Abdus Selim was born on 19 September, 1945. He studied English literature at Dhaka University and English Language Teaching and Linguistics at Exeter University, and University of London. He is engaged in translation works since 1975. His first work of translation in Bangla, Life of Galileo Galilei, a play by Bertolt Brecht, was published in 1978 and was successfully staged in 1986. Since then he has published in newspapers and magazines innumerable translated poems, short stories, essays and plays both in Bangla and English. His first translation of Bangla poems, Selected Poems from Bangladesh, an anthology of selected poems of the poets of 1960s and early 70s, came out in 1985. Abdus Selim’s latest publication Onubad Natokshamogra, a collection of 19 translated plays in three volumes, came out in February 2013, that includes playwrights like Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Henrik Ibsen, Moliere, Harold Pinter, Frederich Durrenmart, Doris Lessing, Vijay Tendulkar, Gao Xingjian, Yamamoto, and others. His other recent translations include Endgame by Samuel Beckett, The Vertical Hour by David Hare, and Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee.
He was one of the pioneers of film society movement in Bangladesh and is still a film society activist. He has subtitled a number of international award winning movies.
Selim co-edited with Abdul Mannan Syed two Bangla literary magazines named Shilpokala and Charitrya during late 60s and early70s of the last millennium. He is now engaged in editing Translation, a half-yearly compilation of translation of Bangladeshi literary works. He teaches English language and linguistics at Central Women’s University and North South University, Dhaka.
Abdus Selim received Shaheed Munir Chowdhury 2010, and Bangla Academy 2015 awards for his contributions to Bangla theatre and translation works respectively. He is married with two daughters.