Manju SARKAR (novelist, fiction writer and journalist; b.1954 Bangladesh) has published ten short story collections, most recently Nirbachita Galpa (2004). Among his thirty-eight books the novel Abasvumi (1994) won the Philips Literary Award as Best Novel in 1995. In 1998, he received the Bangla Academy Literary award for overall achievement in literature. At present he is an assistant editor of Daily Amar Desh, a leading newspaper in Bangladesh. His latest novel, Plaban, was published in 2006. He lives in Dhaka, and participates courtesy of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State.