John Kucera Exposed As Serial Plagiarist
Plagiarism by John Kucera. I have been informed by Gabriel Ehri, the executive director of Friends Publishing Corporation, who publish Friends Journal that a poem they published as "Glaciers" by John Kucera (real last name Siepkes) was actually "In the Fifth Month of Lockdown I Plant Clematis" by John Minczeski, which was published in One Art in 2022. https://oneartpoetry.com/.../three-poems-by-john-minczeski/
Earlier this week, one of Friends Journal's readers notified them that Kucera has been identified as a plagiarist, who submitted Sharang Biswas's story "Waiting for Jonah," which was published in Nightmares magazine, to another outlet as his own work. That outlet, Future Fires, has apparently published and retracted the story that appeared under Kucera's byline, though no statement is yet available from Future Fires.
In view of this evidence, I have now removed the five poems alleged to be by someone calling himself John Kucera and published on the LPJ Blog on August 13th, 2023 from the Lothlorien Poetry Journal Website. These poems were titled: Explosion; Thoughts on Shame; Lost to Pain; Cohabitation; Codependency.
I am now investigating whether or not Mr Kucera has plagiarised any of these poems and profoundly apologise to the original authors if he indeed has plagiarised their work.
I am indebted to Gabriel Ehri and Martin Kelley (Senior Editor) for informing me of John Kucera's multiple acts of plagiarism.
Lothlorien Poetry Journal has a zero tolerance policy as regards plagiarism and will vigourously and visibly expose anyone found plagiarising another poet/author or artists work. I will be sharing this on the Lothlorien Poetry Journal Blog and Twitter/X.
Strider Marcus Jones
Editor-in-Chief
Lothlorien Poetry Journal
Thanks to your post, a former chapbook winner of our contest (the Anabiosis Press) notified me of Kucera's past transgressions, as we had published a poem ostensibly by him in Albatross #31; happily, he was able to track down the original author and confirm the act of plagiarism. I am taking steps to correct this in the issue itself and, like you, to help expose this serial plagiarist so that future transgressions can be curtailed. We also have a zero tolerance policy for this and, in fact, do not even accept simultaneous submissions (though so many break this submission guideline). Thanks again for your work and for helping to correct this person's misguided and illegal behavior.
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