Photo: Darshan Chakma

Ahmad Ibrahim is probably one of the few young writers who have been published both within the country and abroad. He has been published in an anthology called Six Seasons Review which launched at last year's Hay Festival, Dhaka. His poems and a short story have been published in Patchwork Pages, which was brought out by Brine Pickles, a performance literature group. He has also been published in an international publication called the ISF (Indian Short Fiction) which is based in Chennai, India.

Clearly, Ibrahim  has been an avid writer since he was a young boy. His play with words and publications on hard-hitting topics has earned him quite a name as a young writer.

“I can't quite explain how or why I started writing,” says Ibrahim. “It started off with poems and stories. I sent some into Rising Stars and all of a sudden I had a job at the Daily Star! And that's where it really kicked off, I suppose,” he adds. He eventually expanded into non-fiction- articles, analyses, satire and more. “It was not until I was fully into it that I realised how big a part of my life writing had become.”

Ibrahim's biggest strength behind his writing is reading. While his bedroom can be considered a 'make-shift' library with a collection of books larger than life, Ibrahim has read through each and every one of them and still has a hunger for books that is seen rarely these days. “My biggest inspiration

is quite possibly Allen Ginsberg. He is the man when it comes to poetry and I can't quite eloquently put into words what effect his poems have on me. Other than Ginsberg, I am also a huge fan of T.S. Eliot and William Dalrymple, who is possibly the best non-fiction writer alive today,” says Ibrahim.

A student of Maple Leaf International School, Ahmad Ibrahim  had won the Daily Star Awards for his outstanding results in the O level and A level examinations. He is currently at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he will be doing a self-designed major on Intersectionality and Social justice.

“I do hope to write a novel sometime in the future and continue writing poems," says Ibrahim. "Because it's really the fuel that keeps me going.”