SOURCE: Das, Kamala, and Eunice de Souza. “Kamala Das.” In Talking Poems: Conversations with Poets, pp. 29-40. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

In the following interview, Das discusses her writings and her life.

Kamala Das was born in 1934. Her collections of poetry include Summer in Calcutta (Delhi: Rajinder Paul, 1965), The Descendants (Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1967), The Old Playhouse and Other Poems (Madras: Orient Longman, 1975), Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (Kottayam: D.C. Books, 1966). With Pritish Nandy she published Tonight This Savage Rite: The Love Poems of Kamala Das and Pritish Nandy (New Delhi: Arnold Heinemann, 1979). Collected Poems was published in 1984 (Trivandrum: Nava Kerala Printers) and her autobiography My Story in 1976 (New Delhi: Sterling Publishers). She has published one major novel, several novelettes and volumes of short stories in Malayalam, under the pen-name Madhavikutty. She has also published short stories in English and in English translation. She was...