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Quamrul Hasan was intrigued by haiku when he was in his first year at university doing his honours in English literature. A course was being taught at the time. It was the renowned haiku as practiced by famous writers. As a student Quamrul wanted to be able to compose a few of these three lined, non rhyming poems. Finally he did write a few. A year or so later there was a haiku competition in The New Age Literature Page. As he had already composed some haiku, he sent them to the literary editor, Prof Niaz Zaman. To his utter surprise, his haiku was selected among the ten best haiku and was published in the literature page along with some of his teachers' works. That inspired the young writer and he continued with his endeavours. He was invited to the Japanese ambassador's residence along with the other published writers. Quamrul Hasan didn't have to look back since then. Hasan was published in Asahi Haiku Network, a joint venture of Asahi Shimbun and the International He...

Baromashi: The anguish of separation Little known by city folk, Baromashi is a tradition where rural women give voice to their woes and worries through song by Jackie Kabir Baromashi. The traditional music usually sang by women in the rural areas. The songs or poems are mostly to describe the anguish of separation from the people they love. The pain usually merges with the events or the work one has to do every month throughout the year. Sometimes it unveils the physical and mental hardship women go through during different seasons. Baromashi, as the name suggests, is a song that goes on for twelve months. Each month has a specific characteristic and a landscape. The songs are composed with the collective wisdom of the village folks. These are similar to seasonal songs or religious songs common to many countries. In those countries there are about four seasonal songs. What is unique about the Baromashi in Bangladesh and its neighboring countries is that they describe their...

What the Ink? was launched at the Hay Festival, the first of its kind held in Dhaka, on November 21 at the British council. What the Ink? is an anthology of some aspiring writers from Bangladesh and some other countries who have at some point of other have resided in the country. For the past few decades South Asian writers are making their voices heard in the world literary arena. Our very own poet Kaiser Haq has already reigned the genre for quite some time now. Expatriate Bangladeshis like Adib Khan, Manju Islam, Mahmud Rahman, Tahmima Anam as well as Bangladeshi born British writer Monica Ali have paved the paths for the newer generation. What we see in this book is a swarm of aspiring writers who want their voices to be heard, their stories to be told. Fifteen writers anthologized their short stories, poems and excerpts from novels in the 185 page book, published by the Writers Block. The first story Gift can be mistaken for a drama on one of the TV channels. The writer Arup Sana...

His quest to learn what his eight children thought of his family and the way they grew up led the Nobel Laureate, Günter Grass, to write Die Box. Although the eight children shared the same father, they were born of different mothers. So they gathered around a table to reminisce their childhood. The twins Pat and Jorsch, who were the first born, were asked to talk first. Then came the little girl, Lara, followed by Taddle. Then there was one more girl named Lena from a different mother and Nana, Jasper and Paulchen. Die Box by Günter Grass, published in 2008, is known as his second volume of memoirs, the first one being Beim Häuten der Zwiebel or Peeling the Onion (2007). Die Box was translated by Krishna Winston in 2010 as The Box: Tales from the Darkroom. Winston is a professor of German Studies at The Wesleyan connection. The Box: Stories from The Dark Room is really about a box, a pre-war camera and the woman behind the camera. Her name was Mariechen. She had remained close to the ...

Ogni O Jol is a collection of eleven short stories by young and established writers, and three papers by researchers. Story tellers always look for their raw materials in everyday happenings, in their surroundings. This has in fact been an age-old process. Here is a project conducted by Shamim Azad who gathered some researchers from Nigeria, England, Ghana, Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh to conduct a workshop named 'Pathways of Women Empowerment'. Twenty five authors took part in the six month long workshop. The findings were given to some writers in the form of video clippings and case studies. The writers then put their imagination at work and came up with some extraordinary stories about some very ordinary women of Bangladesh in this book. The book is comprised of two stories in English and all others in Bangla, and the group of writers covers both genders. Firdous Azim, well known Professor of English, shares her views about transforming research work into fiction. The asso...

"I have a hole for a mouth” is pronounced by Manju Islam's protagonist of his second novel. The book Song of Our Swampland is based on the war of Independence of Bangladesh. It is also a book about the unanswered questions, unfulfilled dreams that the nation faces after four decades of its independence. That may be the reason why the writer portrays his characters with such deformity. The book is divided into three segments the last of which is titled 'The Island' where the protagonist Kamal takes shelter only to find another character who is a half bodied human known as the 'legless'. Manju Islam is an expatriate living in the United Kingdom for more than three decades. This is the author's fourth book, the first being The Ethics of travels: Marcopolo to Kafka, which is more of an academic book. The second book is Mapm-akers of Spitalfields, a collection of short stories mostly about the vibrant immigrant life of the Bengalis living in England. The third b...

For more than two decades Papree Rahman has reigned the world of Bangla literature with her expertise in writing, editing and critiquing but she seems to be at her best in storytelling. She tells her stories with an insight that is derived from extensive research. She has done so in all three of her novels Poranodir Shopnopuran, Boyon, the latest one being Palatia. She often says: “I only write when I get something very interesting to write on.” The reader sees the truth in the statement while reading Palatia. Even though the most interesting thing about the book may seem to be the subject of the novel; it is the craftsmanship Papree Rahman uses depicting the language of the actors of Palatia that mesmerizes the readers. The novel is written in the dialect of Dinajpur. The writer expresses the feelings of her characters with the language. Palatia is a kind of act which is specific to its birthplace, Dinajpur. The producers, directors and the actors all come from poverty stricken famili...