| Manohar Shetty | |
| Birth Date: | 1953 |
| Birth Place: | Bombay (Mumbai) |
| Occupation: | Writer, poet, editor. |
| Language: | English |
| Nationality: | Indian |
| Citizenship: | Indian |
| Genre: | Poetry, short story, anthology. |
| Subjects: | --> |
| Notableworks: | Ferry Crossings; work included in The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets. |
| Spouse: | Devika Sequeira |
| Partners: | --> |
| Children: | Shaira Sequeira Shetty, Riya Sequeira Shetty |
| Years Active: | 1981- |
Manohar Shetty (born 1953)[1] is a Goa-based poet considered one of the prominent Indian poets writing in the English language.[2]
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[3] edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and anthologies edited by Eunice de Souza, Vilas Sarang and Jeet Thayil.
Manohar Shetty was born in Bombay and educated in Panchgani.[4] He graduated from Bombay University in 1974 and began working as a journalist.[4] [5]
Shetty's poetry is seen as being an integral part of the "chronology of modern Indian English poetry."[6] [7] 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."[4]
Shetty is listed in Sudeep Sen's essay "New Indian Poetry: The 1990s Perspective", published in World Literature Today, Vol. 68, No. 2.[8] K. Narayana Chandran of the University of Hyderabad, while reviewing[9] 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[10] 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 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."[11]
As of 2017, he has published eight volumes of poetry. They are:
Earlier, he has been a Homi Bhaba Fellow and a Senior Sahitya Akademi Fellow.
His work has been translated into Finnish, German, Italian, Marathi 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).
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) in Goa. He has written an account[17] of his experiences with alcohol in the book House Spirit: Drinking in India - Stories, Essays, Poems[18] (Speaking Tiger Books).