There he studied creative writing informally at lunch time poetry workshops convened by Dennis Haskell, and became part of a loose community of poets then based in inner-city Sydney, including Gig Ryan, John Forbes, John Tranter, Pam Brown, Kit Kelen, Stephen Kelen, and Anna Couani.

[1] In 2001, his third collection Romeo and Juliet in Subtitles, was shortlisted for the John Bray South Australian Literary Festival Award, and was runner-up for The Age Book of the Year poetry prize.

[10] In 2000 Aitken successfully collaborated with landscape architect Gillian Smart and the Centennial Park Trust to provide inscriptions and a commemoration of the First Peoples for the Avenue of Nations sculpture.

"[12] His writing continues to demonstrate a deep interest in issues of cross-cultural identity and family connection in a transnational context, and cultural hybridity.

[13][14] Aitken's work has been translated into French, Swedish, German, Polish, Malay, Mandarin and Russian, and is published internationally, most notably in Poetry Magazine.

He has also served as a co-editor (with Kim Cheng Boey and Michelle Cahill) of the Contemporary Asian Australian Poets anthology, a book included in the NSW High School English syllabus as of 2013.