Kerry Shawn Keys taught translation theory and creative composition as a Fulbright Associate Professor at Vilnius University from 1998 to 2000. He has dozens of books to his credit, including translations from Portuguese (Requiem, Lȇdo Ivo, 2011) and Lithuanian. His book length translations from Lithuanian include selections of poems by Sigitas Geda, Laurynas Katkus, Sonata Paliulyte, Six Young Lithuanian Poets, and others.

The fountain of Keys’ poetry is in the Appalachian Mountains and urban America, but the roots go worldwide. His poems are informed by America and Europe, and Brazil and India where he lived for considerable time. His work ranges from theatre-dance pieces to flamenco to meditations on the Tao Te Ching, and is often lyrical with intense ontological concerns. Of late, he has been writing plays, and prose tales – wonderscripts. A children’s book, The Land of People, received a Lithuanian laureate in 2008 for artwork he co-authored. His most recent books are Night Flight (poems), 2012; Pienas (prose tales and plays), 2013. Keys is also the English-language editor of the Lithuanian Holocaust Atlas, 2011.

Keys received the Robert H. Winner Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America in 1992, and in 2005 a National Endowment For The Arts Literature Fellowship. He received a Translation Laureate Award from the Lithuanian Writers Union in 2003.