Jacob Isaac is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed English poet. Born in Mavelikkara, Kerala (India), he is the founder of the Saint Thomas Education Project in South Africa (STEPSA) and the founder, owner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Good Shepherd Model High School in Marble Hall, South Africa.

Although he is an entrepreneur and CEO of a business enterprise and an educator, his passion in portraying the powerful feelings and thoughts through poetry supersedes all his other interests. By using imagery and metaphors, he creates meaning and beauty to the feelings and thoughts and to the inexplicable enigmatic and existential situations. By using rhythm and language, he communicates psychological perspectives from the hidden and invisible world of human consciousness through his poetic expressions. His distinctive poetics and persona create a unique style for his poetry, which evoked much attention from many corners of the world.

Isaac’s widely recognized book of poetry, Sense of Enigma (published in 2012), was translated into the Spanish language and published in America in 2015 with the Spanish title Sense of Enigma: Sentido de enigma by Luis Alberto Ambroggio, the famous scholar and writer of the North-American Academy of the Spanish Language. The Sense of Enigma is currently being translated into French and Uzbek languages. His seminal poetic work, Sense of Enigma, has received numerous international, national and state level awards for excellence in poetry. A few of the highly acclaimed awards Isaac received are as follows:

• Honored with Diploma (2019) by The World Academy of Arts and Culture and World Congress of Poets for having served as qualifying jury in Poetry Contest of 39th WCP and in commemoration of its 50th anniversary of its foundation at Bhubaneswar, India.
• Honored with Diploma (2019) by The World Academy of Arts and Culture and World Congress of Poets for having served as qualifying jury in Poetry Contest of 39th WCP and in commemoration of its 50th anniversary of its foundation at Bhubaneswar, India.
• Golden Rose Award (2019) for high humanity quality and writing in the field of Arts and Literature, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 
• He is an executive board member of World Academy of Arts and Culture(W.A.A.C.) and World Congress of Poets (WCP) in India.
• World Brotherhood and Peace through Poetry Award (2018) by the United Poets Laureate International at the 25th World Congress of Poets, Bangkok, Thailand
• Mystic Kalinga Literary Award of 2017, Bhubaneswar, India
• Award for Excellence in Poetry (2017), Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad, India.
• Honorable English Poet Award (2014), awarded by the World Academy of Arts and Culture (WAAC) at the 34th World Congress of Poets (WCP), Peru, South America.
• Poetry Prize for Excellence (2014) by the 23rd World Congress of Poets, Osaka, Japan.
• Sahithya Ratna Award of 2013, awarded by the Inter-Continental Cultural Association, Chandigarh, India.
• Michael Madhusudan Award of 2013, Calcutta, India.
• Ambassador of Peace Through Poetry and Education in South Africa, awarded by the Third Universal Congress of Hispanic-American Poetry (CUPHI 111), Los Angeles, USA.
• Best Poet of the World Award (2013), awarded in commemoration of Uzbek Language Founder, Sultan of Ghazad, Uzbekistan.
• Excellence in Poetry Award (2011), awarded by the United Poets Laureate International at the 22nd World Congress of Poets, Larissa, Greece.
• Isaac was conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature (Lit. D.) in recognition for his literary contributions by the World Academy of Arts and Culture (recognized by UNESCO) at the 34th World Congress of Poets held in Peru from November 10 to 14, 2014. Dr. Maurus Young President of the World Academy of Arts and Culture and the World Congress of Poets said that the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature was conferred to him not only for his significant literary contributions, but also for promoting “the sacred movement of world brotherhood and peace through poetry.”

Isaac’s second book of poetry titled, Suggestion, was published in 2015 along with a compilation of the poems of Dr. Ernesto Kahan, the famous poet, medical professor and scientist from Israel. Dr. Susana Roberts, Vice Director of IFLAC Latin America and the World Academy of Arts and Culture said, “This great book of two eminent contemporary writers – Prof. Ernesto Kahan from Israel and Jacob Isaac from India – is valuable not only for its originality, but with the depth and fullness they communicate internal and external human states, full of existentialism, immerse in situations that somebody surely suffered or maybe we cannot realize and they are or have been latent in every circumstance of life. Here the verb comes into communication with the other.”

As a bilingual poet and scholar, Isaac has been proficient in depicting his powerful feelings and contemporaneous thoughts streaming through his consciousness in both the English and Malayalam languages while living in the Indian and South African cultures. He has published numerous poems in Malayalam language of which two are prosodic and rhythmic mini epic poems: “Natya Graham” and “Vakkai Jwalikkuka.” In these two mini epic poems, Isaac went beyond our common understanding of Malayalam poetic sensibilities and created a new prosodic poetic style through its simplicity in narration and poetic style. The first Malayalam book he co-authored with Dr. Babu Cherian, titled Jnananikshepam Patavum Patanavum (the English translation of this book title is The Roots of Modern Journalism in Kerala), won the “Thayatt Award of 2003,” which is a prestigious state level award for a Malayalam language non-fiction book. This is currently a prescribed book for the undergraduate students in Kerala University.

As the founder, owner, and the CEO of the prestigious Good Shepherd Model High School in Marble Hall, South Africa, he has taken a leading role in providing a better education for the black community who fell behind due to the historically debilitating social effects of the now defunct apartheid which created an unequal system of education. Isaac is currently making significant contributions in educating and shaping the minds of the young men and women in the post-apartheid South Africa as an educational entrepreneur.

In addition to his hectic schedule and responsibilities as the CEO of a major educational enterprise, he is also actively involved in Kerala’s literary culture and movement. He serves as the Managing Editor of the Malayalam Research Journal in Kottayam, Kerala. For his overall literary contributions, he was awarded the prestigious “2017 Mystic Kalinga Literary Award” offered for eminent Indian writers in Bhubaneswar, India.

Jacob Isaac holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in English from Bhopal University and a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in English Language and Literature from Sri Venkateswara University. Prior to his successes as an entrepreneur in South Africa, he was an English Teacher in Maseru, Lesotho.

Jacob Isaac is the son of Prof. M Isaac and Thankamma Isaac. He married Sobha Sara and they have blessed children Dr. Jobby John, Dr. Thankam Jacob, Aravind Isaac and granddaughter Sharon Liya John.