Odisha Poet & Critic Haraprasad Paricha Patnaik No More

Bhubaneswar: Well-known poet, critic, translator and editor Dr Haraprasad Paricha Patnaik breathed his last at a private hospital here on Wednesday. He was 68.

Patnaik is survived by his wife and two sons.

He wrote both in Odia and English and has around 20 books to his credit. He won several awards, including the Odisha Sahitya Academy award in 2012 and the ‘Gangadhar Meher Kabita Samman’, instituted by Utkal Sahitya Samaja, in 2018.

Starting his career as an academic in 1975, Patnaik served in different government colleges, including BJB College here, as a teacher of English literature. He also shouldered other government responsibilities like Secretary, Odisha Sahitya Academy, and Director, Odisha State Bureau of Textbook Production and Preparation.

He also worked as Chief Editor of Odia daily ‘Sarbasadharana’. He was also associated with Sun Times, an English daily belonging to Eastern Media group which went out of print in the late nineties.