Samarendranath Mahapatra (1962) is a contemporary Odia Poet well-known for his simple words and emotional thoughts. He has been writing poetry for last four decades. To date his nine collections of poems have been published in Odia- ‘Mouna Abhisara’, ‘Uttirna Abatirna’, ‘Eka Eka Bikramarka’, ‘Kalikala’, ‘Sabda Samagra’, ‘Nayaka’, ‘Kabita Sarajiban’, ‘Bisanna Nadeera Teere’ and ‘Tankikia Manisha’ (2020 release). Besides poetry, he writes for Children and six books for Children ( 3 story books and 3 poem collections) have been published. He is the founding editor of JHARKA, a literary periodical in Odia.He has received several awards including the State Youth Award for Poetry (1996-97), Travel Grant awarded by Sahitya Akademi(2000-2001), Prajatantra Bisuva Milan Award (1983) and some more. He is the recepient of Senior Fellowship for 2011-12 from Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. Some of his poems have been translated into English. He also writes in English. His poems are published in magazines like ‘Poetry Quarterly’, ‘Pilgrimage’ ‘Kavya Bharati’, ‘Indian Literature’, ‘The Telegraph’ and ‘Samakalin Bharatiya Sahitya’ Some of his works are published in netzines like www.poemsclub.com, PoemHunter.com, Moontown Cafe.com, Voices Net.com, Muse India etc. The poet lives with his family in Balasore and Cuttack (Odisha).
