Adam Aitken

Adam Aitken was born in London in 1960, to an Anglo-Australian father and a Thai mother. He spent some of his childhood with relatives in Thailand, and went to a convent in Malaysia,before coming to Australia in 1968. He began writing in the mid 1970s and majored in English and Art Film History at the University of Sydney. He has also completed a Masters in Linguistics and a Doctorate in Creative Arts from the Centre for New Writing, University of Technology, Sydney. He was Associate Poetry Editor for HEAT magazine.^[1] He has published three major collections in Australia and numerous poems in Australian literary journals. He is considered to be a poet of no particular school or trend, postmodern and lyrical at the same time. His influences range from the English Romantic to the French, American and British avante-garde, especially the New York school of poets. In 1996 his second poetry collection In One House was considered one of the best poetry collections of that year. In 2001, his most recent full-length collection Romeo and Juliet in Subtitles, was shortlisted for the John Bray South Australian Literary Festival Award, and was runner-up for The Age poetry book prize.^[2] His fourth collection, Eighth Habitation, will be published by Giramondo Press. his writing shows a deep interest in contemporary cultural issues, especially issues of identity and cultural hybridity. Adam's work has been translated into French, Swedish, German, Polish, Malay and Mandarin, and is published internationally, most notably in Poetry (in Chicago).