Ahsan Akbar

Akbar was born in London. he subsequently grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh, before moving back to the United Kingdom at the age of 16 on his own. He studied Economics at University of Exeter, worked as a vinyl record seller, bookseller, and as an equities trader in the City of London and Southeast Asia.

Akbar has described growing up in the 1980s as an experience with drawbacks. "There were few leisure activities," he says, "no bowling, nothing much on TV." With diversions largely absent, "things happened elsewhere" and his imagination took over.

In November 2013, Akbar's debut book, The Devil's Thumbprint was published, it is a collection of poems which received critical acclaim since its publication. The book has been included in the English literature programme at SOAS, University of London.

Akbar is currently workin on a novel, and has written for The Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, Wasafiri, Granta, Dhaka Tribune and other international publications. His poem "Tree Without Roots" was selected to represent Dhaka in "Capitals", a poetry anthology representing all the capital cities of the world. The collection was published in Bloomsbury International in winter 2016.

Akbar is co-founder of Zephyr: Media, a multiplatform PR and marketing boutique based in Mayfair, London with a global reach, with clients in fashion, food & beverage, hospitality and the arts industry.

Akbar is also a Director of Dhaka Literary Festival (previously known as Hay Festival Dhaka). He is a board member of Bengal Lights, Bangladesh's most prominent literary journal in English.

Akbar curated Bangladeshi writing, amongst other places, for Granta and Wasafiri.