Mallika Sengupta

Mallika Sengupta Biography

Mallika Sengupta was a Bengali poet and feminist from Kolkata. She has served as the Head of the department of Sociology in Maharani Kasiswari College, University of Kolkata. She has authored more than 20 books which include 14 poetry collections and two novels. She is also known as a reader of Sociology. She was active in numerous gender activism groups and her thoughts were often reflected in her works. Sukanto Puroskar (1998) and Bangla Academy award (2004) from the government of Bengal and Junior Fellowship for Literature from the Dept. of Culture are the major honours received by her. She has participated in Kavi sammelans, not only in India but also at concerts abroad. She has also participated in many conferences and seminars across the world. Sengupta was a proponent of an unapologetically political poetry.

Born in 1960, she started her literal career in 1981. She was a native of Krishnanagar, a village in Nadia district. She was married to noted Bengali poet, writer and editor, Subodh Sarkar. She has been widely accepted as a strong personality in the contemporary Bengali literature. She has also served as the poetry Editor of Sananda, the Bengali women’s fortnightly edited by Aparna Sen. She is the founder of Bhashanagar, a culture magazine in Bengali. She served as its editor too. Many of her works have been translated to English and other languages.

Mallika apart from teaching, editing and writing, was also actively involved in social activities. She was one among the initiators of Aloprithivi forum, for women and children. She was a breast cancer survivor and was undergoing treatment since 2005. She died in 2011, comparatively at a young age of 51.

Published: N/A

Updated: March 25, 2014