Joe D'Cruz

R. N. Joe D'Cruz is a Tamil writer, novelist and documentary film director from Tamil Nadu, India. He won the Sahitya Akademi award in 2013 in the Tamil language category for his novel Korkai. He is the Tamil Nadu state president of Samskrita Bharati.

Joe D'Cruz has also been a managerial-executive in the shipping industry for a long time and is currently a member of the National Shipping Board of the Ministry of Shipping, Government of India.

Life Joe D'Cruz was born in a Roman Catholic Paravar family in Uvari, a coastal village in Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu. He did his schooling in Uvari and Idaiyangudi. He graduated with an M.A.(Economics) at Loyola College, Chennai and did his M.Phil at St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli. He is married to Sasikala and has two children. He has been working in the shipping industry for more than two decades.

Works Joe D'Cruz published a Tamil poetry compilation, Pulambazhkal, in 2004. His Sahitya Akademi award-winning novel Korkai was originally published in 2009 and prior to that his 2005 novel Aazhi Soozh Ulagu was awarded the Tamil Nadu state government literary award and Tamil Literary Garden award. Both his novels are based on history and the lives of Parathavar fishermen of Tamil Nadu. The first novel Aazhi Soozh Ulagu dealt with the lives of fishermen who used catamarans and their conversion to Christianity. The second novel titled Korkai refers to Korkai, an ancient port city ruled by Early Pandyan Kingdom. It is about the 20th century community of pearl and conch divers there.

He also filmed documentary films such as Vidiyatha Pozhuthukal (2008), Towards Dawn (2010).

He has also expressed his reservations on the upcoming International Container Transhipment Terminal at Enayam, Kanyakumari District. He is in favour of developing existing ports over initiating new port projects in India.

Views The Indian Express In June 2017, he claimed that there is "No place for poor" in the agenda of Prime minister Narendra Modi. He criticized the proposed Maritime Container Terminal at Enayam by the BJP government and said the promoters of the project were claiming that the Enayam coastline was a natural harbour but the coast is vulnerable to natural calamities.