Sohail Akhter Panna

Sohail Akhter Panna is a Bangladeshi writer and educator whose career spans fiction, translation, and institution-building. She published her first short story, Britto, at age eight—an early signal of the restraint and clarity that later defined her prose. Her lucid Bangla translation of T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” shows command of modernist cadence without sacrificing accessibility.

As a school leader she combined a headmistress’s exacting standards with deep pastoral care. She served as the former Principal of Bangladesh Embassy School in Jeddah (1983-85), before she founded Spectrum International School in Dhanmondi as its Founding Principal, after co-founding the city’s widely recognized Blooming Buds Preparatory School (1988). She built a culture of disciplined writing, precise language (Bangla and English), and character. Health challenges later required her to step back from daily administration, but mentoring and writing continued.

Education. SSC — Dr. Khastagir Govt. Girls’ High School (1964); HSC — Chittagong Government College (1966); B.A. (Hons) in English — University of Dhaka; M.A. in English — University of Chittagong.

Family. Father Muhammad Ullah, retired Assistant Headmaster, Chittagong Collegiate School and College. Mother Sophia Khatun, former Headmistress, Cox’s Bazar Girls’ High School. The home she built cultivated literature, ethics, and public service—values evident in her novel Dikchokrobal (horizon—urban realism with moral clarity) and the reflective collection Ek Poloke COVID-19 (preface dated 16 March 2021, Bashundhara, Dhaka).

Why she matters. Panna is a rare blend of precision and warmth—a headteacher who wrote like a documentarian: clean lines, minimal ornament, exact observation. Her classrooms formed character; her pages noticed the ordinary city life most pass by.