Christopher (Kit) Kelen
Christopher (Kit) Kelen is a poet and painter who lives in the Myall Lakes region of NSW. Widely published since the seventies, Kelen has a dozen full-length collections in English as well as translated books of poetry in Chinese, Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish, Indonesian, Swedish, Norwegian and Filipino. His latest volume of poetry in English is Poor Man’s Coat: Hardanger Poems (UWAP, 2018). In 2017, Kelen was shortlisted twice for the Montreal Poetry Prize and won the Local Award in the Newcastle Poetry Prize. Emeritus Professor at the University of Macau, Kelen is also a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle. In 2017, Kelen was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Malmo in Sweden. Literary editor for Postcolonial Text and Series Editor for Flying Islands Pocket Poets Series, Kelen has mentored many poets and translators from various parts of the world, and run a number of online communities of practice in poetry. Kelen is a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW. At the time of writing, Kelen was shortlisted for the 2020 ACU and Newcastle Poetry Prizes