Bishnu Dey, Indian poet, critic, and academic (d. 1982)
Bishnu Dey was a Bengali poet, writer and academician in the era of modernism, post-modernism. Starting off as a symbologist, he won recognition for the musical quality of his poems, and forms the post-Tagore generation of Bengali poets, like Buddhadeb Basu and Samar Sen, which marked the advent of "New Poetry" in Bengali literature, deeply influenced by Marxist ideology. He published a magazine wherein he encouraged socially conscious writing. His own work reveals a poet's solitary struggle, quest for human dignity, amidst a crisis of uprooted identity. Through his literary career, he taught English literature at various institutes with various capacities such as Lecturer at Krishnagar College(1934-40) and Surendranath College(1940-44), Reader at Presidency University (1944–1947), Professor at Maulana Azad College (1947–1969). also remained a member of a young group of poets, centered on the Kallol (Commotion) magazine.
His most important work, Smriti Satta Bhabishyat (Memory, being, the Future) (1955–61), set a new precedent in Bengali poetry. It later won him the 1965 Sahitya Akademi Award in Bengali as well as the highest literary award of India, Jnanpith Award, in 1971.