Little Mag corner finally opens Thursday

After struggling to get a fixed spot, Little Mag corner is finally going to begin a display of magazines at the Suhrawardy Udyan premises in Dhaka from Thursday amid growing enthusiasm among bookworms. 

The development comes as the Bangla Academy allocated the spot almost a week after the Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2021 was launched. Little magazine publishers and authors had since been demanding that they be allowed to erect their stalls near the Academy premises, where they had been showcasing their work for the past few years. 

The corner has been a platform creating a massive opportunity for new and young writers to showcase their talents and reach out to more readers. And for readers, it is always a delight to discover hitherto unknown gems in these pages.

Little magazines published in Bangladesh have traditionally been honoured with a separate corner at the annual fair, which works as a platform to motivate the publication of books under private initiatives. 

Since 2014, when a section of the book fair shifted to Suhrawardy Udyan in order to create more space, the Little Mag corner has been either based on or near the premises of the Bangla Academy along with stalls funded by public institutions.

Even in 2020, the corner was set up on the eastern side of the Udyan, close to the Bangla Academy. But this year, the fair management committee allocated the western part of the historic ground, for the corner.

The decision aroused the ire of those associated with little magazines and the issue was finally resolved on Monday. 

Many from the Little Mag corner accused the Bangla Academy of being negligent in allocating space for them.

Book cover designer Charu Pintu said they were not scared of any “unwarranted” decision, as they were always united. 

“It is now good to have a spot where we can display and sell our books,” he said. 

Adatya Arabinda, Executive Editor of Jessore Road and Anti Code magazines, said: “We are happy to get our own place.” 

This year, the corner is supposed to accommodate 135 stalls. The figure was 150 last year.