Life and career
Sharma received his early education first at DAV College, Nakodar, Punjab, and later at Baring Union Christian College, Batala and University of Rajasthan. While at Rajasthan, Sharma met American poet David Ray while assisting Ray on an issue of New Letters . Ray introduced Sharma to the work of prominent American poets such as William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg, and encouraged Sharma to publish his own work. Sharma has called meeting Ray a "watershed" moment in his life. [3]
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.
He met German Photographer Andreas Stimm in 2004 and his collaboration with Stimm resulted in three books of picture/poetry: Nepal Trilogy:Photographs and Poetry on Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang. [4]
In 2006, he published The Lake Fewa and a Horse [5] and later in 2008, Annapurna Poems, Selected and New. [6] According to a review of Annapurna Poems by critic Jim Feast, Sharma operates "at the edge of a belief system or way of living that has fallen short", a position from which great poetry emerges according to essayist and American poet laureate Allen Tate. [7]
His 2009 poetry collection Space Cake features artwork by Henry Avignon. Reminiscent of traditions in beat poetry, it chronicles his travels in Europe and America, including an episode in Amsterdam where he accidentally consumes a cannabis edible, from which the collection gets its title. [3]
In 2016 he published Quaking Cantos, a collection inspired by the 2015 Nepal earthquakes featuring Sharma's poetry and photographs by Prasant Shrestha. [8] In the Kathmandu Tribune, Arun Budhathoki wrote that it "immortalized the tragic event and captured the bitter memories of the Himalayan on a grand scale". [9] Andrea Dawn Bryant called it "stunningly heart-wrenching, albeit healing". [8]
In 2020 he published Panaharu Khali Chhan, a collection of poems in Nepali, many translated from English. Critic Bibek Adhikari wrote that "reading Sharma in English is a delightful experience; reading him in Nepali, a somewhat bewildering and disconcerting one". [10]
Sharma is the editor of Pratik,A Quarterly Magazine of Contemporary Writing. [3] As of 2020 he was a visiting poet at Columbia University. [11] He is the 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. [12]
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