Born on October 22, 1928, in Cuttack, he started his career as a lecturer in Physics. He began his writing career in the late sixties. The poems and short stories that were rejected by the native publishers were published in International journals.
Mahapatra was a part of the triumvirate who laid the foundations of Indian English Poetry. It included A.K Ramanujan and R. Parthasarathy. He is the first poet to win a Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. His poems ‘ Indian Summer’ and ‘ Hunger’ are considered as classics in Indian English Literature. He differs from his contemporaries in carving a voice of his own. While writing poetry, he also experimented with prose; Green Gardener is an anthology of short stories. His poems have appeared in the prestigious The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India.
The recipient of SAARC Literary Award, Fellow of the Sahitya Akademi, Jayanta Mahapatra died of pneumonia on 27 August 2023. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed sadness at the passing away of Mahapatra. He spoke of him by describing him as a writer who put Odia Literature on the map.