Happy Birthday to Prolific Writer Bani Basu

Bani Basu is a prolific Bengali Indian author, essayist, critic, poet, translator, and professor. Let’s wish her a very Happy Birthday.

Born on 11 March 1939, Bani Basu received her formal education at Lady Brabourne College, Scottish Church College, and the University of Calcutta. She has an MA in English.

She is known as a novelist, short story writer, essayist, and writer for children and teenagers. Some of her fiction have been made into films & TV Serials. The broad range of her fiction deals with gender, history, mythology, society, psychology, adolescence, music, sexual orientation, the supernatural, and more. Her major works include Swet Pātharer Thālā (A Plate of White Marble), Ekushe Pā (Turning Twenty-One), Maitreya Jātak (The Birth of the Maitreya), Gāndharvi, Pancham Purush (The Fifth Generation) and Ashtam Garbha (The Eighth Pregnancy). She also writes poetry and translates extensively into Bengali.

She was awarded the Tarashankar Award for Antarghāt (Treason), and the Ananda Purashkar for Maitreya Jātak. She is also the recipient of the Sushila Devi Birla Award and the Sahitya Setu Puraskar. In 2010 she was awarded Sahitya Academy for her contributions to Bengali literature.

–Staff Reporter