S. K. Kelen was born in Sydney in the year the Olympics and Television came to Australia. He began writing when young (winning the 1973 Poetry Australia Award for Australian Poets under 18) and his early poems were noted for their energy, humour, flamboyance and serenity - and occasional ferocity. His work diversified and matured over the years and has maintained its elan and wit. Kelen enjoys travelling, sports, gardening on cool, sunny days, reading, writing and hanging around the house philosophically. His work has been published far and wide, appearing in journals, ezines, newspapers, anthologies and broadcast on radio. His previous books include Atomic Ballet, Trans-Sumatran Highway and Other Poems, Goddess of Mercy, Island Earth: new and selected poems and Yonder Blue Wild.
S. K. Kelen's oeuvre covers a diverse range of styles and subjects, and includes pastorals, satires, sonnets, odes, narratives, haiku, epics, idylls, horror stories, sci-fi, allegories, philosophical musings, prophecies, politics, history, love poems, portraits, travel poems, memory, people and places, animals, trees, cars, meditations and ecstasies etcetera. The poems' vision is encyclopedic and intimate, humorous yet deadly serious; bustling with imagery, voices, dreams, spirit, fun, adventure, and serenity.
... a marvellous ear and restless eye, a gift for narrative that challenges as much as it reaffirms, and a willingness to tackle anything that takes his attention ... a close-ordering of the senses, breaking open into a visual and aural feast. - Anthony Lawrence, Australian Book Review
... sharpens the Australian vernacular against suburban experience, while foraging through the shipwreck of Western literature. His lyricism is rich with allusion and dislocation ... and a redemptive, recurrent sense of grace. - Michael Brennan, Australian Book Review
Kelen's poetry is also breezily Zennish. - Pam Brown, Sydney Morning Herald
It is headily forceful and enacts, comically, a kind of intemperate will-to-a-better-world and its flipside, an amusing sometimes vertiginous despair. It is anarchic, lyrical, faux-cynical, romantic--all by turns. - Ken Bolton, Coalcliff Days
The taut lyricism and fine sensibilities of Steve Kelen's work are underpinned by an abundance of grace, humour and compassion. - Luke Davies
