S. K. Kelen


Stephen Kenneth Kelen, known as S. K. Kelen, is an Australian poet and educator. His father, Stephen Estaban Kelen, was a journalist and writer, and his brother, Christopher Kelen, is also a poet. S. K. Kelen began publishing poetry in 1973, when he won a Poetry Australia contest for young poets and several of his poems were published in that journal.
Kelen attended the University of Sydney, where he studied Philosophy and Literature. After graduating he worked in Sydney in various jobs then Canberra as a civil servant, and reviewed books for the Canberra Times. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of South Dakota in 1996, and Asialink Writer in Residence in Vietnam in 1998. In 2005 he completed a Ph.D. from the University of Adelaide. He taught poetry, creative writing and literary studies at the University of Canberra and taught in high schools and colleges in the ACT.

Recognition

Kelen's collection Earthly Delights was a joint winner of the Judith Wright Prize in 2007.
Other awards won by Kelen include the 1973 Poetry Australia Prize, an ACT Creative Arts Fellowship in 2000, and the CAPO Award in 2001 and in 2003 and 2006 Australia Council Grants for Established Writers for poetry writing.

Awards

Award for individual works

The Gods Ash Their Cigarettes. St Lucia, Qld: Makar Press, 1978.
To the Heart of the World’s Electricity. Broadway, NSW: Senor Press, 1980.
Atomic Ballet. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1991.
Dingo Sky. Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1993.
West of Krakatoa: Poems. Ainslie, ACT: Limestone Press, 1994.
Trans-Sumatran Highway, and other poems. Cook, ACT: Polonius Press, 1995.
Postcards from the Universe. Cambridge, UK: Folio / Salt, 1998.
Dragon Rising: Poems. Hanoi, Viet Nam: The Gioi Publishers, 1998.
Shimmerings: Poems. Wollongong, NSW: Five Islands Press, 2000.
Goddess of Mercy: Poems. Blackheath, NSW: Brandl & Schlesinger, 2002.
Earthly Delights. Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2006.
Island Earth: New and selected poems. Blackheath, NSW: Brandl & Schlesinger, 2012
Yonder Blue Wild. Macao, PRC: flying island books, 2018
A Happening in Hades. Waratah, NSW: Puncher & Wattmann, 2020
Love's Philosophy. Sydney, NSW: Gazebo Books / Life Before Man, 2020

Anthologies

Poems included in ~
Anthology of Australian Religious Poetry, ed. Les Murray
The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry, ed. John Tranter & Philip Mead
Oxford Book of Modern Australian Verse, ed. Peter Porter
Family Ties: poems of the Australian Family ed. Jennifer Strauss
Landbridge: Contemporary Australian Poetry ed. John Kinsella
Open Boat, Barbed Wire Sky: Poems for the Refugees ed Sue Hicks and Danny Gardner
The Best Australian Poems 2003 ed Peter Craven
The Best Australian Poems 2004 ed Les Murray
Windchimes: Asia in Australian Poetry ed Noel Rowe and Vivian Smith
Best Australian Poems 2007, ed. Peter Rose
Best Australian Poetry 2007, ed. John Tranter
Che Guevara in Verse ed. Gavin O’Toole and Georgina Jimanez
The Perfume River: An Anthology of Writing from Vietnam, ed. Catherine Cole
The Best Australian Poems 2012 ed John Tranter
The Turnrow Anthology Of Contemporary Australian Poetry, ed. John Kinsella, Jack Heflin and William Ryan
The Best Australian Poems 2014 ed Geoff Page
The House is Not Quiet and The World is Not Calm: poetry from Canberra, ed Kit Kelen and Geoff Page
Contemporary Australian Poetry, ed Martin Langford, Judith Beveridge, Judy Johnson, David Musgrave

Literary publications

Poems, short stories and book reviews have appeared in Australian and overseas magazines, including:
The Age, Agenda, The American Pen, Antipodes, ANU Reporter, Aspect, The Australian, Australian Book Review, Block, The Bulletin, Chili Verde Review, Canberra Times, Cimarron Review, Compass, Cordite, Diwan, Eclectica, Editions, Education, Etchings, Final Taxi Review, fieralingue,, Fulcrum, Heat, Hobo, Honi Soit, Imago, Iron, Island, JAAM, Jack, Jacket, Journal of Poetics Research, The Literary Review, The Longneck, Madame Bull's Tavern, Magic Sam, Masthead, Meanjin, Metre, Meuse, Muse, Narcissus, Nation Review, Newcastle Herald, New Poetry, Nguoi HaNoi ‘Hanoi People’, Nimrod International: journal of poetry and prose, Otis Rush, Outrider, Overland, The Pen, Poetry Australia, Poetry Canada, Poetry Kanto, Poetry Review, poetryX, Poets Choice '76, '77, 78, 79, Polar Bear, Prague Literary Review, Prism International, P-76, The Reader, Salt, Melbourne Sunday Herald, Scripsi, Siglo, Slow Dancer, South Dakota Review, Southerly, Stand, Surfers Paradise, Sydney Morning Herald, Taj Mahal Review, Tien Ve, Thylazine, Timber Creek Review, Union Recorder, Verse, Vietnam Cultural Window, Voices, Your Friendly Fascist. Poems have also been broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on the Poet's Tongue, a First Hearing and Poetica. Other broadcasts on 5UV Writers Radio, 2JJ, 2SER-FM, 2CN, Canberra Artsound.