Mahapatra was the first Indian poet to get a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry, which is the country's fourth-highest civilian honour.
Digital Desk: Jayanta Mahapatra, an internationally renowned poet and literature passed away on Sunday at the age of 95 while receiving treatment at the Srirama Chandra Bhanja (SCB) Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, Odisha.
Mahapatra was the first Indian poet to get a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry, which is the country's fourth-highest civilian honour.
He wrote poems that are considered masterpieces in contemporary Indian English literature, including "Indian Summer" and "Hunger."
In 2009, the poet received the Padma Shri award for his literary achievements. He did, however, return the honour in 2015.
Mahapatra, who was born on October 22, 1928, into a well-known Odia Christian family, attended school in Cuttack, Odisha. He started as a physics lecturer and taught at a number of government colleges in Odisha.
In the latter half of the 1960s, he started writing. Before his poems were accepted by prestigious literary journals around the world, his short tales and poems were initially rejected by several publishers.
Mahapatra wrote 27 books of poetry, seven of which are in Odia and the remaining in English.
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