The Structure of Flying Islands Poetry Community Inc. (Flying Islands)
Flying Islands is an incorporated association under the New South Wales Associations Incorporation Act 2009. It was incorporated on 28 April 2021 at which time it took over the Flying Islands Pocket Poetry project which had been operating as an informal association since 2010.
Flying Islands is also a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). The ABN for Flying is Islands 57 806 701 059.
Although Flying Islands is income tax exempt donations made directly to Flying Islands are NOT tax deductible.
Flying Islands is administered by a committee which is elected at the annual general meeting of Flying Islands however participation by the Flying Islands community is encouraged at all levels and in a range of projects.
You can view and download the Flying Islands Constitution HERE
The Committee
Kit Kelen
President, Public Officer & Pocket Poets Series Editor
Christopher (Kit) Kelen, FRSN
Emeritus Professor of English (University of Macau)
Conjoint Professor in the School of Humanities & Social Science (University of Newcastle)
And of course author, widely published poet and visual artist
Maggie Ball
Vice-President
Author, published poet and reviewer. Maggie is the editor of Compulsive Reader, publishing high-quality, magazine-style reviews since 2001
Josh Stenberg
Secretary
Josh Stenberg obtained his B.A. from Harvard College, his M.A. from the University of British Columbia, and his PhD in Chinese Theatre from Nanjing University. He was a Fulbright Taiwan fellow and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow in Theatre and Film before taking up his current position at the University of Sydney as a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies
John Burke
Co-Treasurer
John is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand with over 35 years of experience as a chartered accountant.
John is the principal of Not-for-Profit Bookkeeping which specialises in accounting and governance for charities and community groups. John’s incorporated chartered accounting practice is also a registered BAS Agent
Dylan Jones
Design Coordinator
Angie Contini
Committee Member
Angie Contini is an experimental interdisciplinary artist, writer and bush carer living on Gadigal land, and the creator/organiser of The Salons. She has a double BA and first-class Honours in music and film studies, and a PhD from the University of Sydney (2018). Spanning performance, recording, exhibition and publication, Angie works across music, photography, mixed media, theatre, movement, continental philosophy and poetry. Her current projects specialise in the connection between art, nature and health with an emphasis on environmental sustainability and eco-existentialism.
Richard James Allen
Committee Member
Richard has appeared widely in journals, anthologies and online, and he has been a popular reader at multiple performing arts venues, over many years.
Richard is a contemporary Australian poet, dancer, actor and filmmaker. The former artistic director of the Poets Union Inc, and founding director of the Australian Poetry Festival, Allen was co-artistic director with Karen Pearlman of That Was Fast and Tasdance, and now at The Physical TV Company.
Brian Purcell
Committee Member
Brian is a poet and painter based in Bellingen on the mid-north coast of NSW.
He became involved in community literature, as a voluntary secretary then president of the Poets Union Inc, and continued to publish in Australian magazines such as Meanjin, Imago, Hobo, Rant, Scarp and Southerly, and in anthologies such as Australian Love Poems (Inkerman and Blunt).