Manohar Shetty (born 1953) is a
Goa-based poet considered one of the prominent
Indian poets writing in the
English language.
He has been a Senior Fellow with the
Sahitya Akademi, the Indian academy of arts and letters, and his work is found in several anthologies, including ''The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets'' edited by
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and anthologies edited by
Eunice de Souza,
Vilas Sarang and
Jeet Thayil.
Life
Manohar Shetty was born in
Bombay and educated in
Panchgani.
[Entry for Manohar Shetty]
" Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English by Eugene Benson, Routledge, 2004, page 1438. He graduated from Bombay University in 1974 and began working as a journalist.
Critical perspectives
Shetty's poetry is seen as being an integral part of the "chronology of modern Indian English poetry." His poetry is described as revelling in "the celebration of the sombre" and being filled with "sepulchral images" while their "mood is predominantly one of helplessness and lethargy."
Shetty is listed in Sudeep Sen's essay "New Indian Poetry: The 1990s Perspective", published in ''World Literature Today'', Vol. 68, No. 2. K. Narayana Chandran of the
University of Hyderabad, while reviewing Shetty's ''Domestic Creatures'' in ''World Literature Today'', comments: "To be able to write magnificently about the little world one knows - and what passionate care all this involves - is no small gift for a poet. Manohar Shetty is an eminently gifted poet in this sense."
In another review of Shetty's ''A Guarded Space'', in 1982 in the same journal (
World Literature Today), S. Amanuddin is more critical.
New Delhi-based magazine
Caravan
Caravan or caravans may refer to:
Transport and travel
*Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together
**Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop
*Camel train, a convoy using camels as pack animals
*Convoy, a group of veh ...
described Shetty as "something of a rarity among
Indian English
Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the republic of India and among the Indian diaspora. English is used by the Indian government for communication, along with Hindi, as enshrined in the Constitution of India. E ...
poets
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
of his and preceding generations, who have tended to be rather less consistent in their output."
Poetry volumes
As of 2017, he has published eight volumes of poetry. They are:
* ''Morning Light''. Delhi:
Copper Coin, 2016
* ''Personal Effects'', Delhi:
Copper Coin, 2015
* ''Living Rooms'', New Delhi:
HarperCollins, 2014
* ''Creatures Great and Small'', Delhi: Copper Coin, 2014
* ''Body Language'', Mumbai:
Poetrywala, 2012
* ''Domestic Creatures: Poems'', New Delhi:
Oxford University Press, 1994
* ''Borrowed Time'', Bombay: Praxis, 1988
* ''A Guarded Space'', Bombay: Newground, 1981
Books edited
* ''Ferry Crossing—Short Stories from Goa'', New Delhi: Penguin India, 1998
* ''Goa Travels, Being the Accounts of Travellers to Goa from the 16th to the 20th Century'', New Delhi: Rupa, 2014
* Special edition on English language poets of India for ''Poetry Wales''.
Fellowships awarded
Earlier, he has been a
Homi Bhaba Fellow
Homi may refer to:
People
* Homi Adajania
* Homi Billimoria, Ceylonese architect
* Homi F. Daji
* Homi J. Bhabha (1909–1966), Indian nuclear physicist
* Homi J. H. Taleyarkhan
* Homi K. Bhabha
* Homi Kharas, British economist
* Homi Maneck Me ...
and a Senior
Sahitya Akademi Fellow.
Translations, evaluation of work
His work has been translated into
Finnish,
German,
Italian,
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people
*Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece
See also
*
* ...
and
Slovenian.
Evaluations of his work have been included in ''Modern Indian Poetry in English'' (New Delhi: OUP, 1987, 2011, Bruce King Ed.) and ''An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English'' (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003,
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Ed.).
His work has appeared in ''The Baffler'' (US), the ''London Magazine'', ''Poetry Review'', ''Poetry Wales'', ''Wasafiri'', ''Chelsea'' (US), ''Rattapallax'' (US), ''Fulcrum'' (US), ''Shenandoah'' (US), ''The Common'' (US), ''New Letters'' (US), ''Helix'' (Australia).
Personal life
He has been based in
Goa since 1985. Shetty is based in
Dona Paula, a suburb some seven kilometres from the state capital of
Panjim
Panaji (; also known as Panjim) is the capital of the Indian state of Goa and the headquarters of North Goa district. Previously, it was the territorial capital of the former Portuguese India. It lies on the banks of the Mandovi river estuary ...
(
Panaji) in
Goa. He has written an account
of his experiences with alcohol in the book ''House Spirit: Drinking in India - Stories, Essays, Poems''
(Speaking Tiger Books).
Notes
External links
Biographical noteWhy reading Manohar Shetty’s poetry is like knowing the earth all over againThe strange, sensuous world of Manohar Shetty’s poetryKing, Bruce, ed. Modern Indian Poetry in English. Oxford University Press, 1987.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shetty, Manohar
1953 births
Living people