Nabaneeta Dev Sen

A well-known Indian Writer, Poet, Novelist, and Academician, Nabaneeta Dev Sen was born on 13 January 1938 in Calcutta, British India. The Bengali poet was the only child of a poet couple Narendra Dev and Radharani Devi (Aparajita Devi). Her mother was a famous writer and got her pen name from Rabindranath Tagore. Nabaneeta completed her early schooling at Gokhale Memorial Girls' School and later went to Lady Brabourne College. She started writing poems in Bengali and English during school life and published her first collection at the age of 21. She completed BA in English from the University of Calcutta and an MA from Jadavpur University in 1958, the inaugural batch of the Department of Comparative Literature. Apart from being a great poet, she was also a keen sportsperson who participated in inter-school events like swimming, gymnastics, and basketball.

Nabaneeta married Amartya Sen in 1959, accompanied him to UK and US, and gave birth to two daughters, Anatara Dev Sen and Nandana Sen Nandana Sen is an Indian Film actress, who is endo >> Read More... . In 1974, she completed her Ph.D. from Indiana University and returned to India after her divorce in 1976. Nabaneeta adopted a daughter in Calcutta, Srabasti Basu Bio coming soon... >> Read More... . After coming to Calcutta, she started teaching at Jadavpur University in the comparative literature department. Nabaneeta worked as a visiting professor at many universities like Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Chicago (USA), Humboldt (Germany), University of Toronto, etc. Her first novel was Aami Anupam (I, Anupam) in 1976. Nabaneenta Dev Sen published more than 80 Bengali books of novels, stories, travelogues, children's literature, etc.

She wrote many short stories on Sita, representing it in another way as that of Ramayana. In 1959, Pratham Pratyay (First Confidence), the first poetry collection by Nabaneeta, has published. Swagato Debadoot was her second poetry collection. Monsieur Hulor Holiday (Monsieur Hulo's Holiday) was her first short story collection in 1980. One of the best-selling books by Nabaneenta Dev Sen is the Karuna Tomar Kon Path Diye (The Path of Thy Grace) in 1978. She worked in Macmillan's Modern Indian Novels as the chief editor of Bengali. Truck Bahoney Mac Mahoney was her best travelogue in 1977 based on the trip to Northeast India and Tibet.

Nabaneenta is known for writing fairy tales and adventure stories for children with girls as the protagonist. Bama-Bodhini, Srestha Kabita, and Sita Theke Suru are some of the most notable works by Nabaneenta. Nabaneenta Dev Sen has been awarded many honors for her contribution to the literature. In she received Gouridevi Memorial Award, Mahadevi Verma Award (1992), Celli Award from Rockefeller Foundation (1993), Sarat Award from Bhagalpur University, Bihar (1994), Prasad Puraskar, Rabindra Puraskar, Kabir Samman, Samskriti Award, and Mystic Kalinga Literary Award (2017). She won the most prestigious awards from the Indian government, like Sahitya Akademi Award in 1999, Kamal Kumari National Award in 2004, and Padma Shri in 2000. She took her last breath at her home in Kolkata on 7 November 2019 at the age of 81 following cancer.