Christopher (Kit) Kelen was a teaching member of the English Department from 2000 to 2017, his key areas of service being in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature. He was also active in organising exchanges and mentoring creative activities in the wider Macao community. Professor Kelen’s key research and practice interest is in poetry and he has published extensively on the world’s most popular poetry form: the national anthem. Kit was made an Emeritus Professor upon his retirement, in 2017. Now resident in the Myall Lakes of NSW (Australia), Professor Kelen works fulltime on his own creative practices: as a poet, painter, and mentor in writing.

Published widely 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, published by UWAP in 2018. In 2017, Kit was shortlisted twice for the Montreal Poetry Prize and won the Local Award in the Newcastle Poetry Prize. As a painter, Kelen has held solo exhibitions in Macao, Australia, Sweden and Portugal.

Literary editor for Postcolonial Text and Series Editor for Flying Islands Pocket Poets Series, Kit has mentored many poets and translators from various parts of the world, and run a number of on-line communities of practice in poetry. Kit Kelen is also a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle. In 2018 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW.

Full-length Poetry Collections:
2017. Poor Man’s Coat – Hardanger Poems – University of Western Australia Press. ISBN: 9781742589763
2014. Scavengers’ Season. Sydney: Puncher and Wattmann. ISBN: 9781922186591
2011. A Pocket Kit. Markwell, NSW: Flying Island Books. ISBN: 978-99965-4227-5
2010. To the Single Man’s Hut [Volume of poems and pictures and exhibition of paintings at Fantasia Galleries, Tap Seac, Macao]. Macao: ASM. ISBN: 979-99-937-3205-0
2010. In Conversation with the River [Volume of poems]. Chicago: Virtual Artists’ Collective. ISBN: 978-09819-8985-3
2010. China Years – Selected and New Poems. Macao: ASM. ISBN: 978-99965-42-14-5
2009. God Preserve Me from Those Who Want What’s Best for Me—Homage to the Romanian Poets. Newcastle: Picaro Press ISBN: 978- 19-209-5780-3.
2008. After Meng Jiao—Responses to the Tang Poet. Chicago: VAC Publishing. ISBN: 978-09-798-8252-4
2008. As From the Living page: One Hundred Poems for Yao Feng [Trilingual volume of poetry]. Macao: ASM. ISBN: 978-937-9722-7
Kelen, K and A. Vong. (2007). Spring Wind Brings the Fireworks—Translations, Variations and Responses to the Poetry of Xin Qiji. Chicago: VAC Publishing. ISBN:978-0977-297-49-8
2007. Dredging the Delta [volume of Macao poems and sketches]. UK: Cinnamon Press. ISBN: 978-19056-1420-2
2006. Eight Days in Lhasa. [Volume of Poetry]. Chicago: VAC Publishing. ISBN: 978-0977-297-43-6
2003. New Territories, Hong Kong: Loudest Place on Earth. [Volume of poems and photographs]. Assisted by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
2000. Republics. [Poetry Collection]. Wollongong: Five Islands Press, University of Wollongong. ISBN: 978-0864-18597-6
1998. Mobius. [Poetry Collection]. Nepean: University of Western Sydney. ISBN: 978-09-587-2934-5
1997. Green Lizard Manifesto. [Poetry Collection]. Sydney: Cerberus Press. ISBN:978-09-587-2931-4
1992. The Naming of the Harbour and the Trees. [Poetry Collection] Sydney: Hale and Iremonger. ISBN: 978-08-680-6466-6

Translated Volumes of Kit Kelen’s Poetry:
2019 Wake to Play – Poems in First Philosophy. Translated into Kapampangan and Tagalog by Papa Osmubal. ASM & The Center for Capampangan Studies – Holy Angel University.
2018 Glasfjorden. Translated into Norwegian by Odveig Klyve. Stavanger: Kalilo.
2017 No Ha Lugar Sino (El Camino Nowhere but the Way). Translated into Spanish by Emma Villazon, Sergio Gonzalez, Isaac Dentramsaguas, Isabel Alvarellos and Guiellermo Daghero. Lima: Galla.
2015 Kidung Alam Terbuka (A Song out of Doors). Translated into Indonesian by Chrysogonus Siddha Malilang. Yogyakarta: Gita Dananjaya.
2014 Arbres et Etoiles (Trees and Stars). Translated into French by Béatrice Machet-Franke. Paris: L’Harmattan.
2014 梯間迷途 (As to the Ladders of Whichway). Translated into Chinese by Chris Song Zijiang. Macao: ASM
2013 Idolatria dos Antepassados. Translated into Portuguese by Andreia Sarabando. Lisbon: Centre for English Translation (CETAPS), New University of Lisbon.
2013 Sacred to the Memory and Secret of the Rain – in two Filipino languages (Kapampangan and Tagalog) plus English. Translated by Oscar Balajadia (Papa Osmubal). Angeles: The Center for Capampangan Studies – Holy Angel University.
2011 Snow – in Swedish monolingual edition. Genarp: Munart.
2010 The Whole Forest Dancing – in separate Italian, Portuguese, Chinese and English editions. New South Wales: PressPress Books.
2010 中國歲月:詩選及新作 China Years: Selected and New Poems. Translated by Iris Fan Xing. Macao: ASM
2008 As From the Living Page – in Portuguese, Chinese and English. Macao: ASM
2007 客遠文看澳門 – Kit Kelen’s Macao – in Chinese and English. Various translators. Macao: ASM

Poetry/Art Catalogues:
Kelen, K. (2017). Up Through Branches – Por Árvores Acima – Painting and Poetry Exhbition Catalogue (in three languages: English, Chinese and Portuguese), SNBA (National Society of Fine Arts) Gallery, Lisbon.
Kelen, K. (2014). Pictures of Nothing at All. Catalogue [in three languages (English, Chinese, Portuguese) of painting and poetry exhibition held at Macau Museum of Art. in:draft
Kelen, K and C. Archer. (2010). Time with the Sky [Poetry/Painting Exhibition Catalogue]. Hong Kong: Loudest Place on Earth.
Kelen, C. (2009). The River Considered as Sea – Ten Sketches of Macao [Ten part poem, in three languages (English, Chinese, Portuguese) with accompanying paintings]. Macau: University of Macau.
Kelen.K. (2006). Sketches of Macao. Macao: ASM.

Novels and Stories:
Kelen, C. (2007). The Boy Who Went Under the Border and Other Stories. Macao: Macao Closer. ISSN1994-4470
Kelen, C. (2006). Macao: A Map of the Seasons [Volume of Stories and Poems]. Macao: ASM (Association of Stories in Macao). ISBN: 999-37-864-0-3
Kelen, C. (2006). A Wager With the Gods [novel]. Macao: ASM (Association of Stories in Macao). ISBN: 999-37-864-1-1
Kelen, C. (1980). Punks travels. [Novel]. Sydney: Backdoor Press. ISBN: 095944310X

Scholarly Books:
2016. (with A. Pavkovik) Anthems and the Making of Nation States – Identity and Nationalism in the Balkans (London: I.B.Tauris).254pp. ISBN 978-1-78453-126-3
2014. Anthem Quality – National Songs: A Theoretical Survey. (Bristol/Chicago: Intellect/University of Chicago Press). 204pp. ISBN 978-1-84150-737-8
2009 Poetry, Consciousness and Community. Vol. 23 in the series Consciousness, Literature and the Arts. Amsterdam: Rodopi Press. 199pp. ISBN: 978-90-420-2724-4
2009. City of Poets – Exploring Macao Poetry Today. Macao: ASM. 267pp. ISBN: 979-99937-32-00-5
2017. with B. Sundmark. Child Autonomy and Child Governance in Children’s Literature: Where Children Rule. New York: Routledge. 240pp. ISBN: 978-1-138-93164-0
2012. with B. Sundmark. The Nation in Children’s Literature: Nations of Childhood. New York: Routledge. 282pp. ISBN: 978-04-156-2479-4