Dominic Francis "Dom"Moraes (19 July 1938 – 2 June 2004)^[2] was a British^[3] writer and poet who published nearly 30 books in English. He is widely seen as a foundational figure inIndian English literature. His poems are a meaningful and substantial contribution to Indian andWorld literature.^[4][5]

Dom Moraes
Born	Dominic Francis Moraes (1938-07-19)19 July 1938 Bombay,British India
Died	2 June 2004(2004-06-02) (aged 65) Bandra, Mumbai, India
Occupation	Writer poet
Language	English
Nationality	British
Education	Jesus College, Oxford
Notable works	A Beginning (1958) Poems (1960) John Nobody (1965) My Son's Father (1968) Serendip (1990)
Notable awards	Hawthornden Prize (1958) Sahitya Akademi Award for English (1994)
Spouse	Henrietta Moraes ​ (m. 1961)​ Judith Moraes (divorced) Leela Naidu ​ ​ (m. 1969;sep. 1992)​
Partner	Sarayu Srivatsa (1991–2004)[1]
Children	1[1]
Relatives	Frank Moraes (father) Teresa Albuquerque (aunt)

Dom Moraes^[6] was born inBombay,British India to Beryl andFrank Moraes, former editor ofThe Times of India and laterThe Indian Express. He had a tormented relationship with his mother Beryl, who had been confined to a mental asylum since his childhood.^[7] His aunt was the historianTeresa Albuquerque.^[8] He attended the city'sSt. Mary's School, and then left for England to enroll atJesus College, Oxford.^[9]

Moraes spent eight years in Britain (in London andOxford), New York City, Hong Kong,Delhi andBombay.^[10]

David Archer published Moraes' first collection of poems,A Beginning, in 1957. When he was 19, still an undergraduate, he became the first Indian to win theHawthornden Prize and was presented with £100 and a silver medal byLord David Cecil at theArts Council of Britain on 10 July 1958.^[11]

He edited magazines in London, Hong Kong and New York. He became the editor ofThe Asia Magazine in 1971. He scripted and partially directed over 20 television documentaries for theBBC and ITV. He was a war correspondent inAlgeria,Israel andVietnam. In 1976 he joined theUnited Nations.^[12]

Moraes conducted one of the first interviews of theDalai Lama after the Tibetan spiritual leader fled to India in 1959. The Dalai Lama was then 23 and Moraes, 20.^[13]

In 1961–62 he was one of the very few public Indian figures to strongly criticize theIndian Army takeover of Goa, land of his forefathers –Daman and Diu fromPortuguese India. He tore up his Indian passport on TV in protest.^[14] He was later allowed back in the country.^[15]

When theGujarat riots erupted in 2002, with their heavy toll of Muslim dead, Moraes left for Ahmedabad the minute the news came through, saying that since he was a Catholic, Muslims would not see him as an enemy. Even though he was physically in considerable pain by then, he was one of the first on the scene.^[16]

Moraes ended his writing career, writing books in collaboration with Sarayu Srivatsa.^[17][18]

He had a lifelong battle with alcoholism. Moraes suffered from cancer, but refused treatment and died from a heart attack inBandra, Mumbai. He was buried in the city's Sewri Cemetery.^[19] Many of Dom's old friends and publishers attended the memorial service in Odcombe. A headstone in yellow Jaisalmer stone lies embedded in the front lawn of theChurch of St Peter and St Paul to mark the service.^{[citation needed]}

In 1956, aged 18, he was courted byAudrey Wendy Abbott who later changed her name to Henrietta. They married in 1961. He left her, according to his close friends in London, but did not divorce her.^{[citation needed]} He had a son, Francis Moraes, with his second wifeJudith, whom he divorced, and returned to India in 1968. In 1969, he married the Indian actressLeela Naidu. They were treated as a star couple, and known across the world for over two decades. Their marriage ended in a separation.^[20] For the last 13 years of his life he lived with Sarayu Srivatsa, with whom he co-authored two books.^[1]

• 1951:Green is the Grass, a book ofcricket essays^[21]
• 1957:A Beginning, his first book of poems (winner of theHawthornden Prize in 1958)
• 1960:Poems, his second book of poems
• 1960:Gone Away: An Indian Journey, memoir
• 1965:John Nobody, his third book of poems
• 1967:Beldam & Others, a pamphlet of verse
• 1968:My Son's Father, autobiography
• 1983:Absences, book of poems
• 1987:Collected Poems: 1957-1987 (Penguin)
• 1990:Serendip (winner of the 1994Sahitya Akademi Award)
• 1992:Out of God's Oven: Travels in a Fractured Land, co-authored with Sarayu Srivatsa^[22]
• 1994:Never at Home, memoir (Penguin)^[23]
• 2003:The Long Strider, co-authored with Sarayu Srivatsa
• Heiress to Destiny, biography ofIndira Gandhi
• 2012:Selected Poems edited byRanjit Hoskote (Penguin)^[24]

• Penguin Modern Poets 2 (1965), some thirty poems in a shared volume withKingsley Amis andPeter Porter^[25]
• The Young British Poets (ed. Jeremy Robson, Chatto & Windus, 1971), a selection of five poems^[26]
• The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (1992) ed. byArvind Krishna Mehrotra and published byOxford University Press,New Delhi^[27][28]

• "I regret that I didn't write any worthwhile poetry for so long: Dom Moraes" Interview withTarun Tejpal forIndia Today, 15 May 1990
• Voices of the Crossing - The impact of Britain on writers from Asia, the Caribbean and Africa.Ferdinand Dennis,Naseem Khan (eds), London: Serpent's Tail, 1998. Dom Moraes: p. 83 "Changes of Scenery."

• Indian poetry in English
• Indian English Literature

• “Indian Literature in English” by Dom Moraes
• Ranjit Hoskote:Obituary for Dom Moraes,The Hindu, 13 June 2004.
• Archival Material atLeeds University Library