Looking into Mohammad Shafiqul Islam’s Inner State

Poet-academic-translator Mohammad Shafiqul Islam’s third book, Inner State, explores the current issues plaguing the world-- poverty, class inequality, climate crisis, warfare and terrorism, and the effects they leave on the environment and human lives.

Mohammad Shafiqul Islam is a professor of English at SUST and poetry editor of the literary journal, Reckoning. His first poetry collection, Wings of Winds, was published in 2015 under the banner of Adorn Publication. His other translation works include Humayun Ahmed: Selected Short Stories, published by Anyaprakasha in 2016, and Aphorisms of Humayun Azad -- a translation of Prabachanguchha, published by Agamee Prakashani in 2017.

Besides books, the writer has also published essays in Journal of Postcolonial Writing, International English Language Quarterly, Bengal Lights, and Arts & Letters, among others. “Inner State is my second collection of poetry in which I have presented the intensity of reality, along with chaos in order, especially of the inner world,” shares the writer. “It is also about silence, beauty and empathy.”

Paired with mirroring photographs that accentuate the shifts within the poems, the poetry collection also looks into themes of anxiety, conflicted identity, and the struggle to express through poetry feelings of love and concern for the world. “We started out trying to make cyanotypes, then moved on to water colour pieces and prints which we tried to manipulate digitally,” says artist and photojournalist Kazi Tahsin Agaz Apurbo, who has designed and prepared the visuals of the book. “Eventually, through discussions among the team and with the author, we decided upon five photographs that best represented the themes and tones of the poems—one image for the cover, four more to accompany the poems inside.” The cover typography and formatting was designed by Kazi Akib Bin Asad, Sub Editor at SHOUT, The Daily Star.

Inner State is available at The Daily Star Books in stalls 491-492, at BDT 165 (under 25 percent discount), at the Ekushey Boi Mela 2020.