Shiv K. Kumar

Shiv K. Kumar Biography

Shiv Kumar Kumar, shortly called Shiv K. Kumar was an Indian writer of English language. He was born in Lahore, British India and later migrated to Delhi during the Partition. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, London in 1978. As a writer, he earned recognition through poetry, and he has also authored plays, novels, short stories etc. He was a critic and translator as well. His collection of poems Trapfalls in the Sky received Sahitya Academy Award for English literature in 1987. Many of his poems and short stories have been broadcast over the BBC, and translated to other languages also. He passed away on 1 March 2017, Hyderabad aged 95.

Shiv K Kumar was born in Lahore, British India on 16 August 1921. His education was completed in Lahore. He completed Master’s from Forman Christian College, Lahore in 1943, and started his professional career as a lecturer in Lahore. However after partition he moved to Delhi, where he groomed his career as a celebrated poet and writer. He worked as programme officer at the All India Radio, Delhi, for a brief period before he moved to Cambridge to continue his education. After he returned, he taught English literature at Osmania University, Hyderabad, and the University of Hyderabad for many years.

As a writer he started writing in early 1970s and continued writing till the last years. He translated Selected Poems of Faiz Ahmed Faiz from Urdu to English. In 1970 he published his first poetry collection - Articulate Silences, followed by Cobwebs in the Sun, Subterfuges, Intezar etc. He also published Urdu poetry, and most of his books were published from New Delhi.

Published: May 23, 2019

Updated: May 23, 2019