The National Poetry Council (NPC) announced poetry festival schedule at a press conference at the Zahur Hossain Auditorium of the National Press Club today. Photo: BSS

DHAKA, Dec 4, 2026 (BSS) - The 38th National Poetry Festival will be held on February 1 and 2 at the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital. 

The National Poetry Council (NPC) came up with the schedule at a press conference at the Zahur Hossain Auditorium of the National Press Club today.

Addressing the press conference, the NPC leaders called for the use of poetry as a powerful means to resist anti-cultural provocations.

NPC President Mohan Raihan read out the official statement announcing the festival. 

He said the council was formed during the mass movement against military autocracy in the 1980s and that the first National Poetry Festival was held on February 1-2, 1987, under the slogan "Poetry for Liberation from Chains."

Since then, he said, poetry has played a historic role as a voice of protest, resistance and inspiration in democratic and cultural movements. Over the past four decades, the festival has grown into a broad cultural movement grounded in humanism, secularism and linguistic freedom.

Raihan noted that, coinciding with the month of the Language Movement, the festival has traditionally been held in February and has evolved into an international platform with the participation of poets and writers from home and abroad.

Expressing concern over the current national situation, he said defeated anti-liberation forces and their allies are once again attempting to spread fear and violence in society. He reaffirmed a firm commitment to safeguarding the country's sovereignty, saying liberation and independence were achieved through the sacrifices of millions of martyrs and would never be surrendered to reactionary and anti-cultural forces.

He added that poets would once again rise to defend the country's inclusive cultural heritage, which embraces diverse traditions and communities regardless of religion, ethnicity or identity.

This year, the festival will be held at the Central Shaheed Minar instead of Dhaka University. Mir Mostafizur Rahman, father of July uprising martyr Mir Mahfuzur Rahman Mugdha, will inaugurate the festival, while Cultural Affairs Adviser Mustafa Sarwar Farooki will attend as the chief guest.

The two-day event will feature seminars, poetry recitations, elocution, music and dance performances, with participation from leading poets, writers, intellectuals, cultural activists and political figures from across the country and abroad.

An office for the festival has been set up at the Swimming Pool area of Dhaka University's Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) to facilitate registration for interested poets. Registration will remain open daily from 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm with a fee of Tk 200. Online registration is also available through the links https://npcbd.com/utsob26 and https://jatiyokobitaparishad.com/utsob26.

NPC General Secretary Rezauddin Stalin, along with other council leaders and poets, was present at the press conference.