Jerry Pinto (born Jeronimo Pinto, 22 May 1966) is an Indian poet, novelist, short story writer, translator, and journalist based in Mumbai, India. He writes in English. 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, as well as Surviving Women (2000) and Asylum and Other Poems (2003). His first novel Em and the Big Hoom was published in 2012. Pinto won the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Fiction in 2016. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2016 for his novel Em and the Big Hoom.
Early life Jerry Pinto was born in Goa, India. He is a Roman Catholic. He grew up in Mahim, Bombay. Pinto received a liberal arts degree from Elphinstone College, University of Mumbai, and a law degree from Government Law College, Mumbai.
Career Pinto's 2006 book about the Indian actress Helen titled The Life and Times of an H-Bomb, won the National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema in 2007.
His collection of poems, Asylum and Other Poems, was released in 2003. He also co-edited Confronting Love (2005) with Arundhathi Subramaniam, a book of contemporary Indian love poetry in English.
He returned to journalism as a consulting editor at Man's World magazine. Later, he joined Paprika Media to edit their special projects. He is now a freelance journalist, writing articles for the Hindustan Times and Live Mint newspapers, as well as The Man and MW.
In 2009, he co-authored Leela: A Portrait with Leela Naidu, a semi-biographical book of anecdotes and photos from Naidu's life.
His first novel, Em and the Big Hoom, was published in 2012, and won The Hindu Literary Prize that year. It was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize in 2013. It won the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in Fiction in 2016.
He has translated several books from Marathi to English including Cobalt Blue, Baluta, When I Hid My Caste and I, the Salt Doll. He translated the novel Havan (The Fire Sacrifice, 1989) by Susham Bedi from Hindi to English.
Bibliography Surviving Women. Penguin Books, 2000. . Bombay, meri jaan: writings on Mumbai (with Naresh Fernandes). Penguin Books, 2003. Asylum and Other Poems. Allied Publishers India., 2003. Confronting Love, (edited with Arundhathi Subramaniam). Penguin Books 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 Leela Naidu). Penguin Group, 2009. Em and the Big Hoom. Aleph Book Company, 2012. Phiss Phuss Boom (with Anushka Ravishankar and Sayoni Basu; illustrated by Vinayak Varma). Duckbill, 2013. When Crows Are White, 2013. Monster Garden (illustrated by Priya Kuriyan). 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 National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema for Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb 2012 The Hindu Literary Prize for Em and the Big Hoom 2013 Crossword Book Award for Em and the Big Hoom 2016 Windham–Campbell Literature Prize in Fiction for Em and The Big Hoom 2016 Sahitya Akademi Award for Em and The Big Hoom
References
External links
Official website Jerry Pinto at Poetry International