Relationship

Jayanta Mahapatra (1928), Indian English poet per excellence, is the first Indian poet to win Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry, for his book Relationships. He was awarded the Padma Shri, fourth highest civilian honour in India in 2009. He is also a recipient of the Jacob Glatstein Memorial Award conferred by Poetry magazine, Chicago, the Allen Tate Poetry Prize for 2009 from The Sewanee Review, the SAARC Literary Award, New Delhi, 2009, an honorary doctorate by Ravenshaw University in 2009, and a D. Litt degree by Utkal University, Odisha in 2006.

Sahitya Akademi award winning book, Relationship is a trend setter that takes us back to the time of making of the canon in Indian English poetry-- how Indian English poetry evolved in and around Jayanta Mahapatra who arrived in the poetry scene in 1971 with the title, Close the Sky Ten by Ten. In the 1970s his poems were published in major poetry journals in the world and he earned accolades from different shores. During the 1970s Jayanta was invited to read poems from many important places including, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1976, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, 1976, University of the South, Sewanee, 1976, East West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1976, P.E.N. Centre, Sydney, 1978 and Australian National University, Canberra, 1978. These made valuable grounds for making him a significant poetic voice in the decades to come. A Rain of Rites appeared from the University of Georgia Press, USA in 1976. Vernon Young praised the work in The Hudson Review, and later Emily Grosholz reviewed both Relationship and The False Start in the same New York journal. Poetry (Chicago) published a review of his books and it was done by the poet Dick Allen. His publications were noticed by Paul Engle, poet and Director of the International Writing Program in Iowa, and he invited Jayanta to be a participating poet from India for 1976. It was a significant phase for Jayanta , 1975-1976, because it coincided with the publication of his collection of poems, A Rain of Rites, from the University of Georgia Press, Athens, USA. During these days his manuscript was chosen from among the many poetry manuscripts submitted to the University by the final reader and editor, George Core, who is ,and has been the Editor of the literary quarterly, The Sewanee Review. In 1976 he was in Iowa city, with twenty other writers from different countries.