Later, he also discharged several ex officio duties like that of Chairman of National Book Trust, New Delhi.  Apart from 15 poetry collections, Sitakant Mahapatra has published 5 essay collections, a travelogue, over 30 reflective works and also, a number of translations. His most noted works are ‘Sabdar Akash’ (The sky of words), published in 1971, ‘Samudra’, brought out in 1977 and ‘Anek Sharat’, of 1981.      

     He was bestowed with nation’s highest literary award, Jnanpith in 1993. The citation remarked that “Deeply steeped in western literature his pen has the rare rapturous fragrance of native soil.”He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2002 and Padma Vibhushan in 2011 for literature. The list of other prestigious awards he has won includes Soviet Land Nehru Award and Kabeer Samman. 

     Sitakant Mahapatra’s works are translated into all the Indian languages and into French, German, Swedish, English, Czech, Danish, Russian, Greek, Macedonian, Romanian and Ukrainian. The Library of Congress holds sixty titles of him among its collection.  

            Sitakant Mahapatra with M.T. Vasudevan Nair

of picking appropriate and effective icons and symbols from everyday life and immediate nature. He could also drink from the fountains of culture with his fertile imagination and come up with absolute pearls by immersing in the vast ocean of tradition.  His innovative ability really marks his poetry in a class of its own, among the annals of master craftsmanship. As Sitakant Mahapatra himself has said “Successful innovation is possible only when one is deeply aware of the tradition”. He, too, believes like many modern poets that contemporary age is spiritless. To be fair to him, Sitakant Mahapatra has done immensely well to be a successful and relevant poet in these ‘spiritless’ times. He has truly risen up to that challenge by picking and threading mostly rural and rustic imagery, aptly. Sitakant Mahapatra started writing in 1959, during his postgraduate years and he did so in both English and Odia. In due time, he became aware that “a poet can express himself only in the language in which he dreams” and decided to write in Odia alone. However, he penned his scholarly works in English.  

     In 1963, Sitakant Mahapatra published his first anthology of poetry in Odia, titled, ‘Dipti O Dyuti’. His second collection named ‘Ashtapadi’ in 1967. This work was bestowed with Odisha Sahitya Academy award. His most recognized anthology was his third, ‘Sabdar Akash’, which was published in 1971. Kendra Sahitya Academy recognized this piece with its prestigious award. After that, he has brought out 350 poems in Odia and also about 30 publications in English under categories of literary criticism and culture. In his poetic journey of four decades, he has used a wide repertoire of styles, as his perspective is that “style is correlated to the theme and climate of a poem.”  

     Sitakant Mahapatra was born on Seventeenth September 1937.  He was also a part of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1961 to 1995, till his retirement.  
    
 

Being a poet in spiritless times - Burny Peter  

     Sitakant Mahapatra is more of a pure poet, who writes in classical mould with a leaning towards Romanticism and without being corrupted by political and philosophical overtones. He is a poet mainly made of senses and heart, than intellect. More politically inclined souls may even mark his poetry as escapist. Sitakant Mahapatra prefers to weep in his affliction than to fight adverse circumstances. He does not seek to change the world but rather accepts its follies as immutable. He, thus, becomes more of a voice of meek and powerless, who, in spite of their miseries and sufferings, have not lost courage and optimism; and finds bliss in acceptance of life’s experiences. Sitakant Mahapatra  tends  to describe nature  and  life;  and in that process  is   capable