Kaiser Mohammed Hamidul Haq was born in 1950 in Dhaka. Haq, who fought as an officer in the war of liberation, is currently professor of English at Dhaka University. He is a poet, translator and essayist. He received his Ph.D. from Warwick University as a Commonwealth Scholar, and he has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar and Vilas Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University.

Syed Waliullah (1922-1971) was a Bangladeshi novelist, short-story writer and playwright. He is the most well known in Bangla literature for his first novel, ''Lalsalu'' (translated as "Tree Without Roots", though it literally means "Red cloth"). Waliullah is often considered the pioneer of existential analysis of the characters psyche in the literature of Bangladesh. The last two of his three novels, specially ''Kando Nadi Kando'', show his mastery in revealing the inner depths of his characters. However, his most famous work remains ''Lalsalu'', some would argue because of its relative simplicity.

K. Anis Ahmed was born in Dhaka and educated in St. Joseph High School and Notre Dame College.  He completed higher studies at Brown, Washington and New York Universities in America, receiving a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from NYU.  Ahmed's first significant published piece, Forty Steps, appeared in the Minnesota Review and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  A translation of the same piece by Manabendra Bandopadhyay was published in Dhaka in 2006. Ahmed is Director, Academic Affairs at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.

Kazi Anis Ahmed is Director, Academic Affairs at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.

Afsan Chowdhury, Director of Advocacy and Human Rights, was born in 1954. He has an MA in History from Dhaka University. He has spent two decades working in print media, radio, and television. He was an editor at various newspapers, and Founder Promoter of UNB (National News Agency). He was Contributing Producer for a number of BBC World Service series, and is an author of four novels.

Prior to joining BRAC in 2003, Mr. Chowdhury spent years working in the fields of media advocacy, health rights, communication and social mobilization, AIDS management, gender and protection, child rights, and disaster management. ...

Abeer Hoque was born in Nigeria to Bangladeshi parents and moved to the States when she was in high school. She is the recipient of the 2005 Tanenbaum Award in Nonfiction, and a 2006-7 Fulbright Scholarship. Her stories, poems, and photographs have been published in ZYZZYVA, Nerve.com, KQED's Writers Block, Drunken Boat, 580 Split, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Switchback, Bullfight Review, the Daily Star, and others.  

PRIZES AND AWARDS

Fulbright Fellow