PM to inaugurate Amar Ekushey book fair on Feb 1

The month-long “Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela 2024”, the country’s largest book fair, is going to begin on its traditional date of the first day of February this year.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the book fair.

Member Secretary of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair Committee Dr KM Muzahidul Islam said, “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the fair to be held under the auspices of Bangla Academy on its premises and Suhrawardy Udyan on February 1 at 3 pm”.

Details will be informed at a press conference on Bangla Academy the day before the launch of the book fair, he said.

According to Bangla Academy sources, a total of 895 stalls have been allocated to 573 organizations. Among them 786 are general stalls while 109 stalls will be dedicated to little magazine chattar.

Moreover, a total of 37 pavilions have been allocated this year. Last year, a total of 901 stalls were allocated in favour of 601 organizations.

Stall allotment for old and newly enlisted publications was done through a digitalized lottery system on January 23.

Meanwhile, besides the enlisted 601 organizations, some 70 new publications have applied to get stall allocation responding to the notice. Among them, 23 new publications got selected.

Like previous years, the main stage of the fair will be on the Bangla Academy premises while book unwrapping and ‘Lekhak Bolchi’ stages will be set up on Suhrawardi Udyan premises.

‘Shishu Chattar’ has also been set up in Sadhu Shanga area beside the Ramna Kali Temple.

This year, the entire work of the fair is being done by Bangla Academy alone to avoid any criticism, said Muzahidul, adding, “In the previous years, some event management companies were involved in fair arrangements which faced some criticism last year”.

The preparation for the fair started soon after the end of the last fair and committees have been formulated in three-phase - committee for preparation phase, committee for inaugural ceremony and separate committees for conducting the month-long fair.

For notable contributions to various aspects of Bangla literature, this year, the Bangla Academy Literary Award-2023 will be given to 16 individuals in 11 categories- poetry, fiction, essay/research, translation, drama, children’s literature category, Liberation War, Bangabandhu, environment/science field, biography and folklore.

The award recipients are: Shamim Azad (poetry), Novelists Nuruddin Jahangir and Salma Bani (jointly in fiction), Zulfikar Matin (essay/research), Saleha Chowdhury (translation), Playwrights Mrittika Chakma and Masud Pathik (jointly in drama), Tapankar Chakrabarty (children’s literature), Afroza Parvin and Asaduzzaman Asad (research on the Liberation War), Saifullah Mahmud Dulal and Md Mojibur Rahman (research on Bangabandhu), ornithologist Inam Al Haque (environment/science field), Ishak Khan (biography) and Tapan Bagchi and Suman Kumar Das (jointly in folklore).

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hand over the awards at the inaugural ceremony of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair-2024 scheduled to begin on February 1.