Jerry Pinto (born 1966) is an Indian

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

poet, novelist,

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

writer, translator, and journalist based in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

, India. Pinto's works include '' Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb'' (2006), which won the Best Book on Cinema Award at the 54th

National Film Awards The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...

, ''Surviving Women'' (2000) and ''Asylum and Other Poems'' (2003). His first novel ''

Em and the Big Hoom ''Em and the Big Hoom'' is a 2012 English-language novel written by Jerry Pinto. The book won ''The Hindu'' Literary Prize, the Crossword Book Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award, and the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. The foundation of t ...

'' was published in 2012. Pinto won the Windham-Campbell prize in 2016 for his fiction. He was awarded the

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

in 2016 for his novel ''Em and the Big Hoom''.

Early life

Jerry Pinto was born in

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

, India. He is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and of

Goan Goans ( Romi Konkani: , ) is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, formerly part of Portuguese India (''Estado Português da Índia''). They form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, ...

origin. He grew up in

Mahim Mahim (, ) is a neighbourhood in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The Mahim Junction railway station on the Western Railway zone, Western Railway and Harbour line (Mumbai Suburban Railway), Harbour Railway of the Mumbai Suburban Railway, Mumbai Suburb ...

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

. Pinto received a liberal arts degree from

Elphinstone College Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1856, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the edu ...

University of Mumbai University of Mumbai is a public state university in Mumbai. It is one of the largest university systems in the world with over 549,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. It was est ...

, and a law degree from Government Law College,

Career

Pinto' 2006 book about the Indian actress Helen titled ''The Life and Times of an H-Bomb'', went on to win the

National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema The National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awards ...

in 2007. His collection of poems, ''Asylum and Other Poems'' appeared in 2003. He has also co-edited ''Confronting Love'' (2005), a book of contemporary Indian love poetry in English. He returned to magazine journalism as a Consulting Editor at ''Man's World'' magazine. Later, he joined Paprika Media (the publishing house that brings out Time Out Mumbai and Time Out Delhi) to edit their special projects. He is now a freelance

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, writing articles for the ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media Limited, an entity controlled by the Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia, the daughter o ...

'' and ''

Live Mint ''Mint'' is an Indian business and financial daily newspaper published by HT Media, a Delhi-based media group which is controlled by the K. K. Birla family. The K. K. Birla family also publishes ''Hindustan Times''. Mint has been running sin ...

'' newspapers, as well as '' The Man '' and ''MW'' In 2009, he coauthored ''Leela: A Portrait'' with

Leela Naidu Leela Naidu (1940 – 28 July 2009) was an Indian actress who starred in a small number of Hindi and English films, including '' Yeh Raste Hain Pyar Ke'' (1963), based on the real-life Nanavati case, and ''The Householder'', Merchant Ivory Pr ...

, a semi-biographical book of anecdotes and photos from Leela Naidu's life. Leela Naidu was continuously listed as one of top ten or top five most beautiful women in the world in the 1950s and 1960s by magazines like ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

''. His first novel, ''Em and the Big Hoom'', was published in 2012, and won

The Hindu Literary Prize ''The Hindu'' Literary Prize or ''The Hindu'' Best Fiction Award, established in 2010, is an Indian literary award sponsored by ''The Hindu Literary Review'' which is part of the newspaper ''The Hindu''. It recognizes Indian works in English and ...

that year. It was also shortlisted for the

Commonwealth Book Prize Commonwealth Foundation has presented a number of prizes since 1987. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best First ...

. He has translated several books from Marathi to English including ''

Cobalt Blue Cobalt blue is a blue pigment made by sintering cobalt(II) oxide with aluminium(III) oxide (alumina) at 1200 °C. Chemically, cobalt blue pigment is cobalt(II) oxide-aluminium oxide, or cobalt(II) aluminate, CoAl2O4. Cobalt blue is lighte ...

'', '' Baluta'', ''When I Hid My Caste'' and ''I, the Salt Doll''.

Bibliography

* ''Surviving Women''. Penguin Books, 2000. . * ''Bombay, meri jaan: writings on Mumbai'', with Naresh Fernandes. Penguin Books, 2003. * ''Asylum and Other Poems''. (Poetry in English). Allied Publishers India., 2003. * ''Confronting Love, (edited with

Arundhathi Subramaniam Arundhathi Subramaniam is an Indian poet and author, who has written about culture and spirituality. Life and career Subramaniam is a poet and writer based in Mumbai. She is the author of 13 books of poetry and prose. She has received the Ra ...

) ''. (Poetry in English).

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

India., 2005. * '' Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb''. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2006. . * ''Reflected in Water: Writings on Goa''. Penguin Group, 2006. . * ''Bollywood Posters'', with Sheena Sippy. Thames & Hudson, 2008. * ''Leela: A Patchwork Life'' with

. Penguin Group, 2009. * ''

''. Aleph Book Company, 2012. * ''Phiss Phuss Boom'', with

Anushka Ravishankar Anushka Ravishankar is an author of children's books, and co-founder of Duckbill Books, a publishing house. Early life Ravishankar was born in Nashik, and graduated in mathematics from Fergusson College, Pune in 1981. While at college, she w ...

and Sayoni Basu. Illustrated by Vinayak Varma. Duckbill, 2013. * ''When Crows Are White'', 2013. * ''Monster Garden''. Illustrated by

Priya Kuriyan Priya Kuriyan is an Indian comic book writer, illustrator and animation filmmaker, based in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Education Kuriyan graduated from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad in 2004. Career She began her career as an illustra ...

. Duckbill, 2016. * ''Murder in Mahim'', 2017. * '' The Education of Yuri.'' Speaking Tiger Books, 2022. *
Citizen Gallery: The Gandhys of Chemould and the birth of modern art in Bombay
'' 2022

Awards and honours

* 2007

for '' Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb'' * 2012

winner for ''Em and the Big Hoom'' * 2013

Crossword Book Award The Crossword Book Award (formerly known as the Crossword Book Award (1998–2003), the Hutch Crossword Book Award (2004–07), the Vodafone Crossword Book Award (2008–10), the Economist Crossword Book Award (2011–13), Raymond & Crossword Bo ...

(fiction) for ''Em and the Big Hoom'' * 2016

Windham–Campbell Literature Prizes The Donald Windham Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes are an American literary award which offers unrestricted grants in four categories, namely fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. Established at Yale University in 2011, the first prizes we ...

(Fiction) for ''Em and The Big Hoom'' * 2016

for ''Em and The Big Hoom''

References

External links

Jerry Pinto's WebsiteAbout Jerry Pinto and his poems

reviewed by

Ranjit Hoskote Ranjit Hoskote (born 1969) is an Indian poet, art critic, cultural theorist and independent curator. He has been honoured by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, with the Sahitya Akademi Golden Jubilee Award and the Sah ...

Hindustan Times columns by Jerry Pinto.Live Mint: columns by Jerry PintoThe Hindu: One per cent writing and 99 per cent rewritingWindham–Campbell Prizes Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinto, Jerry 1966 births Goan people Living people Indian male poets English-language poets from India Indian male journalists Indian magazine editors Writers from Mumbai University of Mumbai alumni Indian Christians Indian columnists Poets from Maharashtra Indian male novelists Indian children's writers Indian political writers 20th-century Indian journalists 21st-century Indian novelists Journalists from Maharashtra Novelists from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian male writers 21st-century Indian poets