The 24th edition of Young Artist Fine Arts Exhibition 2025, or Nabin Shilpi Charukala Exhibition, oragnized by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, begins today on its premises in the capital.  The exhibition will run for 12 days at galleries 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 of the National Art Gallery, with daily viewing hours from 11 am to 8 pm. A significant pool of 1,393 artworks was submitted by young artists, aged 21 to 35, for this year's exhibition.  The selection committee carefully chose 215 works by 191 artists to be featured. The exhibition is comprehensive, including almost all mediums such as painting, sculpture, oriental art, crafts, pottery, photography, installation art, performance art, and new media art. The selection committee members included artist Professor Naima Haque (Dhaka University), artist Tarun Ghosh, artist Dr. Mohammad Ali (Dean, Department of Fine Arts, Rajshahi University), artist Ajmir Hossain and artist Asmita Alam Shammi (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University). This year introduces two specially curated art presentations. Following previous practice, eight universities—Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chattogram, Jahangirnagar, Khulna, Jagannath, National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Shanto-Mariam University of Creative Technology, and Bulbul Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA)—have presented their curated shows. A new addition is a curated presentation by 12 invited young artists titled ‘Rupantor’ (Transformation). A total of ten artworks from the 191 selected artists will be nominated for awards.  The top winner of the 'Nabin Shilpi Charukla Puraskar 2025' will receive BDT two lakh and a gold-coated medal.  The second prize is BDT 1.50 lakh and the third prize is BDT one lakh. There are also seven honorary awards, each valued at Taka 75,000; while the rules typically provide for five, two additional awards were included based on the judges' recommendation and the Director General's consent. Read More Prestigious 2025 Booker Prize awarded to David Szalay The Judicial Committee was led by President Professor Mostafizul Haque, with members including artist Reza Asad Al Huda Anupam, prominent artists Anisuzzaman Sohel and Yasmin Jahan Nupur, and artist Imam Hossain Sumon (Jagannath University).  It was noted at the press conference that although international standard curated presentations are common globally, this marks the first time such presentations are being featured at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Manjur Ahmed served as the curator for the event, leading a team that included three assistant curators. Meanwhile, Cultural Affairs Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki is expected to inaugurate the exhibition today at 4 pm while Artist Professor Dr Abdus Sattar and Professor Mostafizul Haque will be special guests at the inaugural ceremony.  Director General of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Sheikh Rezauddin Ahmed (Rezauddin Stalin) will preside it. The organizers said that the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy's 'Nabin Shilpi Charukala Exhibition' is a regular national event in the field of fine arts. Its journey began in 1975. Many artists have gained recognition through this exhibition, and later have won awards and recognition at home and abroad, they said.

British-Hungarian writer David Szalay has been awarded the Booker Prize for fiction for his novel "Flesh," a tortured story of a Hungarian emigre who makes and loses a fortune. The 51-year-old writer beat five other finalists to take the high-profile annual literary award, which honors the best English-language novel published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. It comes with a 50,000-pound (USD 66,000, Euro 57,000) prize and a big boost to the winner's sales and profile. Written in sparse prose, "Flesh" follows the life of a working class and taciturn Hungarian man over decades. It charts his teenage relationship with an older woman to his time as a struggling immigrant in Britain to working for the ultra-wealthy in London. "I wanted to write a book with a Hungarian end and an English end, since I was living very much between the two countries at the time," Szalay said in an interview with the Booker Prize when his book was first longlisted. "Writing about a Hungarian immigrant at the time when Hungary joined the EU seemed like an obvious way to go. So it would be, to some extent, a novel about contemporary Europe, and about the cultural and economic divides that characterise it," he said. Read More Nobel Prize for Literature Awarded to Hungary's László Krasznahorkai 'Never read anything quite like it' — judging panel The judging panel included Irish writer and former Booker prize winner Roddy Doyle, "Sex and the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker and Nigerian author Ayobami Adebayo. "A meditation on class, power, intimacy, migration and masculinity, Flesh is a compelling portrait of one man, and the formative experiences that can reverberate across a lifetime," the panel said in a statement. "We had never read anything quite like it. It is, in many ways, a dark book but it is a joy to read," Roddy Doyle, who chaired the panel, said in the statement. "I don't think I've read a novel that uses the white space on the page so well. It's as if the author, David Szalay, is inviting the reader to fill the space, to observe — almost to create — the character with him." Szalay was born in Canada, raised in the United Kingdom and lives in the Austrian capital, Vienna. The novel was his author's sixth work of fiction. He had previously been shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016 for his last work "All That Man Is," a series of stories about nine wildly different men. This year's other finalists were Andrew Miller's "The Land in Winter," Kiran Desai's "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny," Susan Choi's "Flashlight," Katie Kitamura's "Audition" and "The Rest of Our Lives" by Ben Markovits. A sister award, the International Booker Prize which is awarded to a book translated into English, was won in 2025 by Indian author Banu Mushtaq for "Heart Lamp." Earlier, British author Andrew Miller and Indian novelist Kiran Desai are the bookmakers’ favorites to win this year’s prestigious Booker Prize for fiction, with the award ceremony scheduled in London on Monday. Both writers are among six finalists vying for the coveted literary prize, which carries a GBP 50,000 (USD 66,000) reward and often gives a significant boost to book sales and author recognition. This year’s winner was chosen from 153 submitted novels by a judging panel that includes Irish writer Roddy Doyle and actress Sarah Jessica Parker.

Rakib Hasan, the creator and author of the famous teenage thriller series 'Tin Goyenda', breathed his last while undergoing treatment at Gonoshasthya Nagar Hospital in the capital’s Dhanmondi on Wednesday afternoon.  Gonoshasthya Community Medical College Vice-Principal Dr Mohibullah Khondakar said that he (Rakib Hasan) regularly visited our hospital for kidney dialysis. He came today as well, but passed away shortly before the procedure began. Rakib Hasan began his literary career with Seva Prakashani, translating world-class classics, and gradually wrote over 400 books under various names.  He created popular series such as Tarzan, Goyenda Raju, Reza-Suja and famous Tin Goyenda (Three Detectives).  Read More Poet Daud Haider Passes Away in Berlin at 73 Though intensely private and media-shy, he earned a permanent place in the hearts of generations of readers as the creator of Tin Goyenda. Rakib Hasan was born on 12 December 1950 in Cumilla, but spent his childhood in Feni due to his father’s job transfer.  He completed his schooling in Feni before enrolling at Victoria College in Cumilla.  After finishing his studies, he worked in several jobs but never felt satisfied. Unable to adapt to the 9-to-6 routine, he eventually left office life and pursued writing full-time.

Banu Mushtaq, the Indian writer and activist, was awarded the International Booker Prize on Tuesday for her short story collection "Heart Lamp," the first Kannada-language author to win the prize for translated fiction. The 77-year-old Mushtaq will share the £50,000 ($67,000, €59,300) prize with her translator Deepa Bhasthi, who also helped with picking the stories featured in the award-winning collection. This marks the first time that a collection of short stories receives the award. It also makes Bhasthi the first Indian translator to win the prize in its current form, adopted in 2016. The annual International Booker Prize is run alongside the Booker Prize for English-language fiction, but the latter is handed out in the fall. Max Porter hails 'Heart Lamp' The award ceremony was held at London's Tate Modern Museum, and announced by bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter, who chairs the five-member voting panel. Porter hailed "Heart Lamp" as "something genuinely new for English readers." "These beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories rise from Kannada, interspersed with the extraordinary socio-political richness of other languages and dialects," said Porter. "It speaks of women's lives, reproductive rights, faith, caste, power and oppression." Mushtaq calls her win 'utterly collective'During her acceptance speech, Mushtaq described the award as a "great honor," saying she was receiving it "not as an individual but as a voice raised in chorus with so many others." "This moment feels like a thousand fireflies lighting a single sky -- brief, brilliant and utterly collective," she said. Kannada is spoken by some 65 million people, primarily in southern India. Mushtaq wrote the short stories featured in the collection between 1990 and 2023. Bhasthi's curation and translation was keen to preserve the multilingual nature of southern India. The collection was critically praised for its dry and gentle humor, witty style and commentary on issues such as patriarch, casteism and religious conservatism.

Bangladeshi poet Daud Haider has died in Berlin, Germany, at the age of 73. He passed away on Saturday night at an elderly care center in the German capital.  The news was confirmed by his younger brother, Zahid Haider, and fellow poet Arif Haider. Known for his powerful line, ‘Birth is my eternal sin,’ Daud Haider had been suffering from various health issues.  Last December, he sustained a head injury after falling on the stairs of his Berlin residence, which led to his hospitalization in the ICU. Born in Pabna on February 21, 1952, Daud Haider was a celebrated figure in Bengali literature, recognized as a poet, writer, and journalist. BackgroundDaud Haider gained prominence and faced significant challenges early in his career due to his critical writings on religion. In 1974, facing death threats, he was forced into exile.  He initially lived in Kolkata, India, before eventually moving to Berlin, Germany in 1985 with the assistance of Nobel laureate Günter Grass.  Despite living in exile for decades, his contributions to Bengali poetry and literature remained significant.