Nabaneeta obtained her Bachelor’s in English from Presidency College, Calcutta. She was in the first batch of students in the Department of Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, founded by Buddhadeva Bose, where she ranked first in the Master’s course. The following year, she married Amartya Sen, then a young Lecturer of Economics at the University, who would later win the Nobel Prize. They were divorced in 1976. Nabaneeta went abroad for higher studies (M.A. with Distinction from Harvard; Ph. D. in Comparative Literature from Indiana University).

Her first publication was a book of poems: Pratham Pratyay in 1959. Ami Anupam, her first novel, came much later: it was published in 1976 in the 'Puja Issue' of the Ananda Bazar Patrika. She had written many books across a variety of genres: short stories, essays, travelogues, poetry, fiction, children's literature, verse plays and humor. Even her most scholarly essays are remarkable for the charming prose and sense of humor.

She has been recognized with 'Padmashree', 'Sahitya Akademi Award' (twice) and 'Bangla Akademi Lifetime Achievement Award', to name a few. She represented Indian writing at various international festivals and received worldwide acclaim. Retired as a Professor of Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, she was the Radhakrishnan Memorial Lecturer at Oxford University and held the Maytag Chair of Comparative Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Colorado, USA. She was the President of 'Soi', Women Writers' Association of West Bengal, India, until her death at her residence in Kolkata.

Books by Nabaneeta Dev Sen

English Articles by Nabaneeta Dev Sen

Bengali Articles by/on Nabaneeta Dev Sen