Kamala Surayya (born Kamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), also known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and Kamala Das, was an Indian English poet and littérateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for her poems and explicit autobiography.
Das' first book of poetry, Summer in Calcutta was a breath of fresh air in Indian English poetry. She wrote chiefly of love, its betrayal, and the consequent anguish. Ms. Das abandoned the certainties offered by an archaic, and somewhat sterile, aestheticism for the independence of mind and body at a time when Indian poets were still governed by "19th-century diction, sentiment, and romanticized love."
Her second book of poetry, The Descendants was even more explicit, urging women to Gift him what makes them women, the scent of Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts, The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your Endless female hungers ..." – The Looking Glass This directness of her voice led to comparisons with Marguerite Duras and Sylvia Plath.
At the age of 42, she published a daring autobiography, My Story; it was originally written in Malayalam (titled Ente Katha) and later she translated it into English. Later she admitted that much of the autobiography had fictional elements.
Sahitya Academy Award – 1985
Tattered blanket
1964: The Sirens (Asian Poetry Prize winner)
1965: Summer in Calcutta (poetry; Kent's Award winner)
1967: The Descendants (Poetry)
1973: The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (poetry)
1976: My Story (autobiography)
1977: Alphabet of Lust (novel)
1985: The Anamalai Poems (poetry)
1992: Padamavati the Harlot and Other Stories (collection of short stories)
1996: Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (Poetry)
2001: Yaa Allah (collection of poems)
1979: Tonight, This Savage Rite (with Pritish Nandy)
1999: My Mother at Sixty-six (Poem)
(-): My Grandmother House (Poem)
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