"Where Art is Life!"
Independent Publisher of Phil Kemp's novels and poetry
Introducing Phil and Little Feline Press
Phil's Story
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it” (Bertolt Brecht)
Phil was born in December 1960, in Eastcote, a north-western suburb of London. In 1971, the family moved to Scotland because his father's job relocated. His parents bought a Victorian house that retained many of its original furnishings. This house, frozen in the past, and its overgrown garden brought past and present together, providing inspiration for Phil's later work. In Scotland, too, Phil encountered nature in an untamed form. His bedroom looked out towards the mountains on the Isle of Arran. Phil developed a love of hillwalking and in his teenage years climbed several of Galloway's hills.
Reading and writing formed a large part of Phil's life from the beginning. He wrote his own stories as a young child. The poets he discovered in high school influenced Phil to write his first poems. In high school, he excelled in history and English, which caused him to get accepted as a history student at Edinburgh University. In Edinburgh, Phil experienced a spiritual and creative awakening. Edinburgh was a place where his love of nature and history met. When he graduated from the university, Phil felt that he needed some more practical knowledge to make a career. He also wanted to spread his wings and so decided to do a Postgraduate Diploma at (what was then) the College of Librarianship Wales, Aberystwyth. In Aberystwyth, a passionate encounter sowed the first seeds of the ideas that would come to fulfilment in Little Feline Press. He would not seek a settled career for the next forty years; rather he would make a living from creativity.
Life's circumstances, though, provided unscalable obstacles to Phil's dream. He returned to Edinburgh. For the next several years, he did a succession of temporary jobs, weathered a spell of unemployment and finally got a librarian's position in the UK civil service. He remained a civil servant until 2001. Through those years, he continued writing poetry and even though he shared it with no-one, his vision of the ideal life never departed.
In fall 1999, Phil met online another poet, Sandra Curtin, from Iowa City. They corresponded for several months and shortly after they met in person, they got engaged. Phil and Sandy decided he should relocate to the US. They married shortly after he arrived, and almost as soon as he could work, he took a job as a call center customer service agent for a leading auto insurer.
While working as an insurance agent, Phil was continuing to write poetry, some of which was published and publicly displayed. He also wrote the first draft of his debut novel, which he describes below. In April 2023, he resigned from his position. Shortly thereafter, Little Feline Press was born.
When not working on his writing, Phil loves to walk outdoors. He has walked the Dales Way and St. Cuthbert's Way in the UK. He also cooks a variety of cuisines. He and Sandy love to travel and visit museums and art galleries and go to the theater and cinema.
Little Feline Press
“Imagination is not a state, it is the human existence itself” (William Blake)
"When I resigned my position, my first thought was that I should now use the time given to me to finally make writing my full-time occupation. Three months later, our beloved cat, Nummy passed away. It was while we scattered her ashes in our back garden the name “Little Feline Press” arose in my mind. Little Feline Press signifies not only that I publish my own work, but an approach to art that differs from how art is seen today.
The characteristics that Nummy exhibited-boldness, curiosity, imagination-are the ones that make writing compelling and art authentic. Nummy made her needs known and persisted until they were met. She didn't consider our response to her wants. She spoke her truth without compromise or equivocation. She never asked "Will the market receive this well?" or "Will it make a profit"?
The art I create does not conform to what some algorithm thinks is going to make money. For a long time now, human beings have absorbed the idea that the only worthwhile creations are those which make a profit. This viewpoint arises from the lie our culture teaches us from childhood- our material lives constitute the whole of human existence. If I were to see my role as an artist only to reap material wealth, I would have to produce work to meet someone else's specifications. I could not speak my truth.
The only way I want my art to appear is exactly how I created it. The dignity that comes from being human is the power of creation. Everyone is born with the innate ability to create. However, society’s structures mean that most people don’t get to live to their fullest creative potential. Little Feline Press produces art that calls these barriers into question.
The powerful plunder our critically ill planet for resources and the rest of us pay for their privilege. A tiny minority get to live their dreams while the rest of us are locked in a perpetual struggle for survival. These ‘realities’ aren’t immutable laws, like gravity; they are a construction of our rulers to keep us producing and consuming for their benefit.
For our health, for our species’ survival, we need to rediscover the power of our imagination. If we can return to our original design, we can shape our world into one in which all creations- from single celled amoebas to blue whales, from daisies to elephants-can flourish. We can make societies where all people are valued, all can have their needs abundantly met and all develop into their fullest selves. If this dream inspires, come and join the Little Feline Press community!"
Coming Soon!
Summer 2027
“The Conversion of George MacDonald” is the first volume of a trilogy, “The Nephilim Wars”, which unites the distant and recent past, in a struggle between humanity and the first rulers of earth, the Nephilim. In the search for his mysteriously vanished father, George MacDonald, a Victorian banker, travels to the Edinburgh of 1984, where he meets a young woman, Janette Newman, who tells him his father is a prisoner. The novel tells how George frees his father from the Nephilim’s control, restores the proper order of time and gains the hand of the only woman he ever loved.
"The Conversion of George MacDonald" is a story about two different visions of humanity. What defines "being human"? Is it the ability to produce material security for oneself and those closest to you? Is it the ability to act altruistically, to love for love's sake alone, to create beauty without seeking profit? George's journey to find and then free his father is also one that challenges his life philosophy. Observe the choices he faces and their consequences for all those he encounters. What path are you choosing in life?
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