Robert Kelly was born 24 September 1935, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Samuel Jason and Margaret Rose (Kane) Kelly. He attended City College, now City College of the City University of New York, (A.B., 1955) and Columbia University (1955-1958). He has been employed as a translator (Continental Translation Service, New York City, 1955-1958), lecturer in English (Wagner College, New York City, 1960-1961) and assistant professor of English (1961-1968) and professor of English (1974-) at Bard College. He has also been the co-director of the writing program at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, 1974-). He is a co-founder, with George Economou, of the Chelsea Review (1957-1960) and Trobar (1960--); editor of Matter (1963--); assistant professor of English (1964) at the State University of New York at Buffalo; visiting lecturer in modern poetry (1966) at Tufts University; and conducted a fiction workshop at the New York City Writers Conference, Staten Island (summer, 1967). He has been Poet-in-residence at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (1971-1972), University of Kansas (1975), Dickinson College (1976), and Naropa Institute (1977--). Kelly has received the Los Angeles Times First Annual Book Award (1980) for Kill the Messenger Who Brings Bad News and the American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation (1991) for In Time .
From the guide to the Robert Kelly Papers., 1967-1969., (Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center .)
