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About The Event
The Ekushey Book Fair (Bengali: একুশে বই মেলা[a], romanized: Ekuśe Bôi Mela), officially called Amar Ekushey Grantha Mela (Bengali: অমর একুশে গ্রন্থ মেলা[b], lit. ”Immortal Book Fair of the Twenty-first [of February]’), is the national book fair of Bangladesh. It is arranged each year by Bangla Academy and takes place for the whole month of February in Dhaka. This event is dedicated to the martyrs who died on 21 February 1952 in Bengali Language Movement, a demonstration calling for the establishment of Bengali as one of the state languages of former East Pakistan.
Usually, the fair continues from 1 February to 28 February. It takes place in Bangla Academy premises and Suhrawardi Udyan. The Ministry of Culture is in control of the fair while the Academy does the groundwork. Usually the Prime Minister (or the Chief Adviser in case of caretaker government) inaugurates the fair. Between 300 and 400 publishing houses take part in the fair. Only the Bangladeshi booksellers can join who have at least 25 books of their own.
There is Nazrul Moncho, a corner dedicated to poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, a fixed place for month-long cultural meetings, a Lekhok Kunjo, a dedicated place for writers and, a media center for the journalists. Free WiFi service has been enabled since 2019. Nowadays it becomes harder to accommodate the huge crowd and the increasing number of publishers. In 2008, the theme of daily conference was ‘Bengali Literature and Culture – Achievement of three decades’.[4]