Eminent English Poet Jayanta Mahapatra Tests COVID Positive, Hospitalised in Cuttack

Bhubaneswar: Jayanta Mahapatra, one of the prominent poets writing in English in India, has tested Covid positive and has been hospitalized on Monday.

The 92 year old poet was suffering from fever for the past few days and his Covid tests came positive. After he developed some breathing issues, he was hospitalised at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack. Doctors at the hospital informed that his condition is stable and his oxygen saturation level is between 96-97.

Jayanta Mahapatra is considered as one of the finest Indian English poets that India has given to the world. A reader of Physics, Mohapatra started writing poems in English in the late sixties. His first poetry collection was Close the Sky Ten by Ten published in 1971, the same year he published another collection titled Svayamvara and Other Poems. A Father’s Hours(1976), A Rain of Rites (1976), Waiting (1979), The False Start (1980), Relationship (1980) were some of his other poetry collections.

He became the first Indian poet to receive Sahitya Akademi Award for English poetry for his collection Relationship in 1981.