Jyotirmoy Datta
Jyotirmoy Datta (born 1936) is a Bengali writer, journalist, poet, and essayist. He worked for The Statesman in Calcutta as a feature writer, film critic, correspondent, and associate editor. He taught at the University of Chicago (1966–1968) and did a residency at the University of Iowa. He has published two books of poetry and many novels, essays, and short stories.
Datta lived in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, near New York City, where he worked as an editor for South Asia Journal. He attends poetry readings in Manhattan and Queens and is well known among Indian and New York poets.
Datta was born in West Bengal in 1936 and grew up in various parts of India, mostly the south. He had nine siblings and grew up in forest areas. He was 11 years old when India gained independence.
His wife, Minakshi Datta, was President of the Tagore Society of New York. She is the daughter of Bengali poet Buddhadev Bose; her mother Protibha Bose was a singer and writer whose novels have been bestsellers and made into films.
In the late 1970s, Datta clashed with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after publishing a critical story in Kolkata. The government watched his family. He fled for more than two years, once jumping from a three-story house to escape arrest, injuring his ankle. He was captured and imprisoned in Presidency Jail in Calcutta. Six months into his imprisonment, elections were held, he was released, and Gandhi was defeated; charges against him were dropped.
After his release, Datta went on a sailing trip from Calcutta to Sri Lanka.
Datta has two children: daughter Kankawati Datta, who writes books and edits Personae magazine, and son Mallinath Datta, an advertising executive and film director known for Full Masti.
Datta was a defense witness in the trial of Hungryalist poet Malay Roy Choudhury, alongside Sunil Gangopadhyay, Tarun Sanyal, and Satrajit Datta.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:44 (CET).