On the occasion of his 81st birth anniversary, noted essayist-poet Hayat Mahmud was recently felicitated at a programme held at an office of a publishing house in the city.
Peers, well-wishers, poets, writers, social and cultural activists greeted Hayat Mahmud at the event. The programme featured discussion, reminiscences and cake cutting.
Publisher Shyamal Pal talked about Hayat Mahmud's life and works. Other speakers at the event were political thinker Professor Abul Kashem Fazlul Haque, poet Bhuiyan Shafiqul Islam, author Bulbul Chowdhury and writer Zakir Talukder, among others.
Hayat Mahmud started his career working at Bangla Academy and later worked at Russian publishing house Progoti as a translator. He also taught Bangla language and literature at Jahangirnagar University. Now-a-days he works as an adviser for the publishing house Puthiniloy.
Mahmud wrote several books for children and received the Bangla Academy Award for children's literature and Ekushey Padak for his contribution to Bangla language and literature.
His notable works are Choroi Chhana, a translation of Maxim Gorky's book Little Sparrow; Gobet Gimpel, translation of Isaac Bashevis Singer's work with the same title; Tales From Shakespeare, a translation of Charles and Mary Lamb's work of the same name; Juddhoporadhir Shashti Chai and others.
