Dominic Frances Moraes (1938-2004) was an Indian writer, poet and essayist who published almost 30 books during his lifetime. He is considered by critics as one of the pioneers for Indian English literature. Born in Bombay, his father Frank Moraes was an editor for The Times of India and during Dom’s childhood, they travelled through South East Asia, New Zealand and Australia. He began writing poetry at 12 and published his first book at 13 about cricket called ‘Green is the Grass’ in 1951.  

His first poetry collection, A Beginning (1957) was published when Dom was an Oxford undergraduate, which won the Hawthornden prize in 1958. To this day, he is the youngest and the only Indian poet to have received this award, being awarded a prize of £100. His second collection, Poems was published in 1960, and grappled with themes of love, sexuality, his trip to India and personal struggle, the collection itself being dedicated ‘to D’, a British actor named Dorothy whom Moraes was in love with at the time. Being in the same circles as W.H Auden, Stephen Spender and William Empson, he gravitated towards the English language for his poetry and was interested in English poetic tradition. He carried a distinctly Romantic feeling in his poetry, especially with A Beginning (1957), with dazzling descriptions of nature and fantastical figures in poems such as Figures in the Landscape. John Nobody was published in 1965, and after this collection, his poetry publishing lessened as from 1968 he became more involved in journalism, writing for the New York Times from 1968 to 1971, as well as editing for Asia Magazine from 1971 to 1973. Later on in life, he moved back to India and became increasingly intertwined with the country’s politics, defending Salman Rushdie’s novel after being refused publication in Bombay. In his last years, he lived with writer Sarayu Srivatsa, collaborating on Out of God’s Oven, a travel writing on India and The Long Strider, a biographical fiction and memoir on traveller Thomas Coryate. He passed away in 2004, aged 66, from cancer.