Dhaka Lit Fest (also known as Dhaka Literary Festival or DLF) is an annual literary festival held in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. Since 2012, it has been held every November in the grounds of Bangla Academy with sessions held over three days, primarily in English.

History

Dhaka Lit Fest began as The Hay Festival Dhaka with the support of the British Council Dhaka in 2011. In 2015, its current three directors, Sadaf Saaz, Ahsan Akbar and Kazi Anis Ahmed, renamed the festival as "Dhaka Lit Fest" to "mark its commitment to promoting Dhaka, and Bangladeshi literature and culture to the world." After the July 2016 Dhaka attack, the festival suffered 19 international cancellations. Despite that, the organizers held the festival to show that Bangladesh could still hold an international cultural festival in the face of terrorism. Casey Quackenbush wrote that, "Bangladesh, where independent bloggers and journalists have increasingly become targets of violence, the Dhaka Literary Festival has become a symbol of defiance." That year, the headline author was the Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul. In 2017, Dhaka Lit Fest was chosen to host the awarding of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. The winner was

Anuk Arudpragasam Anuk Arudpragasam ( ta, அனுக் அருட்பிரகாசம்) (born 1988) is a Sri Lankan Tamil novelist writing in English and Tamil. His debut novel ''The Story of a Brief Marriage'' was published in 2016 by Flatiron Books/Gra ...

for his novel, The Story of a Brief Marriage.

Organizers

The festival was initiated by Bangladeshi writers Sadaf Saaz, Tahmima Anam, Ahsan Akbar and Kazi Anis Ahmed as Hay Festival Dhaka. , its directors are Sadaf Saaz (also producer), Ahsan Akbar and Kazi Anis Ahmed.

Notable guests

Notable international guests include V. S. Naipul, Adunis, Shashi Tharoor, William Dalrymple (historian),

Tilda Swinton Katherine Matilda Swinton (born 5 November 1960) is a British actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to ...

Marcel Theroux Marcel Raymond Theroux (born 13 June 1968) is a British-American novelist and broadcaster. He wrote ''A Stranger in The Earth'' and '' The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes: A Paper Chase,'' for which he won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2002. His ...

, Lionel Shriver,

Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay ( bn, শীর্ষেন্দু মুখোপাধ্যায়; born 2 November 1935) is a Bengali author from India. He has written stories for both adults and children. He is known for creating the relativel ...

Mohammed Hanif Mohammed Hanif (born November 1964) is a British Pakistani writer and journalist who writes a monthly opinion piece in ''The New York Times.'' Hanif is the author of the critically acclaimed book ''A Case of Exploding Mangoes'', which was long ...

Nandita Das Nandita Das (born 7 November 1969) is an Indian actress and director. She has acted in over 40 feature films in ten different languages. Das appeared in the films ''Fire'' (1996), ''Earth'' (1998), '' Bawandar'' (2000), '' Kannathil Muthamittal' ...

, Monica Ali, HM Naqvi, Tishani Doshi,

Swapnamoy Chakraborty Swapnamoy Chakraborty (born 24 August 1951) is a Bengali novelist and essayist. Career Chakraborty was born in Kolkata. He worked in the Land Department under the Government of West Bengal and Akashvani Kolkata as an executive director. He starte ...

James Meek (author) James Meek (born 1962) is a British novelist and journalist, author of ''The People's Act of Love''. He was born in London, England, and grew up in Dundee, Scotland. Biography Meek attended school at Grove Academy in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, a ...

, Jude Kelly, and

Jon Snow (journalist) Jonathan George Snow HonFRIBA (born 28 September 1947) is an English journalist and television presenter. He is best known as the longest-running presenter of ''Channel 4 News'', which he presented from 1989 to 2021. On 29 April 2021, Snow ann ...

, among many others. Prominent Bangladeshi guests include: Asaduzzaman Noor,

Syed Manzoorul Islam Syed Manzoorul Islam (born 18 January 1951) is a Bangladeshi critic, writer and a former professor of University of Dhaka, Dhaka University. As a literary critic, he has written criticism on writers including Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Kazi Nazrul I ...

Imdadul Haq Milan Imdadul Haq Milan (born 8 September 1955) is a Bangladeshi novelist and Journalist. He was editor of the daily newspaper ''Kaler Kantho''. He is the recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1992 and Ekushey Padak in 2019. Early life and ed ...

Kaiser Haq Kaiser Hamidul Haq (born 7 December 1950) is a Bangladeshi translator, critic and academic. Known for his translations from Bengali into English, Haq is a recipient of Bangla Academy Literary Award (2013) in the category of translation. He is a fo ...

Selina Hossain Selina Hossain (born 14 June 1947) is a Bangladeshi novelist and the current president of Bangla Academy since February 2022. Her major works include ''Hangor Nodi Grenade'' (1976) and ''Poka Makorer Ghor Boshoti'' (1996). She earned all major nat ...

, Aly Zaker, Shaheen Akhtar,

Nishat Majumdar Nishat Mazumdar ( bn, নিশাত মজুমদার) became the first Bangladeshi woman to scale Mount Everest, with the help of three Sherpas - Lakpa Sherpa, Pemba Dorje Sherpa, Mingma Sherpa and a bigger team led by another Bangladesh ...

, Raja Devasish Roy, and Muktasree Chakmaamong, among many others.

Reception

DLF has been praised both locally and internationally for its commitment to cultural exchange, freedom of expression and a balance of international and Bengali cultures. The festival's sponsors have been commended for ensuring DLF is free to attend and well-organized. Some observers have described DLF organizers as Anglophile bourgeois who are the agents of

neo-imperial In historical contexts, New Imperialism characterizes a period of colonial expansion by European powers, the United States, and Japan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Com The period featured an unprecedented pursuit of over ...

western hegemony in Bangladesh and speculate that they initiated the event to promote themselves as writers in English and groom their own fandom in Dhaka. In response, the organizers point to the significant number of Bengali-language (and other local indigenous Bangladeshi languages) panels, the fact that attendance is free, as well as its celebration of local Bangladeshi literary figures and publishing houses. This view is supported by guests and journalists attending the festival.

References

External links

*{{Official website Literary festivals in Bangladesh Cultural festivals in Dhaka