Dhaka Tribune guide to the Dhaka Lit Fest

DhakaTribune Guide to Dhaka Lit Fest 2015

Thursday-saTurday, November 19-21, 2015

M e s s a g e s

Dhaka Lit Fest2DTThursday-saTurday, November 19-21, 2015

It has been an exciting journey since our begin-nings in 2011, when our first pilot effort as Hay Festival Dhaka received overwhelming support,

and inspired us to believe that we could really ful-fill our dream of putting Dhaka on the world liter-ary map.

The vision was to create a platform, to showcase the best of Bangladesh to the world – our English and Bangla writers. With this in mind we took a leap in 2012, to the historic grounds of Bangla Academy. We also wanted to bring the world’s best minds to Dhaka, and enable and encourage a space for lively debate and discourse, in line with our rich cultural and literary heritage.

Bangladeshis have always been very passionate about language, and this connection has always shone through during our festivals, and stuck in the minds of our international guests long after

they leave. At a time when it is said that books are being read less, it is more important than to bring the love of reading to a whole new generation. As such, the festival aims to present a diverse array to delight and stimulate- from literary fiction to po-etry, philosophical debate to palagaan, history to science.

By highlighting the range of literature, and cel-ebrating it in its many forms, touching on a vast range of subjects, stories and experiences, we hope to inspire and to broaden our horizons. Every city should have a great book fair, and a vibrant literary festival. Under our new name of Dhaka Lit Fest, we look forward to continuing our literary adventure.

–Sadaf SaazDirector & Producer, Dhaka Lit Fest

Every Bangladeshi, in a way, is hosting the Dhaka Lit Fest. We have over 60 writers and thinkers from 12 countries – as far reaching

as Cuba, Kenya or Palestine – coming to our capital this year. It is a proud moment for Bangladesh, and we look forward to living up to our wonderful cul-ture and tradition of hospitality.

The Festival, now in its fifth year, is a celebra-tion of not just literature but the arts. There will be something for everyone, whether one’s into liter-ary fiction, history, poetry, current affairs, sports writing, children’s stories, science, philosophy, mystical ideas, performance arts and so on.

Eminent, as well as emerging, writers and poets from Bangladesh will be highlighted throughout the three days. There will be book launches, recita-tions in Bangla and English, musical performances, dance drama – all to be enjoyed, if you like, over cups of tea.

In short, it is a celebration of life over three tu-multuous days on the hallowed grounds of Bangla Academy.

We work hard to keep the festival free for all,

and we only request a simple registration to ob-tain an e-ticket. This is primarily to encourage the younger audience to come in large numbers and find their passion for reading and writing.

Among the many firsts, this year’s Festival will see the launch of Wasafiri’s Bangladesh Special Is-sue, which my co-director K Anis Ahmed and I had the honour of guest-editing, as well as the launch of the Library of Bangladesh series.

This is our initiative to bridge the gap between Bangladesh and the world literature scene, where our writers are beginning to stake their claim with big and bold steps.

On a lighter note, there will be superfast, free WiFi connection at the venue and this year DLF is active on all social media platforms. Oh, and by the way, there will be free massages too!

It’s free, it’s fun and it’s in our town in pleasant weather conditions. So what’s there not to enjoy?

–Ahsan AkbarDirector, Dhaka Lit Fest

Books are to be read, first and foremost. But for book lovers, discussing them is a big part of their enduring pleasure. And that is the

original inspiration for the Dhaka Lit Fest.It began its journey in 2011 as Hay Festival Dha-

ka. Over the next three years, the festival grew steadily in size, going from two to three days, and drew luminaries from around the world -- Vikram Seth, Tariq Ali, William Dalrymple, Jung Chang, and Ahdaf Soueif, to name a few -- to bring an un-precedented intellectual excitement to Dhaka.

But bringing the world to Dhaka was only half the goal; just as important to us was the need to take Dhaka to the world. The change of the festi-val’s name, on its fifth anniversary, to Dhaka Lit Fest, more boldly signals this ambition to put Ben-gal and its culture and literature more promi-nent-ly back in conversation with its peers across all continents.

We are very thankful to the sponsors, includ-ing Dhaka Tribune, the new title sponsor, who are

making this year’s festival possible. But the num-ber of people, from unseen government officials to toiling volunteers, who make such a vast event not only possible, but so smooth and enjoyable, are too many to name, but too important not to mention.

Most of all we are thankful to all the attend-ants. They are the life of the event; it is their ro-bustly engaged presence that infuses our festival with unique energy. We hope it will be no different this year, and thank everyone in advance for their warm support.

We urge all enthusiasts, not just of literature but also film and media, science and philosophy, religious studies and cultural activism, to check out the program in detail and revel in the festival atmosphere over three magical days on the lovely, haloed premises of the Bangla Academy.

Join the fest, and make it festive!

–K Anis AhmedDirector, Dhaka Lit Fest

s p e a k i n g o u t

Dhaka Lit Fest 3D

TThursday-saTurday, November 19-21, 2015

nNiaz Alam

Last month’s murder of Malleshap-pa Kalburgi, the 76-year-old aca-demic who was shot dead in his home in Karnataka, after receiv-ing death threats for criticisms of

idol worship in Hinduism, sent shock waves around India.

The distinguished Indian writer, Nayan-tara Sahgal who will be speaking at the Dha-ka Lit Fest in November, has been prominent among the over 40 Indian novelists, poets and playwrights who returned their awards to India’s premier literary institution, the Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Let-ters), in protest.

After Uday Prakash, a renowned Hindi writer, became the first author to renounce his Sahitya Akademi to protest intolerance rising in India, he was followed by dozens more including Sahgal and Salman Rushdie.

The recent lynching of a Muslim man by a Hindu mob for killing a cow and assaults by right-wing Hindu activists on a Mumbai think tank leader, for agreeing to host an event for a book by a former Pakistani minister, have led to more writers joining the literary revolt.

It is perhaps no surprise that the subse-quent media furor has given a platform for allies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch vicious personal attacks on the writ-ers involved and to smear them as “frustrat-ed communist cadres” and out of touch “lib-eral elites’’ motivated by political sour grapes and opposition to the BJP ruling party’s Hin-du nationalist agenda.

This has tragically drawn attention away from the basic constitutional rights and rule of law which the writers are seeking to defend.

Fundamental rights are not about party politics. They are by definition immutable and key to upholding the values of diversity, pluralism and tolerance, enshrined in India’s constitution. India’s culture of diversity and debate is part and parcel of its democratic values and should transcend partisan politi-cal differences.

It is only right then for writers like Nayan-tara Sahgal to question the relative silence of Mr Modi on recent events and to criticise the National Academy for its apparent acquies-cence by acting as if it was “wise to be silent when writers are being killed.’’

Sadly, we live in an age where the fallacy of “you’re either with us, or against us,” has infected public discourse to such an extent that there is often little space left for the nu-

ance and shades of grey which many issues need to be sensibly resolved. The opinions and views of most people are too often easily swamped by debates being hijacked by polar-ising opinions.

It is bad enough when resolution of complex global problems is stymied because debates about them generate more heat than light. It is inexcusable when the problem is a simple one with a clear right and wrong answer.

Freedom of expression falls into this cate-gory. It is a basic component of the democratic values which have proven to be the best means available for societies to enhance the rights and further the interests of all their people.

When religious supremacists, of whatev-

er ideology, in India and elsewhere, want to undermine such rights, they find it useful to smear democracy as an attack on people’s re-ligious values and to present the public with an artificially created “you’re either with us, or against us,” option.

This deliberately obscures the fact that democracy and secularism enables societies to ensure respect between people of differ-ent or no faiths. Attacking liberal values only serves to push the agenda of forces which would encourage intolerance and bigotry and which would actually harm freedom of religion and communal harmony.

Of course, Bangladesh is in no position to lecture India about the importance of pro-

tecting fundamental rights. While the two nation’s constitutions share similar princi-ples and a commitment to democracy, Bang-ladesh’s track record in ensuring and enhanc-ing democracy has been far weaker than that of India.

It is also the case that Bangladesh has a poorer record in protecting freedom of ex-pression than India, and this has been most visibly seen in the failure to prevent brutal targeted murders of secularist writers.

But both the rights and trends which the protesting Indian writers are talking about are universal in nature.

Freedom of speech is threatened every-where, whether from bureaucratic tenden-cies to enact authoritarian laws abrogating basic rights in the name of the public inter-est, or from groups that are openly hostile to the notion of democracy itself.

In the context of the ongoing debate in In-dia, Nayantara Saghal’s voice is an important one which deserves to be heard more widely.

Throughout her career, the now 88-year-old writer has been consistent in speaking truth to power when defending democratic values and in upholding the ideals of India’s independence generation.

It is completely mistaken to dismiss her, as some critics are doing now, as standing for an old outdated India, which is being left be-hind politically by Mr Modi’s successful elec-toral alliance built on visions of economic development and globalisation.

The values for which she stands are the same core principles that she has defended throughout her life. Although part of the Neh-ru family and a cousin of Indira Gandhi, Sahgal wrote widely and critically about autocratic tendencies during the latter’s time as India’s prime minister during the late 1960s and espe-cially during the Emergency rule of the 1970s.

Despite being victimised for her independ-ent stance, Sahgal continued to publish scath-ing, insightful accounts of Indira Gandhi’s rise and rule during the latter’s years in power.

Sahgal’s steadfastness in upholding liberal values is also reflected in her wide variety of other works, both fiction and non-fiction.

Her forthcoming talks and keynote speech at Dhaka Lit Fest will doubtless be eager-ly anticipated and provide much food for thought. l

Niaz alam has worked on ethical business issues since 1992 and is a former vice-chair of War on Want. he is Chief editorial Writer at the dhaka Tribune.

In defence of liberalismNayantara sahgal is known for having taken a principled stand throughout her life

shobhaa De is a prolific writer, blogger, and columnist, who has monitored and written extensively on India’s socio-cultural and political contours for over four decades. as a prominent opinion shaper across social media, she is seen as a fearless commentator.

asma Jahangir is the President of the supreme Court bar association of Pakistan and was twice elected as Chairperson of the human rights Commission of Pakistan. Jahangir is the director of the aGhs Legal aid Cell, which provides free legal assistance to the needy.

Leslee udwin is a London-based independent filmmaker. her company produced the award winning films east is east and West is West. her first documentary, India’s daughter, is internationally acclaimed and banned in India.

s p o t L i g h t


top 10 reasons to go to DLFyou won’t want to miss the event of the year

nSabah Rahman

The temperature is slowly but surely dropping, and there seems to be no dearth of festivals popping up in all corners of the city. If you’re planning on attending any of the upcoming fetes, dhaka Lit Festival should absolutely be on the top of your list. here’s why:

1 Free for allhow can you resist the fact that entrance to this star-studded gathering is completely

free? all you have to do is register at imdhaka.com and you’re good to go.

2 a welcome change of sceneryThe beauty that is the grounds of bangla academy is where you will spend your

time during the festival. Kick the toxic fumes you inhale on a daily basis to the curb and breathe in the green.

3 Mingle with the bestIt’s not easy being able to bask in the presence of literary heavyweights, but

someone’s going to have to do it. From panel discussions by a host of big names, book launches, music and poetry performances, the fest will be jam-packed with the best of the best.

4 speaking of big names…dLF 2015 is shaping up to feature a whopping number of famous folk: Jon

snow, harold varmus and shobhaa de, just to name a few.

5 Because you love booksboth local and international – get them all in one place, and perhaps even get them signed

by the authors.

6 Because you love foodNo festival is ever complete without munchies, and dLF’s option will definitely

fill your cravings.

7 it’s a bit of a fashion showLadies, this is the best time to strut around in your favourite artistic saris. remember,

the competition will be fierce.

8 it’s also a bit of a reunionyou will probably run into every intellectual you know.

9 You don’t want to be left outyou know you don’t want to be the only person not “checking in” at #dLF on

Facebook.

10 Your kids will love itstorytelling, origami, art and writing workshops, engaging games and

performances – enough said.

Fun and games with Dhaka TribunenRehan Kabir

This year’s festival is three days of 90 panels featuring more than 150 speak-ers from 12 countries. To add to that

rich programme, we at the Dhaka Tribune have stations all over Bangla Academy with engaging activities for all ages.

arts & Letters workshops Inspired by all the great writers and artists you’re meeting? Join us under the banyan tree, where we will be hosting art and writ-ing workshops all afternoon, and have a go at penning your own great work – we’ll even pro-vide the pens! The workshops include writ-ing poetry and short stories, origami, draw-ing, and even storybook writing for kids. Let your kids dabble in some exciting literary ac-tivities, and maybe let loose your inner child as well.

Red carpetHead over to our VIP red carpet by the pond and feel fabulous by having your picture tak-en, with the many celebrities or your besties. Select photos will be published on our Face-book page and our special festival website dlf.dhakatribune.com.

art booth If you would rather have a caricature made, just waltz into our adjoining booth and let our cartoonist take a crack at your portrait. How about a play on words? We also have a bevy of talented poets ready to write up some custom verse just for you. Also features a slot for flash poetry if you fancy playing with words.

DowntimeOur games booth, Dhaka Tribune Down-time, is situated right by the banyan tree. We have games and puzzles that will delight all

age groups. Solve our jigsaw puzzles in less than 3 minutes and great win prizes, includ-ing our signature “I’m made in Bangladesh” merchandise including bookmarks, stick-ers, badges, and notebooks. If that does not

challenge you, have a go at our word search games and crosswords. Prizes there too. Does that fly? If not, try folding and flying newspaper airplanes through a cutout of our front page.

Bookish propsSpeaking of cutouts, we have quite a few photogenic literary references sprinkled throughout the grounds. Take a picture and upload them with the hashtag #DLF. l

s c i e n c e & s p i R i t u a L i t Y

Dhaka Lit Fest 5D


nNiaz Alam

A paradox of modern life is that, while science and technology be-come ever more integral to people’s lives, scientists themselves often

still lag behind in battles for public attention.In part, this is a by-product of the scien-

tific method’s intrinsic desire for objectiv-ity and evidence. The public, and scientists themselves, naturally expect science to be neutral and above the affray of mere politics.

This does not mean of course that the sci-entific community stays out of major global debates, such as on climate change and glob-al warming or that there is not a huge public appetite for appreciating the wonders of sci-ence in nature documentaries or as expressed in novels and films. It is also true that the lives and ideas of leading scientists such as Stephen Hawking and the achievements and ambition of institutions like CERN and NASA stimulate enormous worldwide interest.

However, these tend to be exceptions to a norm which often marginalises scientists from public and political debates.

An attractive feature of the Dhaka Lit Fes-tival over the past four years has been its consistent inclusion of seminars and talks relating to all aspects of science. This reflects a growing appetite for communication on science which, in recent years, has seen pop-ular non-scientist authors like Bill Bryson pen international best sellers on scientific innovation.

One of the many highlights to look forward to at this year’s DLF in November will be a talk by the US scientist and author Harold E Var-mus who received the Nobel Prize for studies of the genetic basis of cancer in 1989.

In the more than two decades since, Var-mus has played a highly active role in civic life, often placing himself at the forefront of controversial political debates about gov-ernment funding for science. As a graduate of English literature before moving on to medicine, he has also written widely and perceptively on the interactions between art, science and society, most notably in his memoir, The Art and Politics of Science.

Varmus’ activism in public affairs and his multiple career path make him stand out from most other distinguished scientists. His reflections on art and science are interesting in the light of the ‘Two Cultures’ divergence articulated by the British scientist and novel-ist CP Snow in his influential 1959 lecture.

Snow’s thesis highlighted the idea that “the intellectual life of the whole of western society” has split into the eponymous two cultures of the humanities and the sciences. He bemoaned this because he foresaw trends

(within Britain specifically) to favour the hu-manities at the expense of scientific and en-gineering education, meaning that elites in administration, industry and politics were inexorably becoming ever more divorced from appreciating the importance and value of science. Most memorably, he was scath-ing about influential persons who were well versed in high literature but had “not a glim-mer of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.”

Arguably, as science has become more specialised and difficult for laypersons to follow, and elites globally have become more dominated by the short termist considera-tions of financial capitalism, the Two Cul-tures split is more acute as ever.

It is more important then for scientists to play a bigger role in public debate, especially on funding issues.

Much of the prevailing narrative about new technologies, in the communications sphere for instance, focuses on the entre-preneurs and venture capitalists of Califor-nia’s Silicon Valley. While their free-market enterprise deserves acknowledgment, what is often left unsaid is that the United States’ decades long dominance of IT innovation and advances in computing is built on the bedrock of public funding for its military in-dustrial complex and moon landings, which helped bring forth the scientific advances of

today’s global village.Similarly, the United Kingdom’s strong

pharmaceutical sector has only gained from its government funding of public healthcare and university research.

While the funding of science undoubted-ly matters to everyone, it is often considered a risky choice for business and politicians alike as both groups are keen to be seen con-trolling expenditure. After all, Big Science and the costly research it requires into new areas of fundamental knowledge is inherent-ly unquantifiable.

Yet, it is also often the case that it is pre-cisely the most seemingly ratified research that ultimately leads to new technologies which benefit humanity.

The world clearly needs new innovations in energy, industry, agriculture and medi-cine to deal with the pressing challenges of climate change and healthcare for a growing population in need of better living standards.

Getting the right levels of funding for such research, and overcoming the traps of turf wars reducing scientific collaboration or businesses focusing only on research with the maximum short term benefits, is inevita-bly a matter of politics.

It obviously matters if past research on cli-mate issues may have been skewed by funding from fossil fuel companies, or if US politicians

hinder support on stem cells by conflating it with opposition to abortion, or if agricultural companies steer development of GMOs to cre-ate new monopolies in seeds and inputs.

As former President Clinton’s director of the National Institute of Health from 1993 to 1999, and current co-chair of President Oba-ma’s Council of Advisors on Science and Tech-nology, Harold Varmus has regularly engaged with such debates, while consistently cham-pioning the case for a bipartisan approach to increasing science funding.

In his many books and public utterances, he has vigorously defended the role of scien-tists in society, and called for better ways of connecting science and politics for the com-mon good, including the idea of creating a global “science corps.”

As Chair of the Scientific Board of the Gates Foundation’s work on global health, he is actively looking for new ways to channel funding into global initiatives to combat en-demic healthcare challenges and malaria.

Harold Varmus’s unique perspective on these and other scientific issues will doubt-less provide much insight and food for thought for his audience at DLF. l


harold varmus and the politics of science and society

arvind krishna Mehrotra published Collected Poems 1969-2014 with Penguin India last year. In 2016, the expanded edition is to appear through Giramondo publishers in australia. mehrotra divides his time between allahabad and dehradun.

patrick Laude is a Professor at Georgetown university, where he teaches theology courses. his intellectual and spiritual interests lie in comparative mysticism, the relationship between poetry and mysticism, and Western representations and interpretations of contemplative, mystical and wisdom traditions.

Marcel theroux is the award-winning author of five novels, including The Paper Chase, Far North, and strange bodies. Theroux’s most recent novel, strange bodies, won the 2014 Campbell award for science fiction.

p o e t R Y : a L i F e i n v e R s e

nSN Rasul

As Sudeep Sen prepares to discuss his latest collection of poetry at this year’s Dhaka Lit Fest, there is much for fans and newcomers

alike to look forward to in his sessions. Sen has been publishing poetry for over

30 years. Over the course of his long career, he has seen both commercial -- not only in Bangladesh -- but also critical acclaim all around the world, with his books translated into over 25 languages.

In a panel discussing his latest publica-tion, Fractals, which covers work spanning the breadth of his ouevre, from poetry to translations, Sudeep Sen will be sitting down with Rosinka Chaudhuri.

Rosinka, herself, is an editor and an ac-complished professor at the Centre for Stud-ies in Social Sciences. She has been a visiting fellow at Columbia University and Cambridge University, and has edited various publica-tions. She has also been a prominent review-

er for The Book Review and Times Literary Supplement.

One expects that the conversation will, if anything, be an interesting reveal of Sen’s obsession with science, and how he has al-ways attempted to create an amalgamation, to portray a correspondence between art and science in his work.

As explained in the book itself, fractals have multiple meanings and multiple implications. In mathematics, they have to do with fragmented shapes; in physics, with the idea of being broken, fragmented; some use it to explain how, some structures, despite the magnitude in which they are magnified, continue to exhibit the same shapes; and how, in some cases, they are used to convey a sense of brokenness - of fragments, of separation.

It is not surprising that such a behemoth of a publication has been named thus. There is no overarching narrative, but one some-how gets the sense that it exists, nagging at us from behind the subtextual remains of

Sen’s psyche. The book is erratic and dark, but calm-

ing and hopeful. Even though it presents so much of Sen’s work, one senses a pattern in it. Encompassed in it are not just poems, not merely translations, but a sense of Sen’s own personality cracking through the pages, as he meets personalities, individuals, erratic characters on haphazard journeys. He visits a dungeon to gaze upon Cezanne’s bones, only to tear us away and place us outside of a castle where “rouge delicacy underlines all that is valuable.”

The poems themselves appear as literal fractals on the page. The fragmented nature in which they are presented betray an exper-imental streak in Sen that jumps at us from behind the nooks and crannies of the white sheets, the words seeming to echo, to move as disorganised ants.

The collection, however, is organised into themes. One claims an attachment to brief-cases, while another to Mount Vesuvius. But the poetry is intermittently interspersed

with staccato jabs of half-caught phrases: “new shapes – art revealed,” “an outline of the psyche,” and “spit atoms … congeal ions.”

The poet’s work is also interrupted by his mother tongue, and how much his heritage has influenced him. The soft intonations of “didu” and “Rabinidra sangeet,” with the rounded pronunciations and lighter d’s, flow through the sentences, almost adding a layer of thickness across the lines.

But as one reviewer says: “The central ‘self’-similarity, or fractal, of course, is the poet’s own sensibility.” And as one goes deeper, delves further into the plethora of wide-ranging work that Sen has put togeth-er in Fractals, one cannot help but feel lost. But there is a profundity that is present in the prose that is not easily caught elsewhere, al-most twinged with broken sadness.

One hopes this sense of profound reve-latory sadness is present at the panel this year. l

sN rasul is a writer. Follow him @snrasul.

Patterns in the darkorganised chaos rules sudeep sen’s newest publication, Fractals

The soft intonations of ‘didu’ and ‘rabinidra sangeet,’ with the rounded pronunciations and lighter d’s, flow through the sentences, almost adding a layer of thickness across the lines

Bigstock


Fady Joudah is the recipient of several awards for his work, including the yale series for younger Poets Prize, PeN usa, and the Griffin International Poetry Prize. his translations of Palestinian poetry have earned him international acclaim.

ghassan Zaqtan is a Palestinian poet, novelist, and editor. he has published 11 collections of poetry In recognition of his contribution to arabic and Palestinian literature. Zaqtan was awarded the National medal of honour by the Palestinian president in 2013 and named in the speculation list for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

nirmalendu goon is one of the most popular bangladeshi poets known for his accessible verse. his first book of poetry was published in 1970. since then he has published forty five collections of poetry and twenty collections of prose.

M o D e R n w o R L D

Dhaka Lit Fest 7D


nNiaz Alam

It says much about Jon Snow, the ac-claimed British television journalist speaking at the Dhaka Lit Fest this month, that at the age of 68, he shows

no signs of slowing down.Although the longest running presenter

of Channel 4’s flagship ITN news program, he is far from drifting into a cosy retirement. His range of interests and involvement with numerous civil society organisations appear broader and more active than ever.

Never one to shy away from matters of con-science, he is highlighting the plight of Pales-tine in conversation with leading Palestinian poets as part of one of several DLF sessions in which he will be reflecting on world affairs.

Snow’s 2004 memoir Shooting History gives an insight into how his lifelong interest into what was known during his youth as the Third World has combined with his personal commitment to justice, to shape his left-lib-eral world-view and internationalist outlook.

As a television newsreader in the UK, where broadcast news is institutionally re-quired to strive to be fair and balanced, leav-ing it to the press to be partisan and biased, his news anchor role is rooted in objectivity, as it should be.

Hence, though he is candid in his books and numerous tweets and blog posts about his anger about global injustices and com-mitment to building a better world, leading him to be derided by the Daily Telegraph as a “pinko liberal,” he is better known to the wider British public as a friendly and familiar televisual presence, notorious only for wear-ing wildly colourful ties on the evening news.

Less of a stern authority figure or competi-tively confrontational interviewer than some of the big beasts of BBC TV and radio news, Snow’s laid back nature and engaging man-ner makes him an ideal figurehead of his tel-evision station, comfortable with guest ap-pearances on comedy shows and complying with public demand to meet the actor who plays his Game of Thrones namesake.

It is perhaps unfair, given his passion for campaigning journalism, that Snow is best known for the eccentricity of his ties and for being an ardent cyclist pedaling his way around corridors of power in London.

But there is no getting away from Snow’s background which, as a highly engaging and

self-deprecating writer, he refers to in his book. A public school educated chorister whose fa-ther was a Bishop and headmaster, mother a concert pianist, grandfather a First World War general, and whose cousin and nephew are prominent BBC current affairs figures, his present standing is arguably the epitome of a liberal member of the English Establishment.

The roots of Jon Snow’s interests in the world at large can be seen in his decision at 18 years of age to spend a year teaching in a school in Uganda. His views become clearer still by what he calls the “absolute watershed moment of my life,” when as a law student at Liverpool University in 1970, he was expelled along with ten others for leading a socialist student campaign and staging a massive sit in to protest the institution’s investments in apartheid South Africa.

His quaintly termed rustication became the spur that drove the young Snow towards a career in journalism and a public life sup-porting a wide range of charities and liberal causes. Aside from a brief period at a charity for homeless young people, he has worked since the 70s as a journalist and presenter for Independent Television News.

In true British fashion, Snow and his fel-low expellees are now feted by Liverpool university with commemorative dinners, as befits the sea-change in establishment atti-tudes towards apartheid, which campaigners

like Snow did their part to help bring about. Snow himself now has an honourary doctor-ate from the same institution and among his many voluntary roles, has been a university Chancellor himself.

Tellingly, Snow has latterly disclosed how, in 1976, he rejected a lucrative approach by British intelligence services to spy on his col-leagues and certain “left-wing people” work-ing in television.

It is characteristic of his open and inde-pendent stance that he chose to disclose this episode. As is the fact that he has publicly declined an OBE because he believes work-ing journalists should not take honours from those on whom they report.

No surprise then, given his global outlook, that despite being a long running news an-chor Snow devotes most of his memoir to his experiences as a foreign correspondent and reporter. As well as filing from war zones in Afghanistan and the Middle East, he spent many years covering Africa and Latin Amer-ica, and served as ITN’s main US correspond-ent during the 1980s.

What comes across most in the book is a strong sense of Snow’s empathy for the peo-ple he films and his criticisms of US foreign policy, which he convincingly argues as con-sistently failing to learn from past mistakes.

The book laments how western domi-nated global media has often historically

ignored regions and stories that don’t fit an agenda for particular types of stories. It is symptomatic, he believes, of a general west-ern tendency to sideline or ignore the lega-cies of colonialism and imperialism which have blighted the global South.

As a grand old man of television news, Snow has certainly been doing his bit to ex-tend Channel 4’s news coverage to a broader world-view.

Far from limiting himself as he gets older to the topical interviews which are the high-light for most news anchors, he has personal-ly authored reports from Gaza and Haiti and presented an award winning 2011 documenta-ry on war crimes during Sri Lanka’s civil war.

One gets a strong sense then that Shooting History merely scratches the surface of a rich and interesting life.

Even so, with its light touch and anecdotal nature, Jon Snow’s memoir remains an highly accessible and illuminating snapshot of life in British television news over three decades.

As an appetiser for those going to see Snow at DLF, it promises that his talks and reflections will be much like the man himself - open-minded, frank, passionate and well informed. l


reading the news with a consciencea hugely illuminating snapshot of life in british television news over three decades, Jon snow’s memoir, shooting history, highlights the internationalist outlook which has shaped his career

as a television newsreader in the uK, where broadcast news is institutionally required to strive to be fair and balanced, leaving it to the press to be partisan, his news anchor role is rooted in objectivity, as it should be

victor Mallet is a journalist, commentator and author with more than two decades of experience in europe, asia, the middle east and africa. he is currently the south asia bureau chief of the Financial Times, writing about India and the region.

osman samiuddin is a sports writer with The National in abu dhabi. he is a columnist for esPN Cricinfo and editor for The Cricket monthly. his work has appeared in a number of publications, including the Guardian, the daily Telegraph, the Wall street Journal, India Today. The unquiet ones is his first book.

Fasih ahmed is the editor of Newsweek Pakistan, the country’s highest circulation news focused magazine. he won a 2008 New york Press Club award for Newsweek International’s coverage of benazir bhutto’s assassination.


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title: Calligraphy of Wet Leavesauthor: Neeman sobhangenre: Poetry Collection

DescriptionNeeman sobhan’s debut collection of poetry…is largely about the love of places she has inhabited — primarily Italy…how the old and new collide and unite, how the external and internal sit side by side to form new narratives…a record, of her life and the vicissitudes of living in a “place from where no wanderer returns — /a life lived elsewhere.”

author BioNeemaN sobhaN -- Neeman sobhan is an Italy based bangladeshi fiction writer, poet, translator and columnist. she teaches at the university of rome, La sapienza. since travelling in the 70’s to the u.s, where she completed her b.a and m.a in Comparative and english Literature from the university of maryland, she has lived an expatriate’s life. a collection of her short stories, Piazza bangladesh (bengal Publications), was published and launched at the hay Festival dhaka in November 2014. she is presently working on her first novel, “The Ninety Nine Names for being.”

title: aprilauthor: andrew eagle & Tulip Chowdhury

genre: Non-Fiction/memoir

Descriptionone month. Two lives. opposite ends of the earth. andrew is an australian-born writer living in bangladesh. Tulip is a bangladeshi writer living in the states. When the two adventurous souls met online they decided as an experiment to dedicate a month to working together, documenting their lives. april is the result.

author Bioandrew eagle -- australian-born dhaka-based writer andrew eagle has published hundreds of non-fiction feature articles, including in his column in The daily star, village Flute. In 2013 he published a short story in the literary journal bengal Lights. e-mail: [email protected] Tulip Chowdhury -- Tulip Chowdhury was educated in bangladesh, yugoslavia and Pakistan. she now resides in massachusetts, usa. she has published one collection of essays, two poetry collections, a volume of short stories and a novel. e-mail: [email protected]

title: a Temporary sojourn and other storiesauthor: Nasreen Jahan

genre: short story Collection

Description: The characters of Nasreen Jahan’s stories are social misfits and discards, people who rarely attract attention because they are not charming or sophisticated, people whose stories are rarely told. Thus an old man rises from his grave to hunt

down his wife’s killer; a cripple, mocked by everyone, tries to prove his virility; a cattle thief finds himself in rivalry with vultures.

author BioNasreen Jahan is a novelist, short story writer, playwright and literary editor of the fortnightly anyadin. It was only in 1993, after five short story collections, that she published her first novel, urukkoo. The novel, which won the Philips Literary Prize. In 2000, Nasreen Jahan received the prestigious bangla academy award for her fiction.

title: yours, etceteraauthor: Ikhtisad ahmed

genre: short story Collection

DescriptionThe thought-provoking and engaging debut short story collection from an emergent bangladeshi voice sees compelling protagonists journey through energetic narratives that are a blend of socio-political satire and fresh humour. Traversing rural and urban bangladesh and england, the ironic glimpses of political hypocrisy are contrasted with the heart-breaking struggles of common people.

author BioIkhtisad ahmed -- raised in dhaka and residing in London, Ikhtisad ahmed is a human rights lawyer turned writer. The dhaka Tribune columnist’s critically-acclaimed writing credits include the poetry collec-tions Cryptic verses and requiem, and plays the Theatre of the absurd fable in three acts, The deliverance of sanctuary, and two-act absurdist satire about the occupy movement, esne in Taberna.

seRies DescRiptionLIbrary oF baNGLadesh -- dhaka Translation Center’s landmark Library of bangladesh is a first-of-its-kind series of the best of bangladeshi writing pro-duced for a world audience. The inaugural batch, launched at the dhaka Lit Fest 2015, will release works by syed shamsul haq and syed manzoorul Islam. The translations were commissioned by dTC and published by bengal Lights books, both under the university of Liberal arts bangladesh (uLab). arunava sinha, the award-winning bengali translator from India, is the series editor.

title: Library of bangladesh series: syed shamsul haqauthor: syed shamsul haqtranslator: saugata Ghoshseries editor: arunava sinhagenre: Translation/Novellas

title: Library of bangladesh series: syed manzoorul Islam

author: syed manzoorul Islamtranslator: QP alam

series editor: arunava sinhagenre: Translation/Novel

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amit chaudhuri is an Indian english author and academic. he was awarded the sahitya academy award, India’s highest literary honour, in 2002 for his novel a New World. he is currently a Professor of Contemporary Literature at the university of east anglia.

kunal Basu was born in Kolkata and educated in India and the united states. he authored critically acclaimed novels The opium Clerk, The miniaturist and racists. his work has been translated into several languages and he is currently working on his first bangla novel.

Ramachandra guha is a historian and biographer. Guha’s books include unquiet Woods, a Corner of a Foreign Field and India after Gandhi. Guha’s accolades include the Leopold-hidy Prize, the daily Telegraph/Cricket society prize, and the malcolm adideshiah award among others.

nIkhtisad Ahmed

Literacy has never been Bangladesh’s strong suit. Reading and writing in their mother tongue is beyond near-ly half the population. Therefore, in

Bangladeshi terms, anyone who has the abil-ity to converse, let alone write in English, is privileged. That caveat allowed, writing in English is in vogue on the streets of Dhaka. Pretenders and proponents abound like nev-er before. Whisper it quietly, but the Dhaka Literary Festival is simultaneously reviving the old English-language writing scene in Bangladesh and birthing a new and improved one. The directors have been modest about their role in this fledgling phenomenon. While they cannot take all the credit, they are due more than they lay claim to.

The festival, now in its fifth year and hav-ing cut the imperial umbilical cord - finally by and for Bangladesh - has seen dedicated pub-lishers of English books appear. Two journals, Six Seasons Review in its second iteration and Bengal Lights, which shows off local talent alongside contributions from international writers - complement them. The festival is their high-water mark. New issues of the lat-ter and books by the former are celebrated, promoted and sold. Though the English read-ership is still woefully limited -- books and journals are conspicuous in their absence on bookshelves and reading lists at schools and universities, and have few avenues for sale outside of the festival -- it can come together for three days a year at a place that provides an outlet to the writers too. The circumstanc-es are imperfect, but they are being moulded better than they have been in the past.

The revival or creation of a scene is one part of the jigsaw. English is used for global dialogue. Bangladesh has been preparing to communicate with the world, but whether the world was ready to listen remained to be seen. Successes by writers, particularly from the diaspora such as Zia Haider Rahman, have been sporadic outliers. This year’s fes-tival marks an important point in the jour-ney, articulated very well in two essays that map the history and chart a hopeful future, the uneasy relationship between the country and the language of the colonisers notwith-standing. The first is by the estimable man of letters Khademul Islam, who uses the “life and times of literary magazines” as touch-stones to discuss English writing in Bangla-desh, in an issue of Himal Southasian dedi-cated entirely to Bangladesh. The second is

by the respected academic and poet Kaiser Haq, who pens “… notes towards a definition of Bangladeshi writing in English,” in an is-sue of Wasafiri dedicated, again, entirely to Bangladesh.

The latter publication’s efforts have cre-ated history. Wasafiri is Britain’s, if not Eu-rope’s, foremost magazine for internation-al writing, a point highlighted by its name (Kiswahili for “travellers”). A reputable inter-national literary journal has, for the first time ever, taken a close look at Bangladesh - in-viting the world at large to do so as well. The untold story of this special issue has various timely reminders of the importance of the Dhaka Literary Festival to both the creative output in English and Bangladesh’s emer-gence as a global literary force, which many in the country feel is long overdue. The ded-ication of Ahsan Akbar and K Anis Ahmed, two of the three festival directors, made the issue possible. Writers are encouraged to be selfish, especially with their time - that most

valuable of commodities. Unlike lesser indi-viduals, these two chose their commitment to force the world to hear Bangladeshi voices over their writerly needs.

They have curated the old with the new, Kai-ser Haq and Khademul Islam with Nausheen Eusuf and Sayeeda Tahera Ahmed. A cursory glance at the page of contents reveals a host of names familiar to veterans of the festival. Abeer Hoque, whose debut work of fiction came out at last year’s edition, appears with a non-fiction piece from her upcoming mem-oirs. Sharbari Z Ahmed, whose short story collection was launched in the 2013 edition to propel her to ever greater heights, includ-ing becoming the first person of Bangladeshi origin to be a writer on a network show, con-tributes a piece of fiction. Mahmud Rahman, who was there at the beginning, displays his translating skills with a story by Afsan Chowd-hury, another individual who has appeared on panels at the festival over the years. A novel by Saad Z Hossain that began its journey in Bang-

la Academy two years ago and has travelled the world since, is reviewed.

These writers may not owe their careers to the festival, but they do owe it a debt of gratitude at the very least. The untold story that best illustrates what the festival is ca-pable of doing if the angels of its good inten-tions win over the demons of human nature is that of Zubier Abdullah. Two years ago, he was an engineering student at a local private university volunteering at the literary ex-travaganza. He had not considered writing as a serious career option until then. Two years on, his short story is amongst Bangladesh’s offerings to the world within the pages of Wasafiri. Bangladesh is talking to the world, and the world is listening. The Dhaka Liter-ary Festival is an important junction on this journey, one that allows Bangladeshis to do what they are very good at: dream. l

Ikhtisad ahmed is a writer and an erstwhile lawyer. he can be contacted on Twitter via @Ikhtisad.

a closer look at bangladeshWasafari, britain’s foremost magazine for international writing, puts our country on the world stage

The revival or creation of a scene is one part of the jigsaw. english is used for global dialogue. bangladesh has been preparing to communicate with the world, but whether the world was ready to listen remained to be seen

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‘The writ of the Pakistan government quite literally ceased to run outside the military cantonments’right after the declaration of independence, the nation was still in turmoilnRehman Sobhan

The decision by President Yahya Khan on March 1, 1971 to postpone the meeting of the Constituent As-sembly (CA) sine dié, in my mind,

marked the watershed which constitutes the political independence of Bangladesh. The non-cooperation movement which was in-itiated on that day throughout Bangladesh, at the call of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, repudiated the political authority of the Pakistan government within the ter-ritory of Bangladesh. This political authority was never again restored. All subsequent at-tempts by the Pakistan Junta after March 26, 1971 to restore their authority were seen by the masses of Bangladesh as acts of usurpa-tion by a foreign military occupation power.

The totality of the success realised by Bangabandhu’s call for non-cooperation, im-mediately created a crisis for maintaining essential civic and economic services within Bangladesh. Once the entire labour force, ad-ministration and law enforcing authorities had answered Bangabandhu’s call for noncooper-ation the writ of the Pakistan government in Bangladesh quite literally ceased to run out-side the military cantonments. This vacuum had to be filled if social life in the country was not to break down completely. Bangaband-hu had, therefore, to assume both political and administrative authority throughout the country once Yahya had concurred with his lo-cal Corp Commander General Yakub’s sugges-tion that the Pakistan army be withdrawn into the cantonments from March 6, 1971. From this day on Bangladesh attained self rule for the first time since the Battle of Plassey in 1757.

This unique transference of authority, out-side of the perimeters of the cantonments within the boundaries of Bangladesh - from the sovereign government of a militarily ruled Pakistan to Bangabandhu on March 6 - ren-ders contemporary political discussions on the declaration of independence both mind-less and pointless. Whatever may be the date of a formal declaration of independence for Bangladesh by Bangabandhu or anyone else, the effective independence of Bangladesh could be dated from March 6, 1971 when polit-ical authority over Bangladesh was devolved on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. After this date any move by Yahya Khan, through the de-ployment of military force, was deemed by

all Bangladeshis as an act of armed aggression against a sovereign country. This emergence of a national consciousness among Bangla-deshis was reflected in their response to the events of March 25, 1971.

Once the Pakistan government effectively surrendered its authority to Bangabandhu, a variety of economic problems of some com-plexity had to be resolved on a daily basis in order to keep the economy viable. Such questions as the enforcement of exchange controls on remittances to West Pakistan, the limits on the stocks of Pakistani curren-cy arising out of the cut-off of supplies of money from the mint in Pakistan, policies towards export consignments and modes of payment, import of essentials and raw mate-rials had to be worked out.

To address such problems, Tajuddin Ahmed and Kamal Hossian were commissioned by Bangabandhu to assume responsibility, draw-ing on the group of economists who had al-ready associated themselves with Bangaband-hu. The rented residence of Nurul Islam on Road 6, Dhanmondi was established as a sort of economic secretariat for the government

of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman centred in Road 32, Dhanmondi. Kamal Hossain’s residence on Circuit House Row was the third centre of administration. Some of us met daily at Nurul Islam’s residence with some of the Bengali civil servants and bankers to review specific prob-lems. Those consultations were then distilled into decrees or instructions which were passed on to the civil servants, business leaders, bank-ers and for press circulation every evening by Tajuddin Ahmed and Kamal Hossain either at Road 32 or at Kamal Hossain’s residence.

Apart from reviewing the state of the lo-cal economy, another task that devolved on the economists was to brief the international press. Every day the elite of the foreign press corp came to these sessions at Islam’s house. These well known journalists included Til-man and Peggy Durdin. All these experienced journalists had gravitated to Dhaka where the possible emergence of the independent state of Bangladesh was seen by the global media as the breaking story of the time, eclipsing the Vi-etnam war which had continued to dominate the news. In retrospect, what was interesting and perhaps special about the Bangladesh

story was the extent to which a number of these events-hardened journalists graduat-ed beyond their search for a good story from Dhaka into making an emotional investment in Bangladesh’s struggle for liberation. Sea-soned journalists such as Woolacott, Sydney Schanberg, Selig Harrisson and Simon Dring went beyond the call of professional duty in projecting the struggle of the Bangalis before their readers. I remember hearing a story in London about Nicholas Tomlain, who had been one of the luminaries at Trinity Hall when I entered the college, who had gone on to become a renowned correspondent of the Sunday Times and had made a reputation covering the Vietnam war. Tomlain, in his ad-dress to a Teach-In on Bangladesh convened at Cambridge, had informed his audience that he had covered many major political stories - including Vietnam - but none had so emotionally engaged him as had events in Bangladesh. Tomlain was eventually killed in Lebanon in the early 1980s, covering the Israeli military invasion.

Several of these journalists provided me with ready access to their columns when I was campaigning in London, New York and Washington, which enabled me to write about the Bangladesh struggle in the columns of the Times, Guardian and New Statesman in Lon-don and the New Republic and Nation in the United States. Some among them, in return, served as valuable conduits of information to us about what was going on in the ranks of the Pakistani ruling elite. It was Peter Hazelhurst who told me, over a cup of tea at the residence of Kamal Hossain in March 1971, that he had recently interviewed Bhutto in Larkana who contemptuously told him that this agitation in Bangladesh was a storm in a tea cup led by a few urban based politicians who knew noth-ing about armed struggle. A whiff of grapeshot from the army which killed and terrorised the demonstrators in Dhaka and jailed many of the leaders would lower the tempo of the ag-itation and create a climate for more reason-able negotiations. This piece of intelligence seemed to have a prophetic quality, which Bhutto may have shared with Yahya Khan, since it was this false assumption which may have contributed towards the army’s military adventure on 25 March, 1971. l

rehman sobhan is an economist. he is Founder Chairman of Centre for Policy dialogue.

kamal hossain is a key architect of the Constitution of bangladesh, a distinguished senior lawyer of bangladesh supreme Court and a prominent politician. his work has involved international law, constitutional law and human rights.

Dilruba Z ara is the author of internationally acclaimed novel a List of offences. she has translated a selection of shahed ali’s stories into english, and some of sweden’s Pippi Longstocking stories into bengali. she lives in Lund, sweden. her second novel, blame, will be launched at dhaka Lit Fest (dLF) 2015.

shamim Reza is a poet, author, researcher and editor. he has published five poetry books, one short story book and edited a series of books on african literature. he won the Kirthibash award 2007. he teaches bangla literature at Jahangirnagar university.

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Jude kelly was appointed artistic director of southbank Centre and founded solent People’s Theatre and battersea arts Centre. Kelly was awarded an obe for her services to theatre. she has directed over 100 productions from the royal shakespeare Company to the Châtalet in Paris.

urvashi Butalia co-founded Kali for Women and Zubaan. butalia’s publications include The other side of silence: voices from the Partition of India, which won the oral history book association award and the Nikkei asia award for Culture.

Firdous azim is a professor of english and chair of the department of english and humanities at braC university. she has published widely in the fields of post-colonialism and feminist issues. her books include The Colonial rise of the Novel and Infinite variety: Women in society and Literature.

nSN Rasul

Meike Ziervogel’s session, “No One Too Small For History,” is only one of the many interesting sessions

on the first day of the forthcoming Dha-ka Lit Fest. She, herself, is many things. First and foremost a novelist, she was also once a journalist for Agence France-Presse and now runs a publishing house, Peirene Press, and has an established literary Salon in London.

As an avid reader of fiction, I am, in-stantly and inevitably drawn to her life as a novelist and her ensuing body of work. Of German origin herself, her debut novel, Magda, about the wife of Joseph Goebbels, one of Adolf Hitler’s most devout followers during the Second World War, was short-listed for the Guardian’s “Not the Booker Prize” award. A most interesting take on World War II, from the point of view of one of its more forgotten players, Magda -- both the novel and the character -- aims to provide us with a perspective that is at once interesting and new. This fictionalised alternate history narrative is an attempt to place us right in the heart of one of history’s supposed monsters.

Her last novel, Kauthar, which came out in August, whose protagonist is an intel-ligent and educated young woman in her 30s, is another perspective-changing take on one of the most relevant issues of our time: Islamic extremism. The novel finds the character of Kauthar, who is a convert to Islam, slowly becoming more and more extremist in her viewpoints, to the point where she finds herself being pulled into

the world of the terroristic narrative the media is so adamant about sharing.

All her novels, not just these two, deal with issues of -- what she calls -- the “oth-er.” Earlier this year, when Ziervogel was here for the Bengal Lights Literary Con-clave, I was lucky enough to have inter-viewed her. Suffice to say, we discussed her work -- and her life, which is just as interesting, and which I’ll come to in a bit -- but, especially, these two novels, in which she covers possibly two of the most “mon-strous” ideologies of the past two gener-ations. She says that referring to these people as “monsters” is actually part of the problem.

With her fictional work, what Meike Ziervogel is attempting to do is flesh out this concept of the “other,” something that is especially prevalent in West-ern society. But what exactly is “other?” It is an attempt by so-ciety to distance itself from the apparent monsters that went on to conduct these atrocities, such as the Holocaust and the continuing Islamic terrorist attacks that have plagued cur-rent events for the last two decades.

She goes on to say that this is society’s way of removing itself from blame. For exam-ple, Magda Goebbels, a very real woman under very ordi-nary circumstances, is a perfect example of how even an educat-ed, middle-class woman can be

forced to believe in ideologies (in this case, anti-semitism and the extermination of the Jews) that most of us today can safely say we will never consider. Her other charac-ter Kawther, who too is of a similar back-ground, was her way of sending her “pro-tagonist on a journey to see what needs to happen psychologically for her to start and to then misinterpret her religion.”

If one thinks Meike is treading on un-chartered

waters, one would be wrong. She herself had thought about converting to Islam when she was studying in university -- where, incidentally, she studied Arabic lan-guage and literature -- and living in Egypt. She was drawn to the mystical side of Islam but, ultimately, did not convert; she says it would’ve been for the “wrong reasons,” un-like her protagonist, Kauthar, who converts what she deems to be the right reasons, and then goes on to lose herself.

Coming off of this, it’d be interesting to figure out what to expect from her pan-

el, “No One Too Small For History,” in which Meike, along with host by

Anatara Ganguli, will dissect how “the simplest of lives are decisive-

ly, indeed harrowingly, reshaped by the tumultuous turns of

history.” Magda Goebbels is a great example - or victim

- of how easily we can be taken away by the tides of history. l

sN rasul is a writer. Follow him on Twitter @snrasul.

The ‘other’ side of the coinmeike Ziervogel attempts to show how we distance ourselves from history’s monsters

but what exactly is ‘other?’ It is an attempt by society to distance itself from the apparent monsters that went on to conduct these atrocities, such as the holocaust and the continuing Islamic terrorist attacks

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D a Y 3 : s a t u R D a Y, n o v e M B e R 2 1

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EditorZafar Sobhan

DLF Supplement TeamRumana HabibIshtiaque MahmudRehan KabirSheikh Jinat Sharmin

Shafayat Nazam RasulKazi Rubaiyat KabirSabah RahmanNasr Dastgir

GraphicsAsmaul Hoque Mamun

CartoonSyed Rashad Imam Tanmoy

CoverShazzad Khan

ProductionMasum Billah

CirculationMasud Kabir Pavel

Websitedhakatribune.com

D h a k a T r i b u n e a r T s & L e T T e r s W o r k s h o p sDay 111-11:40am – origami a look at the paper-folding art of origami, with saudia afrin.

12:15–12:55pm – drawing & sketching an art workshop that provides an opportunity to explore basic and intermediate drawing and sketching techniques, led by Wedrawstuff.

1:30–2pm – Writing poetryParticipants will experience the process of composing short poems, led by dT feature writer

syeda samira sadeque and the spoken word poetry group ampersand.

4:15–5pm – Writing short storiesa discussion on cultivating writing skills for short stories, led by dT features editor sabrina ahmad.

Day 2 12-12:45pm – Writing poetryParticipants will experience the process of composing short poems, led by dT feature writer syeda samira sadeque and the spoken word

poetry group ampersand.

1:30–2:10pm – Children’s storybook writingWalking kids through a lesson in great storytelling and strong sentence construction, led by Zehra Ispahani

3–3:40pm – Fun: a drawing workshopan opportunity to explore basic and intermediate drawing and sketching techniques, led by ayreen Khan of the iCan Foundation and facilitated by dhaka Tribune cartoonist rashad Imam Tanmoy.

4:15-5pm – origami a look at the paper-folding art of origami, with saudia afrin.

DaY 3 1:00- 1:45pm – origami a look at the paper-folding art of origami, with saudia afrin.

2-2:45pm – arT WorKshoP an art workshop that provides an opportunity to explore basic and intermediate drawing and sketching techniques, led by Wedrawstuff.

Dhaka Tribune guide to the Dhaka Lit Fest

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