The spot beside Burdwan House in Bangla Academy is an interesting one – you can see young, relatively unknown writers huddled there, engaged in debates over various issues.
These young litterateurs are devoted to the practice of little magazines. This “corner” is entirely dedicated to the little magazines that are published around the country. Little magazines, better known as little mags, are periodicals that feature unconventional thinking practice. They are usually noncommercial and experimental.
There are around 60 stalls of little magazines on the Bangla Academy premises, higher than last year – there were 45 stalls last year, according to Bangla Academy sources. The publications include Droshtobyo, Shidara, Ghugu, Loke, Choitnyo, etc.
Shammo Rayan, editor of little mag Bangmoy, told the Dhaka Tribune: “It is great to see that the new generation is interested in the culture of little mag. The number of magazines is increasing too.”
Attendants of Shuddhaswar publication house said they had started as a little mag of the same name before turning into publication house in 2004. “But we remain dedicated to our practice, and little magazine writers are welcome to publish their books from our house.”
Dipankar Roy, an attendant at the stall of Loke, said: “We generally receive warm response from little mag readers. But many readers who reside outside the capital have not been able to visit us this year due to the hartal.”
“Every year Little Mag Prangan Award is given to one magazine to accelerate the practice and movement of little mag in Bangladesh,” said Aniket Shamim, editor of Loke.
No extension of Boi Mela
The Boi Mela authorities have no plans to extend the fair. “It is not practical to extend it, considering security and cost, said Jalal Ahmed, member secretary of the fair committee.
On Tuesday, publishers submitted an application to the fair authorities for an extension, as the continuous hartal and blockade affected the overall sales of books this year.
However, the fair saw huge crowd yesterday, and the stall attendants were seen very busy catering to their customers.
A total of 116 new books hit the fair yesterday, putting the number of new publications at 3,251.