Biography
Sudeep Sen studied at St Columba's School in New Delhi and read English Literature for an honours degree at the University of Delhi.
As an Inlaks Scholar, he received an MS from the Journalism School at Columbia University (New York) where he specialised in documentary film. He has also studied filmmaking at The New School (New York), earned an MA in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University (US), and was an international scholar at Davidson College (US). His awards, fellowships and residencies include: a Hawthornden Fellowship; a Pushcart Prize nomination (US); Breadloaf (US); a Pleiades Honour (Macedonia); an NLPVF Dutch Foundation for Literature Fellowship (Netherlands); and a Sanskriti Foundation Writers Fellowship (India). He has also undertaken international residencies at the Scottish Poetry Library and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland and was visiting scholar at Harvard University.
His poems, translated into over 25 languages, have featured in major international anthologies. His prize-winning books include: The Lunar Visitations (1990), New York Times (1993), Dali's Twisted Hands (1995), Postmarked India: New and Selected Poems (1997), Prayer Flag (2003), Distracted Geographies: An Archipelago of Intent (2003); Rain (2005); and Aria (2010), winner of the A K Ramanujan Translation Award. Blue Nude: Poems & Translations 1977-2012, winner of the Jorge Zalamea International Poetry Prize, is forthcoming. He has been described as 'one of the finest younger English-language poets in the international literary scene' (BBC Radio).
He has also edited major antholgies including: The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry by Indians (2011), World Literature Today Writing from Modern India (2010),The Literary Review Indian Poetry (2009), and Midnight's Grandchildren: Post-Independence English Poetry from India (2004).
His words have also appeared in leading publications and broadcast media, including: The Times Literary Supplement, Newsweek, The Guardian, The Independent, Harvard Review, Outlook, and India Today; and broadcast on BBC television and radio, CNN IBN, NDTV, PBS, AIR and Doordarshan. His recent work appears in Indian Love Poems (2005), New Writing 15 (2007), Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia and Beyond (2008), Leela: An Erotic Play of Verse and Art (2009), and Initiate: An Anthology of New Oxford Writing (2010).
Many of his books are made in collaboration with artist and photographers, including Postcards from Bangladesh (2002), and Rain (2005). He has worked with many musicians, including Javier Coble Quartet, Charminar Jazz Collective, Vidya Rao, Advaita and Artists Unlimited.
He has directed or co-directed several short films and documentaries, including Rhythm, White Shoe Story, Woman of a Thousand Fires, Babylon is Dying: Diary of Third Street (nominated for a student Emmy Award), and Flying Home.
Sudeep Sen is the member of The Plimpton Circle of The Paris Review, curator of the 'World Poetry Portfolio' series for Molossus, and serves on the editorial boards of The Literary Review, International Literary Quarterly, Orient Express and New Quest. As an invited author, he has read at many international festivals, including the Edinburgh Book Festival, London Word Festival, O2 Wireless Festival, Calabash Literary Festival Jamaica, Amsterdam Literary Festival, Prague International Poetry Festival, Neemrana Literary Festival and Medellin International Poetry Festival Colombia.
He is a member of the India International Centre and the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi; life member of The Poetry Society and The Poetry Society of India; member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (New York) and The Royal Society of Literature. In 2008 he was appointed director of the Delhi International Literary Festival. In 2010, he was the first foreign co-judge for the Arvon Foundation International Poetry Competition. He is the editorial director of Aark Arts publishers and editor of the leading international magazine, Atlas.
