A Bangladeshi performance poet with an extraordinary voice - the result of a bullet in the throat from riot police attempting to silence a singing protest - is the only man to appear on the New Writing Ventures awards shortlist for emerging literary talent. Mir Mahfuz Ali arrived in London 20 years ago seeking medical treatment and political refuge and found a new voice through poetry. Part of Exiled Writers Ink, a group of émigré authors who fled war-torn and repressive countries, and a regular reader at literary festivals, he is now in the running for a £3,000 prize with his shortlisting in the poetry category of the New Writing Ventures awards.
The Guardian, London | Read

THE SOUTH ASIAN Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is an organisation remarkable for the lack of cooperation its members demonstrate: anyone who has tried to travel between the countries of the region knows that all too well. This lack of cooperation is a symptom of the wound left by partition, still festering after 60 years, and the smaller countries’ fear of domination by their mighty neighbour India. Pakistani and Bangladeshi politicians go to great lengths to deny that they have anything in common with India.
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Some of Britain's best-known high street brands are selling "cheap chic" clothes at the expense of workers in Bangladesh who are paid less than 10 cents an hour despite pledges to protect basic labour rights, an investigation by War on Want found. Employees in Bangladesh are forced to work excessive hours, refused access to trade unions and face abuse and sacking if they protest, says the report, Fashion Victims, based on interviews with 60 garment workers from six factories. The Guardian, London | Read

One of the most striking exhibits in the current British Museum exhibition Myths of Bengal is the beautiful Gazi scroll - not just for its rich colours and vivid figures, but because it illustrates the enriching coexistence of two of the world's great faiths. Images of Hindus making puja offerings are juxtaposed with those of Muslims making similar offerings at the tombs of their saints (pirs). It shows how a remarkable, syncretic culture emerged in which the tombs of many pirs became places of pilgrimage for both Hindus and Muslims. The Guardian, London | Read

Shamsur Rahman, the greatest Bengali poet of his generation, who has died aged 76, was a man of paradoxes. The author of more than 60 books of poems and many prose works, he gave in his writing an impression of effortless eloquence. Yet in speech he was hesitant, with a slight impediment. The Guardian, London | Read

A study published last week found that Britain's image abroad remains one of snobbery, stiff upper lips and bad teeth. Plus ça change, you could say. So it's heartening to know that there are some people spreading a broader view of British culture across the globe: for example, the choreographer Akram Khan, Britain's biggest dance export.
Independent, London | read

Lazy foreign correspondents have, or had, a notorious habit of basing reports on their random chats with waiters and cab drivers. I suppose the literary editor's equivalent (to which I confess) consists in keeping a trend-spotter's eye on the reading habits of commuting fellow-passengers. One registers, for instance, the periodic surge of Potter mania; the scary stretch when every smart suit clutched Antony Beevor's Stalingrad; and, over recent months, the struggle for supremacy between The Da Vinci Code and Brick Lane

Bangladeshis branded the depiction of Brick Lane in Monica Ali's eponymously titled novel as 'despicable'. Now the area is back in the media spotlight as the setting for a controversial new TV drama. Nick Ryan ventures into the heart of east London to uncover the true face of 'Banglatown' and its people.
Five hundred years ago, it was a green, grassy virgin. Its villages are now swallowed beneath grey streets; its clogged veins littered with history. It wears its age heavily, but opens its embrace to poor and rich alike. Popularised by Monica Ali's novel Brick Lane, it is a fusion of rural Bangladesh and East End vigour. But this is only its latest incarnation. It has had many names; many faces.
The Independent, London | Read