Mahmud Rahman

It was a joy to spotlight the Philly literary translation scene with my brilliant friends📚🖤🦅

Philly’s literary translators want to increase visibility of their work Philly has a broad translator community that allows English speakers to consume work from many different countries and cultures.

We couldn't read the greats like Anna Karenina, The Metamorphosis or Don Quixote without literary translators. Philly's own are doing their part, translating anti-war journals from Russian, representing queer French texts and bringing new perspectives to the U.S.
billypenn.com/2026/03/03/l...

Philly’s literary translators want to increase visibility of their work Philly has a broad translator community that allows English speakers to consume work from many different countries and cultures.

One of the exciting things about moving to Philadelphia was discovering the city's literary translation community.

In this story BillyPenn at WHYY covers Philly's translation community focusing on those of us who are part of the network Transversal. billypenn.com/2026/03/03/l...

Cover image of the book Shah of Shahs.

Been meaning to read Ryszard Kapuściński for a long time. Made sense to start with his book "Shah of Shahs" written when the Pahlavi monarchy was ousted.

This is a different kind of book, the blurb is right that it brings a 'mythographer's perspective and a novelist's virtuosity.'

How Richard Wright Shaped John Wilson’s Protest Art Wilson, like Wright before him, wrestled with the psychic toll of racial violence on Black families in his paintings and lithographs.

The 20th-century novelist Richard Wright and modern artist John Wilson shared a worldview that the violence they witnessed and heard stories about growing up wasn’t just about terror — it was a tool to control and exploit Black labor.

Image shows a moment in time featuring iconic musician Nina Simone wearing a plaid skirt and wool sweater and holding a cigarette looking pensive next to the lake in Central Park, New York City, in 1958.

image captures a moment in time featuring a smiling American singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone, photographed by Herb Snitzer.

Nina Simone wearing a head wrap with head rested in hand and smiling.

JΛZZ HΞΛVΞN: Happy birthday to the legendary singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and activist Nina Simone

February 21, 1933–April 21, 2003

❝What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did. ❞

Today marks the language movement of 1952 demanding official recognition of Bangla in then East Pakistan. Later the day was recognized as International Mother Language Day. I published an essay in 2018 on my journey crossing real borders, language borders. desiwriterslounge.net/articles/pap...

Did any of Malcolm X's followers end up studying on those scholarships to Al Azhar or the Islamic University in Medina? Are there any accounts or memoirs of those experiences?

Looks like some book. @diplomatofnight.com can you tell us which book? Or if not, what other source?

@pulpcurry.bsky.social

Explore Black literary NYC with this map of 100 important spots. This year is the 100th anniversary of Black History Month, and the bookstore McNally Jackson put together a list of 100 places in New York’s five boroughs that were significant for Black literary c…

McNally Jackson has put together a list of 100 places in New York’s five boroughs significant to Black literary culture as a celebration of Black History Month’s 100th anniversary.

Wow. I had a feeling this was a mistake when I saw images of the other covers.

Just got a copy from our local library. Was surprised (pleasantly, in fact) to see a cover with Soju in Korean. The spine has it in English. Online I see covers with the English superimposed over the Korean. Somehow this edition was different.

I recall the Profumo affair. I was barely 10 in then East Pakistan & the news had arrived that our dictator Ayub Khan had attended one of the scandal-linked parties in Britain. His acolytes no doubt saw this as impressive. For me it was the first exposure to the nexus of sex, wealth, power.

Since the title was Westerners, I wondered if it would encompass more. Maybe we have yet to see films featuring new kinds of expats. My favorite real-life story from 15 years ago is one Asian origin British ambassador posted to the Asian country of his roots thinking he was the new sahib kingmaker

Watched the movie last night, then read your article. The film and your writing are very observant of that particular moment in Asia. You have an interesting list on Letterboxd that I'll have to explore. Question: were there films with these types of chars who were not white men?

Rolling with the Economic Tides | Vanessa Ogle Ian Kumekawa’s Empty Vessel follows the lifespan of one barge, from bunkhouse to floating prison to barracks and back, as it traces the shadowy outer limits of the maritime economy.

Vanessa Ogle (@vanessahistory.bsky.social) on how the life of a single barge—from floating prison to makeshift barracks to offshore bunkhouse—tells the story of the global economy

Remembering the Josephite Action Committee, 1969 During his visit to Dhaka in August 2025, writer Mahmud Rahman encountered a street art panel highlighting political discussions in schools. Reflecting on past student movements against dictatorshi…

On a visit to Dhaka, Bangladesh, last August, I met my 15 year old self and he reminded me how movements that shake a nation can influence children in schools. I tried to recall how our ideas got shaped at that moment. alalodulal.org/2026/01/29/j...

Calling all translators of Southasian languages! Original submissions for Himal Fiction Fest 2026: Southasian Fiction in Translation are now open. Please help us to spread the word to applicants. Deadline: 1 April.

#SouthasianFiction #Translation #CallForSubmissions #SouthasianLiterature

His translations are still in print. This is one Bangla translation of Chariots of the Gods. Debotar Rath.

I hadn't realized he was still alive. I only had vague memories of his books while living in the U.S. in the 70s but when I spent some time in Bangladesh 16 years ago I learned about his impact in South Asia, both among those who read him with curiosity and others who greatly admired him.

Greetings from a rainy Philly day!

The Christmas Stevie Wonder Wanted - KOLUMN Magazine Inside Hitsville, a teenage prodigy, two Motown songwriters, and a producer with a clock in his head built an anti-war carol that still sounds like tomorrow.

'But “Someday at Christmas” ... arrives gently—strings, a winter hush—and then it does something that most Christmas songs refuse to do: it looks directly at the world’s violence and says, without metaphor, that it’s incompatible with the season’s promises.' www.kolumnmagazine.com/2025/12/25/t...

You might want to come visit Philadelphia.

Did he also park the car in the middle of the street and block traffic on Dickinson?

The Candy Lady Was the System - KOLUMN Magazine Across Black America, a front-room business became a neighborhood’s smallest, steadiest institution—priced in quarters and governed by respect.

"The Candy Lady was commerce braided into care—mutual aid with a price tag, childcare funded by snacks, block governance conducted in quarters.

And like most infrastructure in Black America, she was simultaneously ordinary and heroic." www.kolumnmagazine.com/2025/12/21/t...

Ian Fleming's James Bond spurred numerous imitations, including East Pakistan/Bangladesh's Masud Rana Agent MR-9, still continuing from Dhaka's Sheba publishers. Here Andrew Nette explores the response from the Soviet bloc. Knew nothing of this until this piece.

"If there is a collapse in Western societies, it is not merely a collapse of media or political structures. It is much worse. It may well be a collapse of the human personality."

Very true. I just began to read it and I realized I'll have to read it slower since there's so much here. One thing I want to do in 2016 is read more Nigerian literature.

“Paris Latino”: How Latin America Migrated to Europe - Public Books “Paris est la capitale de l’Amérique latine,” said Mexican essayist Carlos Fuentes

“Nicaraguan poet and lover of French letters Rubén Darío declared in his autobiography, 'I dreamed of Paris since my birth.'”

New at PB: Melanie Shi on the “Paris Latino.”