiny, hungry mouths. The rot has teeth
The event commenced with a promise of memorable tales about memory, femininity, modernity, identity, and more
Now, two decades later, the question lingers: Did "Guts" really cause waves of fainting spells, or did the legend grow legs of its own?
Now, an automated metro-rail glides silently through the city. Conversations have become clipped, calculated. Efficiency replaces spontaneity. They call it peace. Rahim calls it absence.
In a world where smart TVs, touchscreen tablets, and mobiles are always within reach, I feel grateful that my daughter, who is almost five and a half, often brings me books and asks me to read them to her for a quick, fun storytime
She is the first writer of Bangladeshi origin to win the regional prize
A poetry reading and discussion session on writer and poet Naseef Faruque Amin’s poetry collection, Tamadi (Boitoroni, 2025)
I couldn’t help but think of the cultural significance of the word “ma” in our own society today; it is lead-heavy with meaning and so frequently invoked—from commonplace addresses of tender respect for women to motherly depictions of the landscape of Bengal in artworks, songs, and films
How does one write about history? Certainly, there is the straight-forward, head-on approach, where a historical period is confronted directly by populating it with historical/fictional characters and portraying the times through their eyes.
Review of ‘Reframing My Worth: Memoir of a Bangladeshi-Canadian Woman’ by Habiba Zaman (FriesenPress, 2024)
There are any number of ways one can approach Rahat Ara Begum’s collection of short stories, 'Lost Tales from a Bygone Era: An Anthology of Translation of Urdu Stories', assembled, contextualised, and published in this book by her loving grandchildren and their siblings
This year’s World Book Day theme, “Read Your Way,” invites readers to embrace their own paths, rhythms, and preferences regarding books
What if our Eid table had a few extra chairs reserved not for guests from our world but from that of the books we’ve loved throughout our life?
With International Women’s Day being celebrated across the world tomorrow, we here at Star Books and Literature decided to take a moment to read and reflect on the many expressions of female rage in both ancient and contemporary literature
Throughout my school years, Ammu would assign a different writer for me to read during each vacation
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..."
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
Remembering the stateless poet Daud Haider
'A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies'
Aparna Upadhyaya Sanyal’s 'Instruments of Torture' is a powerful literary collection that delves into the psychological and societal torments individuals endure, particularly focusing on themes of beauty standards and the representation of women. Each story in the collection is named after a medieval torture device, serving as a metaphor for the emotional and societal pressures faced by the characters.
Being a Dhakaite, your Eids in childhood were spent in mournful longings for something to happen.
“I’m scared” a voice calls out.
Farid Shaheb earned a fair bit at the office today. These days, because of the Anti Corruption Commission and newspaper journalists’ incessant pestering, he can no longer directly take the money offered to him.
It was not often that I received odd parcels. True, my job at the paper did occasionally warrant a few peculiar hate-mail or rebuttals, but this was nothing of that sort
Mrs X's parents were not interested in spending money on their daughter's room because they would have to give her new furniture when she got married
In Gaza, the names of the martyrs slip through silence, lost to a world too distracted to listen
You tell me stories of the sea—of its waves, of how it speaks to you in a language only you can understand—whenever you write back to me.
The cream colored bowl held the steaming, almost translucent yellow broth with traces of white, garnished by an array of green onions slashed in an angle.
The moon is a cheeseball, Cratered, yellow, and huge like your eyeballs
Moving mindlessly and / Etching every alley along the way / With verses devoted to you
For all that melts in this month of fallen petals rising, you’re a paperclip, hanging on the edge of my bookshelf, bent into a heart.
V. Ramaswamy is a translator and writer based in Kolkata, India. I had first heard of him in early 2022, when a new book of translations of Shahidul Zahir was being written about in newspapers here in Bangladesh and in India.
Images of Nepal, lingering in the annals of social media and casual conversations with friends, often evoke conversations about natural beauty, spectacular architecture dotting its numerous hills, and intimate hospitality. Sandwiched between the behemoths, India and China, Nepal’s history is a striking case of contradictions slaloming many structural challenges such as religious fundamentalism and ultranationalism engulfing the region today.
The 77-year-old is the first author of Kannada-language literature to receive the prestigious literary award for translated fiction
The moon is a cheeseball, Cratered, yellow, and huge like your eyeballs
I rush to the mirror. My gums are pristine, no wound, no sin. But when I look back at the fruit, the truth reveals itself: the flesh is blackened, writhing with tiny, hungry mouths. The rot has teeth
Moving mindlessly and / Etching every alley along the way / With verses devoted to you
Now, an automated metro-rail glides silently through the city. Conversations have become clipped, calculated. Efficiency replaces spontaneity. They call it peace. Rahim calls it absence.
The event commenced with a promise of memorable tales about memory, femininity, modernity, identity, and more
In a world where smart TVs, touchscreen tablets, and mobiles are always within reach, I feel grateful that my daughter, who is almost five and a half, often brings me books and asks me to read them to her for a quick, fun storytime
Now, two decades later, the question lingers: Did "Guts" really cause waves of fainting spells, or did the legend grow legs of its own?
