Biography
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra was born in Lahore 1947. He has published four collections of poetry in English and one of translation (a volume of Prakrit love poems recently reissued in Penguin Classics). His Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (1992) is very influential. He has edited several books of translation and criticism, including An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English (2003). Presently, he is Head of the Department of English and Modern European Languages,University of Allahabad, Allahabad. He teaches Twentieth Century English poetry and creative writing. He was nominated for the chair of Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford in 2009.
Arvind Mehrotra stood for this temporary academic position at the University of Oxford. He came second behind Ruth Padel who later resigned over allegations of smearing Derek Walcott (who had himself earlier withdrawn from the election process). An active campaign to encourage his assumption of the position is being led by British author Toby Litt, and supported by Australian and Indian poets Bridget Khursheed and Shaik Zakeer Hussain and Neil Astley, the Editor of Bloodaxe Books. Mehrotra himself remains undecided.
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