About us

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

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

Daniel Ionita

Committee Member

Daniel is an Australian poet and translator of Romanian origin, who has been published bilingually in Australia, USA, and Romania. Daniel is known for his writing, especially poetry and poetry in translation, as well as for his cultural activity leading the Australian-Romanian Academy for Culture.

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).