The following is a copy of the fraudulent email sent by Christopher (Kit) Kelen to me and to the other seven poets that comprised the ”Flying Island” poetry cohort of 2021. It’s dated February 18, 2022- only four days before the book was due to be launched at The Shop Gallery in Glebe.
Dear all
(a slightly embarrassing message to write)
... for the first time in the history of Flying Islands (and ASM)
we are missing a box of books
... approximately 100 copies of Alan Jefferies' new book in the same breath
are nowhere to be found
... so could I please ask you all to just check if they're unwittingly at the bottom of a box you took ... or in some other magical spot
... just in case
(yes, please check in a case)
it's a genuine mystery !
so any light cast thereon will be much appreciated
no need to reply unless you have information leading to the retrieval of said pocket tomes
best wishes to all
from
Christopher (Kit) Kelen, FRSN
Emeritus Professor of English
A mystery indeed?
You might have noticed the rather relaxed tone of the e-mail. Yeah, have a look but you won’t find anything.
Embarrassing ain’t it, but yeah, shit happens.
The reason they wouldn’t find the missing books — because the books weren’t missing, and the reason the books weren’t missing is because the books weren’t printed. So why would the publisher be sending poets off on the goose looking for books that don’t exist?
For that you’d need to go back a month to January 2022.
The books are already at the printers; Flying Islands had been incorporated as a non-profit; a board appointed, a website created - distribution is assured (or so I thought). In the process of incorporation Kelen and his long-time personal accountant —now Flying Island Treasurer— John Burke hatched a new scheme; selling the PDF of our books through the FI website for the cost $5 with all proceeds going to Flying Islands.
As a part of the current cohort I would have a choice of whether or not to participate;
future participants wouldn’t have that choice. Predictably there was to be no paperwork, no contracts, no signed agreements - just a simple yes or no in an email.
No discussion would be entered into.
From the beginning I thought it was lousy deal — not least because the cut for the author was zip. What was more concerning for me was the thought that anyone who bought the PDF could attach it to an email and forward it to everyone in their address book. Anyone who received it could do the same.
If going with small press had any advantage at all it was being able to have more control over the way one’s work is handled and presented. Flying Islands wanted to take that control from me and was offering nothing in return.
My book had taken me ten years plus to write and is dedicated to the memory of my late wife who passed suddenly and unexpectedly in 2011. I had no intention of demeaning my work, my effort (or her memory) by agreeing to such unflattering terms. Kelen wanted a simple yes or no answer —he got it - NO.
(The “all for the poetry community” cover story was flimsy at best and later i was proven to be correct. Flying Islands is a poetry community in the same way the DPRK is a democratic community. Their real-world actual care and concern for their so-called “poetry community” is sub-zero and their self-portrayal is grift at best )
I didn’t notice anything untoward at first. A friend tried to buy my book at the February 22 launch at The Shop Gallery in Glebe but couldn’t —no copies.
Another person I know tried to order my book from the website but it showed “Out of Stock”. Weeks after the launch, how is that possible?
When i queried it with Kelen he informed me that he had nothing to do with the site and someone else was looking after it. When i checked with another Board member i was told that Kelen and John Burke had taken control of the Website and everything went through them. Then i learnt what turned out to be a very important piece of information —of the 8 Flying Island poets that year (2021) I was the only one that said NO to selling the PDF .
By rights this information should have been kept private in confidence, instead Kelen was using it as an instrument to bludgeon me with. I was given a free choice, i exercised that choice and now i was being punished for my insolence.
For a Marxist ideologue like Kelen it was never about fairness or doing the right thing and everything about POWER - the wielding of it. In this situation I had none and Kelen was determined that I feel his superiority when all i wanted, like everyone else, was to have my work published and read.
I wrote to the Board setting out my concerns. Why was my book being treated differently from the other 7 books? Why was my book listed as out of stock while the other books are showing available? Why was my book not made available to buy at the launch and all other promotional events? Why were orders for my book being left unfilled? etc etc
As it turned out there were orders for my book waiting to be filled and a procedure was put in place so they could be . I was to receive order details, fill the orders from the stock i’d acquired before the launch, post them, keep details of postage costs receipts etc, and forward everything to John Burke (Flying Island Treasurer, KK’s long-time personal accountant, toad-faced ambulance chasing accountant tosser) and he would reimburse me. All the above was carried out to the letter except for the bit about the reimbursement.
I’m still waiting for an e-mal from John Burke after 5 years.
Subsequently i obtained a copy of the invoice from the printer and that confirmed what i had long suspected: the “missing box of books” was a mere figment of Kelen’s addled post-modern brain. There wasn’t any missing books because the books weren’t printed, but Kelen couldn't openly punish me for my wrong decision and hope to retain the confidence of the Board hence the ruse.
So anyway, why does any of this matter? Why not just agree to it and be done with it -
Because how we treat each other matters.
Because POETRY should be fucking better than this!
Because POETS should be better than this!
Because people who pretend to respect your work enuf to publish it
should be called to account when that work is ‘disappeared'
Because Kelen whose whole swag rests on his grift of moral superiority should be exposed for the grubby operator that he truly is.
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