Khondakar Ashraf Hossain

Hossain was a professor and chairman of the Department of English at the University of Dhaka. In May 2013 he had been appointed as the third vice-chancellor of Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University at Trishal, Tangail. He was also a member of the Syndicate & Faculty Selection Committee of the BRAC University.

Hossain, died of a heart attack in Lab-aid hospital in Dhaka at 12 noon on 16 June 2013. He was undergoing treatment at Labaid Specialized Hospital, Dhaka since 14 June due to health complications. He suffered a major heart attack at 8:30 am and died around 11:00 am on 16 June. The ailing professor was being treated when he died at the age of 63.

Hossain translates from Bengali to English and from German and English to Bengali. His poems have been translated into English, German, French, Telegu and Hindi. Hossain edits and publishes a literary magazine: Ekobingsho (English: The Twenty-First) which was founded by Hossain himself in 1985 with its main focus on the new poetry of Bangladesh.

Khondakar Ashraf Hossain (Bengali: খোন্দকার আশরাফ হোসেন ; 4 January 1950 – 16 June 2013) was a leading postmodernist poet, essayist, translator, and editor from Bangladesh. He wrote more than eighteen titles.

Hossain was born in Joynagar village in Jamalpur Sadar Upazila, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1950. He earned a BA degree in 1970, and an MA degree in 1971, both are in English and from the University of Dhaka. After he got MAs in Linguistics and ELT from the University of Leeds in 1981. He also obtained a PhD in English from the University of Dhaka and a postgraduate diploma in Teaching English Overseas from the University of Leeds in 1980. His doctoral thesis is entitled Modernism and Beyond: Western Influence on Bangladeshi Poetry, which he defended under Dr. Syed Manzoorul Islam, another doyen and celebrated writer in the department.