Poet Mohan Raihan announced on Sunday that he would accept the Bangla Academy Literary Award 2025, while also calling for reforms to ensure a more transparent and non-partisan selection.

He requested that the government allow him to receive the award directly from the prime minister to maintain the dignity of the award, however, he refused the prize money.

He stated that the money should instead be donated to underprivileged poets, writers or cultural activists.

He also said that the suspension came because of a poem he had written 41 years ago which is a personal humiliation and also an affront to freedom of expression.

Earlier, the cultural affairs ministry has confirmed that it would confer the Bangla Academy Literary Award 2025 on poet Mohon Raihan this Monday, reversing an earlier decision to drop his name following public criticism.

After all formal preparations for the ceremony had been completed, Raihan’s award was suspended at the last moment of the presentation held during the opening of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2026 on the Bangla Academy premises in Dhaka.

Following widespread reactions at home and abroad, the ministry later issued a press release stating that, with the consent of the prime minister, the award would be formally conferred on March 2.