Founder member and former chairman of WildTeam, Professor M Harunur Rashid, received the prestigious Abu Rushd Literary Award of Bangla Academy on Saturday.

Professor Rashid is a former Professor of English at Jahangirnagar University and North South University. He was the Director General, and also the Chairman of the Bangla Academy. He was the President of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.

His appointment as the Director General of the Bangla Academy was a landmark in his career as an educational administrator. He insisted on its research activities. He published the Bangla Academy English-Bengali Dictionary (ed. ZR Siddiqui) and devised such marketing policies as made it an instant best seller.

In memory of eminent writer, scholar, academic, diplomat, and freedom fighter, Professor Abu Rushd Matinuddin (1919-2010), the Abu Rushd Memorial Committee introduced the Abu Rushd Literary Award in 2021.

Any novel published in Bangladesh in the last three years will be considered for the year's award. The winner receives Tk 1 lakh and a certificate of recognition.

The late Abu Rushd was known for his contribution to Bangla literature and translation, and for the representation of the politics and society of pre-Partition India before he went to generate mass opinion in favour of the Liberation War of Bangladesh.

Among his notable books are Elomelo, Biyog Baytha, Shamne Notun Din, Nongar, Anishchito Kahini and Sthagito Dwip - an oeuvre that won him the Ekushey Padak, the Bangla Academy Award, the Adamjee Award, and the Sher-e-Bangla Gold Medal, among others.