Jayanta Mahapatra
| Jayanta Mahapatra | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Jayant 22 October 1928 |
| Occupation | Indian english poets |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Awards | Sahitya Akademi, Padma Shri |
Jayanta Mahapatra (born 22 October 1928) is one of the best known Indian English poets. He is the first ever Indian poet to win Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He is the author of such popular poems as Indian Summer and Hunger, which are regarded as classics in modern Indian English literature. He is also a winner of Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India.
Jayanta returned his Padma Shri to protest against the rising intolerance in India.
Besides being one of the popular Indian poets of his generation, Mahapatra was also part of the trio of poets who laid the foundations of Indian English Poetry. He shared a special bond with A. K. Ramanujan, one of the finest poets in the IEP tradition. Mahapatra is also different in not being a product of the Bombay school of poets besides R. Parthasarathy. Over time, he has managed to carve a quiet, tranquil poetic voice of his own—distinctly different from those of his contemporaries. His wordy lyricism combined with Indian themes put him in a league of his own. {Needs Citation} In a Conversation with Jaydeep Sarangi (link :http://www.museindia.com/regularcontent.asp?issid=51&id=4461 ) Mahapatra says, "Meeting with A D Hope, especially in his warm home in Canberra, and with his charming wife, Penelope, is an unforgettable happening in my life. The man's humility was amazing, it humbled me. It was a lesson. I wrote a sort of editorial piece on him in the magazine I was editing—Chandrabhaga, and I'd like you to read what I had said. This appeared in the journal in 1979."
All his working life, he taught physics at various colleges in Odisha including Gangadhar Meher College, Sambalpur, B.J.B College, Bhubaneswar, Fakir Mohan College, Balasore and Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. He retired in 1986.
Mahapatra has authored 27 books of poems, of which seven are in Oriya and the rest in English. His poetry volumes include Relationship, Bare Face and Shadow Space. Mahapatra is a Sahitya Akademi awardee, and also a recipient of the Jacob Glatstein award conferred by Poetry magazine, Chicago. He was also awarded the Allen Tate Poetry Prize for 2009 from The Sewanee Review, Sewanee, USA. He received the SAARC Literary Award, New Delhi, 2009. Besides poetry, he has experimented widely with myriad forms of prose. His published books of prose are Green Gardener, an anthology of short stories and Door of Paper: Essay and Memoirs. Mahapatra is also a distinguished editor and has been bringing out, for many years, a literary magazine, Chandrabhaga, from Cuttack. The magazine is named after Chandrabhaga, a prominent river in Orissa. His poems appeared in many prestigious poetry anthologies like The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India, published by Hidden Brook Press,Canada.
...
Wikipedia