About
Ilish Books
Ilish Books is an independent Print-on-Demand publishing initiative based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We publish long-form nonfiction, field narratives, essays, translations, and visually attentive books rooted in place, memory, movement, culture, and ecology.
We believe important books do not always require mass production. Our list is shaped by patient observation, careful research, and sustained engagement with the world—bringing distinctive work into print with clarity, honesty, craft, and permanence.
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
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
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
– Ilish Books Editorial