Sunil Gangopadhyay
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Sunil Gangopadhyay was born on September 7, 1934 at Faridpur in what is now Bangladesh. Sunil got his Master's degree in Economics from the Calcutta University in 1954. He is currently associated with the Ananda Bazar group, a major publishing house in Calcutta.
Author of well over 200 books, Sunil is a prolific writer who has excelled in different genres but declares poetry to be his "first love". Sunil was the founder editor of Krittibaas, a seminal poetry magazine that became a platform for a new generation of poets experimenting with many new forms in poetic themes, rhythms, and words. His Nikhilesh and Neera series of poems (some of which have been translated as For You, Neera and Murmur in the Woods) have been extremely popular.
As in poetry, Sunil is known for his unique style in prose. Arjun, Pratidwandi, filmed by Satyajit Ray (English title: The Adversary), Aranyer Din-Raatri (The Days and Nights of the Forest, also filmed by Satyajit Ray), Abar Aranya (filmed by Gautam Ghosh), Ekaa ebong Koyekjon are some of his well known works of fiction. His historical fiction Sei Somoy (translated into English by Aruna Chakravorty as Those Days) received the Indian Sahitya Akademi award in 1985. Sei Somoy continues to be a best seller more than a decade after its first publication. The same is true of Pratham Alo (also translated recently by Aruna Chakravorty as First Light), another best selling historical fiction.
Sunil has written (and still writes) in many other genres including travelogues, children's fiction, short stories, features, and essays. Among his pen-names are: Nil Lohit, Sanatan Pathak, and Nil Upadhyay.
External links
Parabaas.com (http://parabaas.com) complete website of Sunil Gangopadhyay (http://www.sunilgangopadhyay.com) Website of Krittibas Patrika (http://www.krittibas.com)