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Hay Festival Dhaka was held on 15–17 November 2012
in the historic grounds of the Bangla Academy, Dhaka


Hay Festival came to Dhaka for the first time with a pilot event held on 21 November 2011 at the British Council, to rave reviews. The 2012 festival was a three-day literary feast of bilingual panel discussions and author events, featuring Vikram Seth, Syed Shamsul Haq, Nandita Das, Philip Hensher, Kamila Shamsie, Basharat Peer, Zafar Iqbal, Mohammed Hanif, Gillian Clarke, Kaiser Haq, Sharbari Ahmed, Farah Ghuznavi, Shaheen Akhtar, Selina Hussein, Shehan Karunatilaka, Mahmud Rahman, Anis Ahmed, Anisul Hoque, Audity Falguni, Tahmima Anam and others.

The Daily Star is Title Sponsor for this year’s festival, alongside the British Council as our Global Partner, Jatrik as Project Partner and the Bangla Academy as host to the event.

Entry to all events was free.

Download 2012 programme Online programme
Hay Festival Kerala

Following Hay Festival Kerala 2011, visitors were urged to attend a one-day pilot festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh, bringing together writers and thinkers from Bangladesh and Britain to share stories and ideas in the spirit of Rabindranath Tagore in his 150th anniversary year.

The expanded three-day programme of events in 2012 included authors and speakers from Bangladesh and across the world.

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    Open Mic Competition

    Hay Festival Dhaka 2012 is excited to announce an Open Mic Competition. Age range: 18 years and above. Categories: Poetry and Flash Fiction (max 500 words) in Bangla or English. The top three winners will be reading their work at the festival. Winning entries will also be published after the event.

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    Tales of Liberation

    Philip Hensher, Kamila Shamsie and Anisul Hoque have all written novels set during the Bangladesh War. They discuss the intersections of history, politics and family life with novelist Tahmima Anam.

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    Debut Directors

    Celebrated actress and director Nandita Das and producer Catherine Masud discuss their first feature films, Firaaq and Matir Moina, with Sharbari Zohra Ahmed.

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    Narir Lekha, Narir Dekha

    Four contemporary Bangla novelists – Selina Hossain, Umme Muslima, Masuda Bhatti and Anwara Syed Haq – discuss their work with Shahnaz Munni.

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    Laureates

    Syed Shamsul Haq is one of our greatest living poets. He discusses his body of work with National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke. Kaiser Haq chairs.

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    Hay Dhaka Musicfest

    Featuring Nazrul Islam, Leemonade, Labik Kamal Gaurob, Nobonita, Arnob and Krishnakali.

    View full programme...

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2012 highlights

  • Vikram Seth
  • Syed Shamsul Haq
  • Nandita Das
  • Philip Hensher
  • Kamila Shamsie
  • Basharat Peer
  • Zafar Iqbal
  • Mohammed Hanif
  • Gillian Clarke
  • Kaiser Haq
  • Anis Ahmed
  • Shehan Karunatilaka
  • and many more

2011 Coverage

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ABOUT US

hay festival

Hay Festival runs for ten days with a packed programme of debates and conversations with poets and scientists, novelists and historians, artists and gardeners, comedians and musicians, film makers and politicians.

hay fever

Hay Fever - our festival for families and children, runs across the ten days of the festival where children have the chance to meet and talk to their favourite writers and take part in workshops to create wonderful memories and develop new skills in imaginative thinking and self expression.

Hf2 is our festival for teenagers - with an awesome line-up featuring the movers and shakers of Young Adult writing, Hf2 is a mind-blowing experience for 13-plus.

hay on earth

We care passionately about our environment. Hay-on-Earth debates the latest thoughts on climate change and environmental awareness.

In 2006 we started the Hay-on-Earth Project to audit, address and change our ecological sustainability.