Soumya Sarker

Soumya Sarker is a creative writer, translator, photographer, cinematographer, and percussionist. He has published fifteen books, including novels, short story collections, poetry, and translations. He is regarded as an experimental writer who tends to blend different genres and blur the boundaries between them. Some of his notable titles include Antostho Aa, Na Na Ekdom Na, Shonar Golpo, No-Na Golpo, Buddha Bollen Tobuo, Hotokaal, Nine One-Act Plays from Latin America, Three Plays by Jon Fosse, and The Trial of Mallam Ilya.

BotTala first staged Soumya’s translation of The Trial of Mallam Ilya in 2014, originally written by Ghanaian playwright Mohammed ben Abdallah. He also adapted Shahaduz Zaman’s Crutch-er Colonel and Shaheen Akhtar’s Sokhi Rongomala together with Samina Lutfa Nitra. His short play Shakespeare-er Onnora was performed by BotTala in a Shakespeare Festival organised by Bangladesh Shilpokala Academy. Bottala Theatre School also adapted his street play Totro Porey Jotro Dodho in 2023.

Soumya directed a documentary film on BotTala’s production Khona titled Khonar Golpo. With Kazi Roksana Ruma, he made another documentary titled Sohasso Bondhur Mukh on Mohammad Ali Haider. In addition, he produced two documentary films titled Compnay Desh and No Ark with Bratto Amin—in both he worked as a cinematographer and researcher.

Professionally, Soumya is a faculty member in the Department of English at Jagannath University. His areas of interest include environmental justice, political ecology, gender studies, film studies, postcolonial studies, and cultural studies. He was born in September 1993 in Sashikar, Madaripur.