Stephen Chan was deeply involved in the New Zealand literary renaissance of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He published a large number of reviews, critical essays, and poems in that time. For biographical information and a bibliography of these writings, see:

Stephen Chan Academic

which, as well as listing as his academic writing, gives details of his literary publications.

One of Stephen's essays, giving some critical recollections of this period, may be found at:

http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/misc/chan.ptml

Since leaving New Zealand in 1976, he has continued to publish in North America and Britain . His New Zealand period, however, was noted also for his decision – in the face of the established publishing houses and their reluctance to publish younger, adventurous poets – to publish them himself; and to do so with the latest book design and typographical innovations then being pioneered outside New Zealand . Both David Mitchell and Ian Wedde received their first hardback book publications under Stephen's imprint. Stephen also published Orpheus literary magazine, and edited New Argot , the first New Zealand effort towards a literary newspaper.

Some of Stephen's work was recently anthologised in Big Smoke , the definitive volume to represent the poetic revolution of the 60s and 70s.

Stephen grew up in Auckland , New Zealand , as the first-born son of a refugee family, and his later involvements in radical political activity created a gap between himself and members of his family. Over a period of some years, Stephen wrote a series of semi-autobiographical, semi-magical-realist novellas, depicting a life of activity and gaps. They are not ready for normal publication, but some of them may be downloaded by clicking below:

Some of these works also depict Stephen's involvement in the oriental martial arts, and more information on this can be found in

Stephen Chan Martial Arts