Happy Birthday Mannan Syed

Today is the 74th birthday of poet, author and researcher Abdul Mannan Syed. He was one of the most prolific Bengali literary personalities of the post-Partition Indian subcontinent. Until his death on 5 September 2010, he was regarded an authority on Bengali literature.

Popularly regarded as a poet, he is also notable as a literary critic and an editor. Born as Abdul Mannan, he assumed the pen name Ashoke Syed at the debut in literatur in 1960s.

He published more than 150 titles to his credit during his lifetime. Syed is best known for his research on Bengali poet Jibanananda Das. Although he is most renowned for literary criticism, he is a versatile writer and poet.

He taught as a faculty in the department of Bengali in the Jagannath College, Dhaka. Later he served as Director General of the Nazrul Institute.

He was the first Scholar-in-residence in Bangladesh at North South University. For a long time he was associated with the Shilpataru, a monthly literary magazine published from Dhaka by poet Abid Azad.