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2,640 books published during book fair


Published : 12 Apr 2021 09:41 PM | Updated : 13 Apr 2021 12:24 AM

The worsening situation of Covid-19 in the country forced the organizers at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair-2021 to end the annual programme on Monday, two days before its scheduled time.

The decision to curtail the fair comes at a time when the government plans to enforce a week-long lockdown across the country starting from April 14 which aims at further curbing Covid-19 transmission.

The State Minister for Cultural Affairs KM Khalid had made the announcement earlier at a press release on Saturday.

Welcoming the government’s decision, some publishers said that they have got the opportunity to remove all their belongings before beginning of the strict lockdown. A publisher said that the government has taken a timely decision to close the book fair on April 12.

Talking to the Bangladesh Post, Farid Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Knowledge and Creative Publishers Association and owner of Samay Prokashon, said that as the book fair was closed two days before the stipulated time, the publishers won’t face much losses. 

The publishers have been in a bad situation for the last one year. This book fair is just an addition to the loss of the last 11 months. “We had hoped that we would be able to turn around centering the book fair, but that hope was not fulfilled,” he added.

The publishers incurred huge losses in their businesses as presence of visitors was very thin in the book fair this year. Majority of the visitors did not buy a single book from the fair. However, the amount of the losses has not been counted till now. “We are very disappointed on the amount of transaction,” said AKM Tariqul Islam Roni, owner of publishing house Tamralipi.

Although this year’s book fair was held amidst uncertainty and various limitations, more than two and a half thousand books were published on the occasion of the major annual event of the country held with much fanfare and festivities. About 100 new books were released every day on average during the book fair.

Talking to the Bangladesh Post, Jalal Ahmed, director of Bangla Academy and member secretary of book fair committee, said that the book fair ended properly amidst uncertainty. Although the book fair failed to get its usual momentum with publishers and sellers fearing to incur huge losses in their businesses, publication of about 2640 books is a major achievement, he added.

A total of 46 new books arrived in the book fair on Sunday, the 25th day of the annual fair, while 108 books were released on Saturday (24th day) and 88 new books were launched on Friday (23rd day). The total number of new arrivals reached about 2600 on the last day.

Meanwhile, readers and scholars have questioned the quality of many books published on the occasion of the book fair. “Although some quality books were released in the month-long event, most of the books have no quality,” said a researcher of Dhaka University.

At this point, Habibullah Siraji, director general of Bangla Academy, said that the book fair is a place which helps create new authors and poets. Mostafa Selim, publisher of Utsho Prokashon, echoed the same as Bangla Academy’s DG and said that they tried to promote new writers.  

The 37th Amar Ekushey Book Fair began on March 18 and its stipulated deadline was April 14 (tomorrow). But it ended on Monday after 26 days. The month-long book fair is held in February every year commemorating the sacrifices of those who laid down their lives on February 21 in 1952 for establishing Bangla as the mother tongue. It was postponed during its traditional month this year amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

A total of 540 institutions were given allotment to set stalls and pavilions on the Bangla Academy premises and at Suhrawardy Udyan for this year’s book fair. Of these, 154 units were allotted to 107 institutions on the Bangla Academy premises and 680 units to 433 institutions at Suhrawardy Udyan. Besides, there were 33 pavilions of different publishing houses.

Considering the Covid-19 situation, the land earmarked for this year’s book fair was expanded to 1,500,000 square feet.

The number of book publications has halved at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair-2021. About 2600 books were released this year, while the number was almost double last year as a total of 4,919 books were released in the 2020 book fair and a total of 4,685 books were published during the 2019 book fair.