Anne Kellas

About Anne Kellas

Anne Kellas is an Australian poet, published widely in Australia and overseas since the 1990s.

She’s been described as “an original living in the whole world, not just a small corner of it”. Born in South Africa, she’s lived in England, Swaziland and, for the past 35 years, in Australia. Like many poets, Anne also has a passion for teaching poetry: she has lectured in poetry at tertiary level, and often gives poetry workshops, mentors poets, assesses manuscripts and reviews books.

Kellas’s themes often address deracination, dislocation and loss. Her work has been translated into Ukrainian by the poet Hanna Yanovska, and into Portuguese by Francisco José Craveiro de Carvalho – appearing in the literary journal, LOGOS: Biblioteca do Tempo (n.10, May 2022).

“There is something dreamlike, and often nightmarish, just below the surface” (Ivan Vladislavic, in an interview with Kellas). She brings “both wit and deep seriousness to her poetry” with themes that “take up the kind of apocalyptic vision of Doris Lessing” (Kevin Brophy, reviewing her 2001 book, Isolated States).

The White Room Poems was shortlisted for the Margaret Scott Prize in 2017, and also received one of two inaugural awards for poetry issued by the small press, Blue Giraffe.

Anne’s been shortlisted in the Bruce Dawe poetry prize. In 2013, Anne collaborated with artist and designer Patrick Hall, in one of the Bett Gallery’s Poets & Painters series. (Poem: My Father and the Cars).

“A poet of consummate skill” – Tim Thorne, launching The White Room Poems.

“What she has achieved with this book is something few poets could have done. The poems revolve around the death of the poet's son, but they do not dwell solely on the bleakness of grief. Out of what must be the greatest personal sadness a human can experience, Kellas has created poetry of stunning power. This is largely due to her skill in choosing and ordering words so as to create a poetic framework robust enough to support the weight of intense emotion triggered by the situation. The reader goes beyond "How sad!" and "How clever!" to an interaction with the text that is both devastating and satisfying.”

Her earlier books are: Isolated States (2001) and Poems from Mt Moono (1989) and a chapbook with some of these poems – The Netted Air – was published by Ginninderra Press in their ‘Picaro Poets’ series (2018).

For more about Anne Kellas see the famous reporter website.