A new book highlights gaps between aid agencies and communities, the efficacy of aid in poverty reduction and human development Herald Report The debate over development strategies and policies being applied in the developing countries to eradicate poverty has been going on ever since the introduction of the neoliberal economic agenda and the structural adjustment programmes. Independent economists and academics …

For centuries, Iran has been producing some of the world’s most influential and inspiring poets, whose works revolutionized the literature of both the East and the West. Spanning themes of love, divine mysticism and human rights, their poetry is an incredible contribution to Iranian culture, and remains entirely relevant today. Here we profile 10 of the most inspiring Iranian poets. by ANAHIT …

  HAH Report Shelley Fairweather-Vega, a Seattle-based writer and translator. She translates literature from Russian and Uzbek languages into English. She collaborates with authors, academics, and activists around the world and has worked on projects as varied as Russian poetry, Uzbek historical fiction, popular science, romance, and detective stories. She is a founder of the literary translation circle in Seattle, …

Laal Hartal pays tribute to the revolutionary poet at ILF-2019 Farman Ali The discourse generated by a rhythmic circle titled ’22 Crore’ by Laal Hartal has been able to create a ripple effect after receiving huge appreciation by academic and literary circles. The poem was presented at the inaugural session of the sixth edition of the Islamabad Literature Festival during …

by Ali Azam Khan Concealment is not the same as deception. It is also not a euphemism for deception because their consequences differ accordingly. The book in review In Evil Hours by the legendary Colombian novelist, short-story writer, and journalist Gabriel García Márquez, explains how a society with a small number of people, and almost cut-off from the outside world, can swing …

Raza Naeem on the enduring appeal of Sibte Hasan’s ‘Mazi Ke Mazar’, 50 years after it was written   by Raza Naeem In our part of the world, the life of books is too short – not unlike an untimely death in infancy. It is a small mercy if a book manages to live for four or five years, but it …

Algerian poet Djamal Amrani was born in 1935 in Sour El Gozlane. Central to his life and work were his involvement in the Algerian liberation movement, and his arrest and torture by the French Army for participating in a 1956 student strike. Amrani was imprisoned for two years for his revolutionary activities, and then expelled to France. From this ordeal …

In this article, Raza Naeem remembers Khalida Hussain, an esteemed Urdu short story writer who passed away on January 11, 2018.   by Raza Naeem “Somebody speaks inside me day and night: Now it’s your turn…now you will see.” And then as the mystery gets deeper, the story’s mystery. These lines come at the climax of Sawari (Ride), the representative short story …

Islamabad: New edition of Adbiyat, the quarterly literary publication of Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) has been published. The literary publication was unveiled on Tuesday at the Academy. Speaking on the occasion, PAL Chairman Junaid Akhlaq said the academy is trying its best to produce literary books which reflect the collective thoughts of Pakistani nation. The  119th volume of Adbiyat …

 by Ali Azam It is very rare to randomly pick a title and enjoy it all the way through without rolling your eyes. Mitch Albom’s The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto is one such book. It’s the writer’s ability to drag the reader into the realm of magic without incepting any notion of surrealism, especially for cynical critics. The best …