Robert Kelly

Robert Kelly (born September 24, 1935) is an American poet associated with the deep image group. He was named the first Dutchess County poet laureate 2016-2017.

Early life and education Kelly was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Samuel Jason and Margaret Rose Kelly née Kane. A Transparent Tree, Kingston: McPherson & Company, 1985. The Scorpions (new edition), Barrytown: Station Hill Press, 1985. Doctor of Silence, Kingston: McPherson & Company, 1988. Cat Scratch Fever, McPherson & Company, 1990. Queen of Terrors, McPherson & Company, 1994. The Book from the Sky, Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2008. The Logic of the World, McPherson & Company, 2010. The Work of the Heart, New York Rio de Janeiro Paris: Dr. Cicero, 2020

Plays Oedipus After Colonus, and other plays, New York: Dr. Cicero Books, 2014. The play Oedipus After Colonus takes as its point of departure Oedipus at Colonus, by Sophocles: it was first performed in 2010 under the direction of Crichton Atkinson at the HERE Arts Center in New York City as a part of HEREstay Festival - September, 2010.

Anthologies A Controversy of Poets: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Edited with Paris Leary, Garden City: Doubleday, 1965. A Voice Full of Cities: The Collected Essays of Robert Kelly, Edited by Pierre Joris & Peter Cockelbergh, New York: Contra Mundum Press, 2014. A City Full of Voices: Essays on the Work of Robert Kelly, Edited by Pierre Joris with Peter Cockelbergh & Joel Newberger, New York: Contra Mundum Press, 2020.

Magazine affiliations Chelsea Review (now Chelsea), co-founder, ed. 1957–1960. Trobar (with George Economou), co-editor 1960–1965. Matter, Editor, 1963– . Online edition, 2003– Matter, Online edition. Caterpillar, contributing editor 1968–1972. Los, guest editor New Series No. 1, 1975. Alcheringa:ethnopoetics, contributing editor, 1977–1980. Sulfur, Contributing editor 1980-1981 Conjunctions, contributing editor 1990–. Poetry International, contributing editor 1996–.

Metambesen Kelly and Charlotte Mandell co-founded Metambesen.org(exploring the "flanges of words") in 2014. The homepage reads: "As citizens in the commonwealth of language, we are anxious to make new work freely and easily available, using the swift herald of the internet to bring readers chapbooks and other texts they can read and download without cost." To date they have published over forty texts.

Translations into other languages Poems and stories have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German and Serbian. Su cuerpo contra el tiempo, Mexico City, Ediciones El Corno Emplumado, 1963. Translated by Margaret Randall and Sergio Mondaron. A collection of short stories has been announced by Christian Bourgois in Paris. Il Maestro di Silenzio, translated by Anna Pensante, Milan, Editore Tranchida, 1993. Translations of other fiction forthcoming in Italian and German. Work appears in anthologies of modern American poetry that have been published in Mexico, Spain, France, Italy, Brazil and Germany. Il albero transparente, translated by Anna Pensante, Milan, Editore Tranchida, 1994. Geschichten aus Russisch, translated by Schuldt, Berlin, Edition Plasma, 1995. Schlaflose Schönheit, translated by Schuldt, Salzburg, Residenz Verlag, 1996. Scham/Shame (a collaboration with Brigit Kempker). Basel, Urs Engeler Editor, 2004. Die Skorpione, translated by Lorenz Oehler, Holderbank, roughboks, 2011. Die Sprache von Eden, translated by Urs Engeler, Holderbank, roughboks, 2016. Postcards from the Underworld (საფოსტო ბარათები ქვესკნელიდან / Saposto baratebi qvesknelidan), translated by Irakli Qolbaia, Published by Dato Barbakadze, Tbilisi, Georgia, 2019. Gewissheiten. Die Maximen des Martin Traubenritter, translated by Urs Engeler, Schupfart, Das Versteck, 2020. Doors / Türen, translated by Urs Engeler, Annandale-on-Hudson, Metambesen, 2020. La Coppa, translated by Maura Del Serra, Pistoia, Editrice Petite Plaisance, 2023.