Little Magazine Chattar, the area designated for little magazine publishers at the month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair, on Tuesday was seen mostly empty, but the overall visitor turnout was high on the fourth day of the fair being organised by the Bangla Academy at Suhrawardy Udyan and the Bangla Academy premises in the capital Dhaka.
In the evening of Tuesday, long queues of visitors were seen at all entry points of the fair.
This year 133 stalls were set up at the little magazine corner at Suhrawardy Udyan while the fair organisers allocated 101 stalls against 150 applications, said AKM Kutubuddin, convenor of the little magazine category of the fair.
鈥榃e have also allocated 25 small unpaid stalls for the little magazines that have come from outside Dhaka. Besides, seven stalls are open for any little magazines who want to display their publications,鈥� Kutubuddin said, adding that the regular stall was four feet by two feet in size and the rent was Tk聽500 for this year.
He said that only 20 per cent of stalls of little magazine was displaying their publications on the fourth day of the fair.
鈥榃e hope that within two to three days all of the publishers would participate in the fair,鈥� said Kutubuddin.
Among the little magazines, Khepa, Sahitya Sanskrity Kendra, Nongor, Prantaswar, Anubhuti, Chitra, Manchakatha, Samprotik, Patader Sangshar, Anupranon, Rupkatha, Addapatra, Magic Lanthan, Kathpencil, Kabitacharcha, Lok and Lekhomala were displaying their publications.
Shuman Shams, editor of Nongor, said that this year little magazine publishers had not got enough time to complete their works due to political unrests.
鈥楳ost of the little magazine works are voluntarily and the writers, editors and distributors work as activists for the little magazine movement. We hope that before the weekend all stalls will display their publications,鈥� said Shuman.
During an inspection at the fair, Bangla Academy director general Mohammad Azam said that they had a special plan for the little magazine corner.
鈥楾here are scopes for improvement especially at the little magazine chattar. We have set benches for writer-readers chat and we have planned more about the fair. We hope the problems will need two or three days to be fixed,鈥� Azam said, adding that the presence of visitors and efforts of organisers and workers created hopes for an impactful book fair.
According to the officials, on the fourth day a number of 47 new books arrived.
Of them, 10 were collections of poems and 10 were collections of short stories. Besides, five each were of novel and research genres.