The curtain fell on the month-long Ekushey Book Fair 2025 on Friday with a large crowd at the fair on the last day.
A record total of 335 titles arrived on the day, taking to 3,299 the tally of new titles this year. The day鈥檚 arrivals included 113 collections of poems, 29 novels and 48 volumes of short stories.
As Friday was scheduled as children鈥檚 hour, the fairground was opened at 11:00am while Kaktarua Puppet Theater staged their acclaimed performance at Children Corner of the fair.
The cultural affairs adviser, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, was present as chief guest at the closing ceremony of the fair, presided over by the academy president, Abul Quasem Fazlul Haque.
The academy鈥檚 director general, Mohammad Azam, said in his welcome speech that after the student-led mass uprising every stakeholder of the fair such as publishers, writers and visitors were not prepared to organise the fair but the hard work of all made the fair a success.聽聽
Cultural affairs secretary Md Mafidur Rahman said that they wanted to upgrade the fair to an international level.聽聽
Farooki said that after the student-led mass uprising聽they started to organise more聽cultural聽events although a lot of聽events were obstructed primarily.聽
鈥榃e are working to hold all cultural activities of the country under one umbrella,鈥� said Farooki.
The closing ceremony was followed by an awards ceremony.
Poet Al Mujahidi recived Kabi Jasimuddin Sahitya Puraskar 2025 and Barnali Saha received Syed Waliullah Literary Award 2024 at the event. The other awardee of Syed Waliullah Literary Award 2024 is German author-researcher Hans Harder.
Chittaranjan Saha Memorial Award for the best book of 2024 was received by Kathaprokash for publishing 25 standard books. Munir Chowdhury Smriti Puraskar for the best three artistic books of 2024 was received by Pathak Shamabesh, Oitijjhya and Kathaprokash while Rokanuzzaman Khan Dadabhai Smrity Award 2024 for the best publisher of children鈥檚 books was received by Kakatua publication.
For showing artistic acumen in building stalls, Artist Qayyum Chowdhury Memorial Award 2025 was received by Maktabatul Islam for single unit, Gronthik Prokashon for two to four units and Batighar in the pavilion category.
The member secretary of the fair committee, Sarkar Amin, said that the academy stalls alone sold books worth Tk 61 lakh this year till February 27.
