Manohar Shetty (born 1953) is a

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

-based poet considered one of the prominent

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

poets writing in the

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. He has been a Senior Fellow with the

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

, 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 Arvind Krishna Mehrotra (born 1947) is an Indian poet, anthologist, literary critic and translator. Biography Arvind Krishna Mehrotra was born in Lahore in 1947. He has published six collections of poetry in English and two of translati ...

and anthologies edited by Eunice de Souza, Vilas Sarang and Jeet Thayil.

Life

Manohar Shetty was born in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

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 The University of Hyderabad (IAST: ''Hydarāvād visvavidyālayamu'') is a top ranking public central research university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Founded in 1974, this mostly residential campus has more than 5,000 students a ...

, 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 ''World Literature Today'' is an American magazine of international literature and culture, published at the University of Oklahoma. The stated goal of the magazine is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book revie ...

), S. Amanuddin is more critical.

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

-based magazine Caravan described Shetty as "something of a rarity among Indian English poets 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 HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...

, 2014 * ''Creatures Great and Small'', Delhi: Copper Coin, 2014 * ''Body Language'', Mumbai: Poetrywala, 2012 * ''Domestic Creatures: Poems'', New Delhi:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 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 and a Senior

Fellow.

Translations, evaluation of work

His work has been translated into

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

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 Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Sloven ...

. 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,

, 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

since 1985. Shetty is based in

Dona Paula Dona Paula is a village and tourist destination in the neighborhood of Panaji, Goa, India. It is today home to the National Institute of Oceanography and the International Centre Goa. History The place is named after ''Dona'' Paula Amara ...

, a suburb some seven kilometres from the state capital of Panjim (

Panaji 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 ...

) in

. 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