About

Ilish Books


A twenty-year observation of waste, coastlines, tourism, and the changing material culture of Bangladesh. A twenty-year observation of waste, coastlines, tourism, and the changing material culture of Bangladesh.

A twenty-year observation of waste, coastlines, tourism, and the changing material culture of Bangladesh. A twenty-year observation of waste, coastlines, tourism, and the changing material culture of Bangladesh.

Open coastal land with trees in the distance

Our Mission

To publish books that witness our time and its silences.

We believe in slow books — carefully reported, deeply observed, and thoughtfully written. Our list is shaped by long engagement with the world, and a commitment to clarity, honesty, and craft.

We Publish

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Field-Based

Books grounded in lived observation, research, and place.

Slow Nonfiction

Work that resists noise, speed, and shallow commentary.

Deltaic Perspective

Publishing from Bangladesh, speaking to the world.

Global Dialogue

Stories that travel across borders, languages, and times.

Our Mission

We are drawn to stories that map the edges — of land and water, memory and forgetting, development and displacement.

Environment & Ecology

Coasts, Rivers & Deltas

Society & Culture

Place & Memory

Travel & Witness

Translations

Shallow coastal water and rocks
Books and notebook on an editorial desk

Editorial Desk

ILISH BOOKS began as a question: What do we owe the places we come from?

This imprint is our attempt to listen — to rivers, coastlines, people, and silences that rarely make it into books.

Ilish (Hilsa) is a fish of migration. It moves between rivers and the sea, carrying memory in its journey. So do the stories we publish.

Thank you for being part of this journey.

Shafayet Amir

Editorial, Ilish Books