As a major Bengali poet of India, Ashis Sanyal is a name to reckon with. He was born in Sushang Durgapur, a small village in the Mymensingh district of Bangladesh in 1938. His childhood days on the lap of nature probably nurtured his poetic self. The partition of the country brought the nine year old to kolkata, where prolonged struggle probably made him more determined and strong. His literary endeavour saw its light with his first book of poems - "Shesh Ondhokar Prothom Alo" - published in his student days. In his professional life, he was a professor in kolkata.
The literary life of Ashis Sanyal is marked not only with poetry - but also start stories, novels, articles and childrens literature. He has translated works from different Indian and foreign languages. His poems too, have been translated in many foreign languages.
As a writer he has participated in seminars and poetry festivals in all corners of the country and different countries worldwide. His strong belief in literary and cultural exchange has inspired him to organise literary meets since 1968, with All India poets conference, the first of its kind in India. The first Eastern Zonal writers conference, the first Afro. Asian writers conference and the first SAARC countries writers conference were organised by him. As the president of world poetry festival, he has been organising a three-day world meet every year in kolkata, where poets from different countries participate regularly.
Ashis Sanyal has been honoured by many prestigious awards - Bhualka, Michael Madhusudhan, Bishnu De, Kala Bharati, Viswa Kabita Parishad (Bangladesh), ICCLP
(Norway), West Bengal Journalists Association award Dishari to name a few. He was also declared the National poet by the government of India in 1989.
He had been a member of the Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, government of India. He is the editor of Ambedkar works translated into Bengali under the ministry of social justice and Empowerment, government of India.
Till date 123 of his books have been published in bengali, English and Hindi, along with translated versions of his publications.
