Mallika Sengupta

Mallika Sengupta is a renowned Bengali poet, feminist, and sociologist known for her unapologetically political poetry. Born on March 27, 1960, in Krishnanagar, Naida, Mallika was the head of the Sociology department at Maharani Kasiswari College, University of Calcutta. An eminent voice in Bengali literature, she has written about 20 books, including 14 volumes of poetry, two novels, and several essays. She has been an attendant at many international literary festivals in the USA, Sweden, India, Austria, and Bangladesh. She started writing in 1981, and the English translations of her works are present in many Indian and American anthologies. Mallika also edited the largest circulated fortnightly in Bengal, Sananda.

She was also the founder-editor of the Bengali cultural magazine, Bhashanagar. Her husband, Subodh Sarkar, who was also a renowned poet, was the co-founder of the magazine. Mallika Sengupta was also an activist. She fought for several social issues, including gender justice. Mallika received several honors. The Junior Fellowship for Literature from the Department of Culture, Government of India for the years 1977-1979, the Sukanto Puraskar from the Government of West Bengal in 1998, and the Bangla Academy Award from the Government of Bengal in 2004 are some among them. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and died at 51 on May 28, 2011