October 9, 2024
The Newcastle Poetry Prize is Australia’s most prestigious prize for a poem. The 2024 Prize has been won by Royal Society of New South Wales Fellow, Professor Kit Kelen, a poet and visual artist. Selecting his work from a field of more than eight hundred, the judges wrote that Professor Kelen’s poem ‘Dombóvár’
skilfully integrates thoughtful reflection on important issues, humour, inventiveness and an engaging partly colloquial tone. This evocation of small town rural Hungary carries echoes of the moral ambiguities and violence of settler societies like Australia. ‘Dombóvár’ uses the form of a poem sequence to powerful effect, shaping a masterful poem that can be read on multiple levels.
Published widely since the seventies, Kelen has more than a dozen full-length collections in English as well as translated books of poetry in a dozen languages other than English. He is the author of a number of scholarly books about poetry, including Poetry, Consciousness and Community, Anthem Quality and Children, Animals and Poetry—Poetics and Ethics of Anthropomorphism. Kelen taught English for many years at the University of Macau, in China, where he holds an emeritus professorship. He is also a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Malmö. Kelen’s latest volume of poetry in English is Book of Mother, published by Puncher &Wattmann in 2022.
Previously, Kelen has placed second for the Newcastle Poetry prize on two occasions. He has also come third, won the local award and the Hunter Writers’ Centre Award, and been shortlisted for the prize many times over the last thirty years. This year he has taken out the $15,000 first prize for the first time. The prize anthology is titled after Kelen’s poem. Kit Kelen’s work can be followed at his blog–the daily kit – https://thedailykitkelen.blogspot.com/
