Hassanal Abdullah

Poet, novelist, critic, translator, song writer and the editor of Shabdaguchha

Hassanal Abdullah
DOB: 14 April, 1967
Published: 21 Books

Hassanal Abdullah, a poet, novelist, critic, translator and the editor of the International Bilingual Poetry Journal, Shabdaguchha, is the sonnet form innovator: seven-line stanza and abcdabc efgdefg rhyming scheme. He also wrote a 314-page epic on the Universe and how life is connected to it as a whole. He frequently used almost all the major scientific theories and evolutionary understanding in completing the epic.

Early Life

Though he was born in Gopalgonj, Bangladesh, he spent the first three years of his very early life in Khulna, where his father, Nawsher Ali Miah, was a business man. Since he was killed in 1971, during the war between Bangladesh and Pakistan which liberated Bangladesh after nine months of bloodshed and 3 million casualties, Abdullah’s mother had to move to her father’s village in order to survive with three children: Abdullah and two daughters.
Hassanal went to the village High School and graduated from there with distinctive result. There, he also penned his very first poem, when he was in 8th grade with the influence of his house tutor. In the village, he also experienced farming, fishing, home building, plowing and all sorts of rural dueling that reflected his writing in the later age.

Life as a Writer

As a student of Rajandra College, Faridpur, he continued his writing, which has later flourished while studying at the University of Dhaka. He is the author of 21 books including 13 collections of poetry and Breath of Bengal,a bilingual collection, published from CCC, Marrick, New York. Shabdaguchha, a bilingual poetry journal, founded and edited by Hassanal Abdullah since 1998. He was a 2007 honorable mention of the Queens Borough, New York, Poet Laureate. On May 4, 2007, in a citation given to the poet, the Queens Borough President, Helen Marshall, wrote, "As a prolific poet and editor of the English Bengali Quarterly, Shabdaguchha, you have built a solid bridge between poets from East and West, here in the most multi-ethnic county of the world." While in Dhaka, he was involved with Khalaghor, Fulkuri, Shaplakuri and strated contributing to the supplements of the Daily Shangbad, Daily Bangalar Bani, Daily Khabor and magazines like Shisu, Fulkuri etc. At this time he also founded a literary organization, Latapata, first for the children of the village he was from, and the it got some ground in the capital of the country. He also founded a library for the villagers.
Later he started contributing to the literary supplements of some renowned Daily's such as Daily Ittafaq, Daily Jugantor, Daily Banglar Bani, Daily Dinkal etc.
Hassanal Abdullah immigrated to the United States in 1990.He kept on contributing to the supplements he already contributed while living in Dhaka as well as some of the magazines such as Jignasa and Desh published from Kolkata. He translated numbers of Bengali poets including Ahsan Habib, Shamsur Rahman, Al Mahmud, Shaheed Quaderi and Humayun Azad into English, and some American poets such as Stanley Kunitz and Gerald Stern into Bengali. Here he contributed his poetry written originally in English and in translation to some magazine like the Paterson Literary Review, LIPS, etc., and web journals like Poetrybay.
"Abdullah at once manages to maintain a Romantic confidence in the imagination, a modernist irony as to the imagination's limits, and a postmodern sense of the imagination as a construct" said Nicholas Birns, a part-time associate teaching professor of English at Eugene Lang College, the New School, New York. Prof. Birns first wrote it for the amazon.com web site; it was later published in New Works Review.
Also, it has been noted by Jyotirmoy Datta, highly notable critic of Bengali Poetry, that "Hassanal Abdullah is the new spark from the soil of Bengal."
Mr. Abdullah participated in many reading in the tri-state area as a feature poet, including such venues like Barnes and Nobels, Borders Books and Lincoln Center Outdoor Events etc. He was nominated for the 2008 Pushcart Prize.

Publication

Poetry:

1.Acobinsho Shatabdir Agay (একবিংশ শতাব্দীর আগে-Before the 21St Century), Lata-Pata Prokashani, Dhaka, 1993
2.Golaper Nam Tumi (গোলাপের নাম তুমি-Rose as You are), Dhaka Prokason, Dhaka, 1994
3.Shakunara Bhalo Achha (শকুনেরা ভালো আছে-Vultures are Well), Agamee Prokashoni, Dhaka, 1996
4.Sonnetguchha O Onnaya Kobita (সনেটগুচ্ছ ও অন্যান্য কবিতা-Sonnets and Other Poems), Preeti Prokason, Dhaka, 1996
5.Swatantra Sonnet (স্বতন্ত্র সনেট-Swatantra Sonnets), Bisaka Prokashoni, Dhaka, 1998/Shabdaguchha Press, 2nd ed. 2004[29]
6.Andherer Saman Bayas (আঁধারের সমান বয়স-Old as Darkness), Bud Publications, Dhaka, 2002
7.Nokkhotro O Manusher Procchod (নক্ষত্র ও মানুষের প্রচ্ছদ-The Faces of Human Beings and Stars), Anayna Prokashoni, Dhaka, 2007[30]
8.Bori Gachha Chori Nacha (বরই গাছে চড়ুই নাচে-A Sparaw Dances on a Broi Branch), Shahittya Bikash, Dhaka, 2008
9.Ek Posla Somoy (এক পশলা সময়-A Glimse of Time),Shahittya Bikash, Dhaka, 2009
10.Kobitay BangaBondhu(কবিতায় বঙ্গবন্ধু), Shabdaguchha Press, Dhaka-NY, 2000, 2nd edition, 2010
11.Nirbachito Kobita (নির্বাচিত কবিতা-Selected Poems), Anayna, Dhaka, 2010
12. Chhara Mohashoya, (ছড়া মহাশয়) Ananya, Dhaka, 2011
13.Breath of Bengal, Translated by Nazrul Islam Naz, Cross-Cultural Communications, New York, 2000

Collections of Essays

14.Kobiter Chhando (কবিতার ছন্দ-Rhythms of Poetry), Bangla Academy, Dhaka, 1997: 2nd edition, Mowla Brothers, Dhaka, 2011
15.Kobiter Janmodag (কবিতার জন্মদাগ-The Birth Mark of Poetry), Mowla Brothers, Dhaka, 2008
16.Shaheed Quaderi: Somoyer Sampanna Swar (শহীদ কাদরী: সময়ের সম্পন্ন স্বর-Shaheed Quaderi:The Perfect Voice of Time), Labu Bhai Foundation, Dhaka & New York, 2005
17.Humayun Azad: Raktakto Kobir Mukh (হুমায়ুন আজাদ: রক্তাক্ত কবির মুখ-Humayun Azad: A poet's Face in Blood), Shahittya Bikash, Dhaka, 2007

Novels

18.Ahoto Mukul (আহত মুকুল-Wounded Buds), Agamee Prokashoni, Dhaka, 1995

Poetry in Translation

19. Biswha Kobitar Koyed Chhatra (বিশ্ব কবিতার কয়েক ছত্র-A Synopsis of World Poetry), Shahittya Bikash, Dhaka, 2008

Travelogues

20.Boimelay Etdin (বইমেলায় আটদিন-Eight Days in the Book Fair), Anayna Prokashoni, Dhaka, 2009

Edited Anthology

21.Markin Dasher Bangla Kobita,(মার্কিন দেশের বাংলা কবিতা) Agamee Prokashoni, Dhaka, 2006