What rhymes with la la la, la la la la? Kevin Killian, the poet obsessed with Kylie Minogue | books

yourEvin Kilian was obsessed with the stars. Not in the metaphysical sense, like the great race of poets before him, but the celebrity kind. Some of them were celebrities, as he maintained an extensive database on Julia Roberts, and others were more obscure. In 2000, Kilian, influenced by the works of famous literary sensation J. T. Leroy, and confused about their identity, gave public readings of their works in San Francisco, where he lived for 20 years after moving from New York. He also turned little-known poets into local celebrities, hosting poetry events and giving enthusiastic introductions to crowds that sometimes outnumbered the number of people on stage. “Anyone was a first-class fan,” says poet and friend Evan Kennedy, “especially little-known poets. He was passionate about somebody, and I would say, ‘Who?’” Kevin became involved in the Bay Area poetry scene much as Warhol had done in his Factory—but unlike Warhol, it was not centered around him or his work.

Kylian—a figure in San Francisco’s New Narrative movement, along with writers like Cathy Acker and Robert Gluck—reserves his biggest celebrity obsession for Kylie Minogue. They ran through his work like letters in a stick of rock. In 2008, he published Action Kylie, a poetry collection that included works named after Kylie’s songs (Slow, Spinningaround, Your Disco Needs You), and more abstract scenarios, such as the beloved An Audience with Kylie Minogue, in which the lyrics of “Fever” intertwine with the confectionary monotony of Love Hearts. A year later, in 2009, Killian published Impossible Princess, an award-winning collection of gay erotica named after Kylie’s misunderstood 1997 opus. It has appeared elsewhere as well, reflecting Killian’s credits as a proper cheerleader. Tightrope, from 2014’s Tweaky Village compilation, is named after Kylie’s B-side, and highlights how her “best songs are saved as B-sides or just leaked onto the internet, where they live on as fan favourites”.

These poems and more appear on Padam Padam, a new collection of Kylian’s work that pays homage to Kylie’s 2023 hit song of the same name. Released four years after Killian died of cancer at the age of 66, it was chosen as the perfect title by Kennedy and fellow poet Jason Morris, who had been hearing the song everywhere while they were editing the book. For most Americans, Kylie faded from view after her 2001 hit Can’t Get You Out of My Head, but Kennedy says: “Kevin wouldn’t call Padam Padam a comeback — even though he had everyone dancing in San Francisco that summer.”

An editor, acclaimed playwright, and poet, described by Transcendent writer Dennis Cooper as “the greatest unknown genius in contemporary American literature,” Killian’s devotion to Kayleigh Kennedy and Morris is initially mystified. “I couldn’t understand why Kevin would spend his talents on it,” Kennedy says. But he slowly began to see a connection in the way Kylie and Killian moved through their careers, and how they interacted with others. “Maybe the reason he’s obsessed with Kylie and not, say, Madonna or Simone Weil is the same reason Kevin settled in San Francisco, instead of New York,” he says. “Kylie is more raw and less polished. Her glamor is more attainable. Kylie connects with her fans.”

Morris initially saw Kylie and Killian’s parallel obsession with writing Amazon product reviews (later collected in another posthumous book, Selected Amazon Reviews of 2024), as a strange use of “profound charisma.” Writer’s time. But Killian seems to relish the collapse of the new high/low culture narrative, as his love for Kylie speaks to his identity as a gay man. (“Killian’s sexuality was far from the kinky side of the chart,” his wife, Dodie Bellamy, wrote in 2000, and they had a fluid approach to sexuality.)

“In the North American media market, to like Kylie, you probably also have to be gay,” says writer Kay Gabriel, who provides the introduction to Padam Padam. “In Kevin’s exhaustive details of Kylie’s career and her collaborators, there’s a sense that this enthusiasm will lead to something like a hidden truth. Perhaps what he calls ‘the empty, frightening sigh at the heart’ of her work. All told, it’s clear that he revered enthusiasm for its own sake – he had a deep, ecumenical respect for the adoring relationship anyone has with their own singer.

In her introduction, Gabrielle talks about Kilian’s use of the phrase “a third period in between.” [his poetry] “And its theme,” a playful style that feels like Killian, who didn’t like over-the-top intellectualism, says he used simply because it’s fun. Whether writing about the AIDS crisis of 1997 through the prism of Dario Argento’s horror films, or exploring the human condition in drag as Kylie, it is this third term that has defined his best work. This framework, Gabriel says, was a way for Kilian and his readers to engage in more complex experiences “by bouncing our ideas off something.” “Another, something good to think about, something with a lot of catchy material.” This is a move that will surely be appreciated by the Badam Badam hitmaker, whose career has been all about masking reality through the glossy world of pop.