Rokanpur Library, located on the third floor of Rokonpur Community Center beside Kabi Nazrul Government College in Laxmibazar, can hardly be called a library anymore. It suffers from a shortage of books and has lost its ability to attract readers.

As I wrote in “Motherhood—the story of a transformed reader”, my essay for Daily Star Books on International Mother’s Day on

In an initiative that is first of its kind, the Department of English and Humanities at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh is launching the ULAB Literary Salon on Saturday, May 14.

After describing why this region is India’s gateway to realising its eastern ambitions, Sudeep soon cuts to the chase, stating that the Naga peace process is central to establishing peace in Nagaland and Manipur.

She would be the first woman in the history of Persian literature to publish poems that spoke openly of women, sexuality, longings, and equality.

Motherhood changes everything you knew about yourself and the world you had carefully curated for the past however many years you have been alive.

The pandemic has disrupted the businesses of struggling booksellers, many of whom are still reeling from their losses. There are organisations that are helping booksellers, book readers, and both.

In the contemporary discourse on Bangladesh, its cultural legacies have overtaken its identity as a land of six seasons or as a riverine country.

The lifespan of a century gave Violeta Del Valle innumerable memories, and she tells her story in Isabel Allende’s new novel, Violeta (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022). Writing to one named Camilo—someone she loves more than all others—Violeta recounts the saga of a hundred years.

As the white hot sun pierced through the soufflé clouds on an afternoon a lifetime ago, my aunt and I leaned back a little too precariously on our rattan armchairs while talking about the allure of academe.

“My story concerns the lost souls of a metropolis”, the author tells The Daily Star, “those magnificent beasts that cannot find their places in a growing, sprawling cityscape.” 

What does our editorial process lack? Why can’t we hire good proofreaders? The answer lies in the economics of it. 

I channelled my hurt, anger and frustration into poetry and flash fiction that had nothing to do with my agitator and her cronies.

Aminul Karim rightly believes that China's race for dominance will continue unabated. He also believes that in spite of that, a kind of Asian peace "should prevail". No one will contest this idea, but whether it will prevail depends to a large extent on the behaviour of the protagonists.

For World Book Day on April 23, we bring together a list of books about books as a means to glimpse at and tap into the vast knowledge, power, and pleasure that is to be found in these complex objects. Are they, indeed, just objects? Or historical artefacts? Or weapons?

At the start of Amitava Kumar’s latest novel, A Time Outside This Time (Aleph Book Company, 2021), the main character Satya, an Indian-born US-based journalist, is at a swanky artists’ retreat in Italy where he is reading 1984

How is it that the privileged lives of the British upper classes, in a period of time which lasted arguably less than a decade, have managed to leave behind such an impressive legacy in English literature?

Folk-ballads are living archives that represent the imagination, values, ideas, and aesthetics of the people to whom they belong. Folk-ballads are living archives that represent the imagination, values, ideas, and aesthetics of the people to whom they belong.

It’s fascinating how book spines can portray so much creativity.

Reversal of fairy tale tropes and themes of mental health and alienation run dominantly across One Minute Past Midnight (Nymphea Publications, 2022), a debut collection of poetry and prose by poet and teacher Arshi Mortuza.