Yuyutsu Sharma

Yuyutsu R.D. Sharma

Yuyutsu R.D. Sharma, photographed at a poetry reading in Elyria, Ohio
Born January 5, 1960
Nakodar, Punjab, India
Occupation Poet editor writer translator
Nationality Nepalese
Genre English poetry
Website
www.epsilonmedia.de/yuyutsu/

Yuyutsu R.D. (Ram Dass) Sharma (born January 5, 1960) is a widely traveled and acclaimed Nepalese / Indian writer who was born at Nakodar, Punjab and grew up in Nakodar and later at Nangal Township of Shivalik ranges of Mahabharata Hills where his father worked. He moved to Nepal at an early age and now writes in English and Nepali. Half the year he travels extensively to read from his works and conduct creative writing workshops at various universities in the United States and Europe, but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home.[1][2]

Life and career

Sharma was educated at Nakodar under the supervision of his maternal grandfather, Dheru Ram and grew up in a very religious atmosphere with his mother, Shanti Devi and at the age of nine became a shaman as he was thought to be possessed by a serpent spirit, his family deity. He came under the impression of Naga ascetics whom his father, Madan Lal, revered, but later followed the course of Western education and received his early education first at DAV college, Nakodar, Punjab, and later at Baring Union Christan College, Batala and University of Rajasthan. Yuyutsu remained active in the literary circles of Rajasthan and acted in plays by Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Harold Pinter, and Edward Albee. Later he taught at various campuses of Punjab University, Chandigarh and Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu.

Yuyutsu quit teaching at Tribhuwan University in 1996 and opted the career of a free lance writer. He also started visiting the Annapurna region of Western Nepal regularly but only in 2006 published his work devoted to the region as The Lake Fewa and a Horse[3] and later in 2008, Annapurna Poems, Selected and New.[4] He also met German Photographer, Andreas Stimm at Frankfurt book fair in 2004 and his collaboration with Stimm resulted in three books of picture/poetry book in black and white, currently put thereto in a 900-page volume, Nepal Trilogy:Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang.[5]

Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished poet and translator.

A widely traveled author, he has read his works at several prestigious places including Poetry Café, London, Seamus Heaney Center for Poetry, Belfast, New York University, New York, Western Writers' Center, Galway, Bowery Poetry Place, New York, The Kring, Amsterdam, P.E.N. Paris, Knox College, Illinois, Whittier College, California, Baruch College, New York, WB Yeats' Center, Sligo, Gustav Stressemann Institute, Bonn, Rubin Museum, New York, Irish Writers' Centre, Dublin, The Guardian Newsroom, London, Trois Rivieres Poetry Festival, Quebec, Arnofini, Bristol, Borders, London, Slovenian Book Days, Ljubljana, March Hare, Newfoundland, Canada, Royal Society of Dramatic Arts, London, Gunter Grass House, Bremen, GTZ, Kathmandu, Ruigoord, Amsterdam, Nehru Center, London, Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Indian International Center, New Delhi, and Villa Serbelloni, Italy.

He has held workshop in creative writing and translation at Queen's University, Belfast, University of Ottawa and South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany, University of California, Davis, Sacramento State University, California and New York University, New York. He was at the Poetry Parnassus Festival organized to celebrate London Olympics 2012 where he represented Nepal and India. Currently, he is in New York as a Visiting Poet at New York University.

He has published nine poetry collections including, Nine New York Poems : A Prelude to'A Blizzard in my Bones', Milarepa's Bones, Helambu:33 New Poems,,[6] Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America,,[7] Annapurna Poems,[8] and Everest Failures.[9]

A collection of his poems in French, entitled Poèmes de l'Himalaya appeared from L'Harmattan, Paris in 2009.[10]

Currently, he edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal's leading daily, The Himalayan Times.

Poetry

Non-Fiction

Translations

Edited

References

  1. ↑ Sharma, Yuyutsu Rd. "About Yuyutsu". Retrieved February 19, 2013.
  2. ↑ Hunter, Poem. "Biography of Yuyutsu Sharma". Poemhunter. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  3. ↑ The Lake Fewa & A Horse. Nirala. 2006. p. 86. ISBN 818569334X.
  4. ↑ Annapurna Poems (Hardcover). Nirala. 2008. p. 150. ISBN 8182500133. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  5. ↑ Nepal-Trilogy: Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang (EBOOK). 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  6. ↑ R. D., Yuyutsu (2012). Milarepa's Bones, Helambu 33 New Poems. Nirala Publications. p. 49. ISBN 9788182500327. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  7. ↑ Sharma, Yuyutsu RD (2009). Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America. Howling Dog Press. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  8. ↑ Sharma, Yuyutsu RD (2008). Annapurna Poems (Hardcover). p. 150. ISBN 8182500133. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  9. ↑ Sharma, Yuyutsu RD. Everest Failures (Paperback). Nirala. p. 40. ISBN 818250046X. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  10. ↑ Sharma, Yuyutsu RD (2009). POÈMES DE L'HIMALAYA (book) (in French). p. 80. ISBN 978-2-296-10213-2.

External links