Syed Manzoorul Islam

• Illustration — Islam receives Shilpakala Padak from President Abdul Hamid in 2017. Islam used to write from his childhood. While reading in class six, he published his writing in a magazine, Shikkhok Samachar. During his university days as a student, his friend's father fell sick and died in pain. This emotionally affected Islam and led him to write his first story, "Bishal Mrittu" in 1973. It received a positive response; but he abstained from publishing anything during his days in Canada. On his return to Bangladesh, he returned to writing and began contributing a regular column "Olosh Diner Hawa" in the literary section of the Dainik Sangbad. He wrote on issues including art and literature. In 1989, Islam started writing for the magazine Bichinta, which published many of his post-modern stories. Islam described himself as "a critic by training and a writer by compulsion". Though he wrote in many genres, he himself valued his fictional work more than his other writings. In his stories, he usually incorporated his own experiences. He tried to live the life of his characters, seeing the world through their eyes and describing their pain and happiness. Of the surrealistic nature in his writing, he said that in his childhood he used to listen to fairy-tales in which surrealistic elements were an integral part and that gave his writing a similar texture. He believed that "the surreal is the flip side of reality - it is what gives meaning to our everydayness".