A team of officials from the Publishers and Booksellers Guild will visit Dhaka in March to discuss the modalities of organising a book fair in the Bangladesh capital where publishers and authors from both sides of the border will come together.
Veterans in the publishing industry in West Bengal believe the proposed collaboration is a gesture by the Sheikh Hasina government of Bangaldesh to celebrate the kinship of the two Bengals.
Earlier this month, Sheikh Hasina had inaugurated the month-long Amar Ekushey book fair in Dhaka.
“We have received an invitation from the Bangladesh Pustak Prakashak O Bikreta Samity (an association of book publishers and sellers) to organise the fair jointly with the government of Bangladesh and the Samity in Dhaka later this year,” said Sudhansghu Sekhar Dey, secretary of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, which organises the International Kolkata Book Fair, the annual event held at Central Park in Salt Lake.
"A team will visit Dhaka in March to discuss and understand how the book fair can be held jointly to mark a new beginning.”
The proposed fair will witness literary exchanges between Bangladesh and West Bengal with authors, writers and publishers coming together at a popular venue in Dhaka.
Stalls showcasing literary works from West Bengal and Bangladesh will be set up at the venue. There will also be an open forum for authors and writers from either side of the border to meet, greet and interact.
For several decades, publishers, writers and readers from West Bengal and Bangladesh have been ruing the absence of books published on this side of the border at the Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela.
Publishers in Kolkata see the possibility of bridging the gap in the proposal from Dhaka to organise the joint book fair.
“Outside the Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela venue, one gets to see pirated copies of books from Bengal being sold and there are a significant number of takers. So if Bengal and Bangladesh can come together as planned now, it will be wonderful for the industry and book lovers on either side of the border,” said Subhankar Dey of Dey’s Publishing.
Several publishers recalled that veteran authors like Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay and late Samaresh Majumdar and Sunil Gangopadhyay were vocal about making their books available at Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela.
“Kolkata has been hosting a Bangladesh book fair for 11 years. We are very happy about it. Thousands of book lovers visit the fair at College Square to get a taste of what’s new in Bangladesh,” said a publisher who has his office on College Street.
“But we have been barred from doing the same in Dhaka. Hopefully, this time the locks will open.”
A section of Guild officials said the team that will visit Dhaka will discuss the possible dates of the book fair to be organised jointly and also work out other details, including logistics, accommodation and stalls for publishers from West Bengal.
“We want to hold the fair in Dhaka after the monsoon, sometime in August,” said a senior Guild official.