Author Faizul Islam passes away

Eminent fiction writer and essayist Faizul Islam passed away on Tuesday while undergoing treatment at a hospital in the capital. He was 61.

Faizul, also a retired secretary of the government, breathed his last around 4:20pm at Labaid Hospital.

He was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) following colon cancer surgery.

Born on 24 November 1963 in Dhaka’s Siddeshwari, Faizul Islam was a distinguishable fiction writer who impressed advanced readers with his number of works in the post-Akhteruzzaman Elias and Shahidul Zahir era.

Though he began writing through concentrating on poetry, his friends gradually discovered a magic in his prose. Being inspired by them, Faizul started writing fiction back in 1989. Writing long narratives, bigger than short stories and smaller than novels, was his favourite form.

Since 1990, his fictions have been published in the country’s numerous literary magazines.

His collections of stories include “Nakkhatrer Ghora”, “Khowaj Khijirer Shindhuk”, “Ayna”, “Nilkhete Keno Jai”, “Ghumtrishna”, “Jamin” and “Bakhtiar Khaner Cycle”, and a novel “Boy’s School Band”.

He was awarded as the best work in the fiction category by a national daily for his collection of stories, “Khowaj Khijirer Shindhuk”.

Faizul Islam passed his secondary and higher secondary education at Pabna Zilla School and Pabna Edward College. Later he did his graduation and post graduation in economics from Rajshahi University.

Besides, he studied at Williams College and University of Siena. He worked in different private, government and international organisations for a long time.

He was the chairman of the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission and was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Sussex.