Koss Poetry & Art
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Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect – Now Shipping!
Dancing backwards towards pluperfect
by Koss
Published by Diode Editions
Shipping in October 2024
Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect is a poetic assemblage of a life sown outside the predictability of middle-class, straight America, one where the aftermath of repeated trauma and loss is allayed by unexpected moments of connection, empathy, and love.
Koss pens inventive textual routes through life transits, forging head-on through the debris with unflinching vision and grit in a timbre that shifts from existential dread to dark comedy. Part dirge and part survival story, Dancing Backwards transmutes the rubble of trauma, abandonment, grief, and suicide loss into a queer, hybrid elixir, their lived story worthy of telling.
Publications by Koss
2019-2024
(blog posts, keep scrolling for quick lit links)
Publication Links (click to jump to category)
Poems & Hybrid (first publication listed first)
CW – 11-Month Post-Suicide Vacation Poem | Isacoustic
CW – 11-Month Post-Suicide Vacation Poem | diode 17.1, ’24
Airport Meeting | Eunoia Review
Airport Meeting | Duets Anthology, Amy Marques
*Again, Holidays, BotN nom. | Gone Lawn
Again, Holidays | diode poetry, 17.1, ’24
Aldi: Simple Things | North Dakota Quarterly
Aldi: Simple Things | Anvil Tongue, Mar. ’24
All the Dead People on Social Media Haunt You | Lumiere
Alternative Thanksgiving | Lumiere
Alternate Thanksgiving | Chiron Review, Winter ’24
A Modern Kind of Highway Death | Spillway
And So On in a Week | Bulb Culture Collective
Apropos or No | Roi Fainéant Press
Black and White and Red | Anvil Tongue
Black Synchronicity | Red Ogre Review
Colleen Does the DIA | Golden Walkman
Colleen Does the DIA | Roi Fainéant Press
Color Therapy for Beginners | diode poetry
Core Values, Interview Poem | Outlook Springs
Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect | Anti-Heroin Chic
Dead People Don’t Dream Hamburgers | Eunoia Review
Dead People Don’t Dream Hamburgers | Querencia Winter ’24
Desk | Spilled Ink
Economies | San Pedro River Review
(D-Deficiency) | Roi Fainéant Press
Dinner at the Brady’s | Bending Genres
Don’t Call me Noo Noo | Lunch Ticket
*Dyke Cowgirl Takes Herself on Taco Bell Date | Kissing Dynamite
Drunk Michigan Mermaid Sings to the Dead | Bending Genres
Economies | San Pedro River Review
Economies | Bulb Culture Collective (Ap. ’24)
Emma Lazarus’ Outing | Sinister Wisdom
Field Days | What Rough Beast
Fire | Alien Buddha Zine #35
First Address: Flint: Dort Motel | Anti-Heroin Chic
Five for | Feral Poetry
Five for | Anvil Tongue, Mar. ’24
Final Journey: Leaving the Tenement | Anti-Heroin Chic
CW – Flint Girl | SoFloPoJo
Foot Loose and Fancy Free | Roi Fainéant Press
Girl Shopping Store | Action, Spectacle, Winter ’24
Giving Thanks | Spoon River Review
Giving Thanks | Chiron Review, Winter ’24
Gratitudes | Scissors and Spackle
CW – Grieving in Tongues | Bonemilk II
Headache | Dreich Magazine
Holy Jesus-free Bingo Hall | Moist Poetry
Hope | Anvil Tongue
Hue Sung | Red Ogre Review
Ice Cream | Anti-Heroin Chic
CW – I Appeared in Your Suicide Dream | Spillway
If the Phone is Off, Do the Fingers Exist | Roi Fainéant Press
*If William Burroughs Were Your Secretary | Outlook Springs
Imayo: Her Soul Becomes Weary | Harpy Hybrid Review
CW – In Other Countries | Anti-Heroin Chic
In the Limen, You | Roi Fainéant Press
Interrupta:Two | Hyacinth Review Aug. ’24
I Still Talk to You Two Years Later | Harpy Hybrid Review
Items Found in Her Red-Flowered Hippie Bag | Roi Fainéant Press
I Was Told There’d Be No Service | Harpy Hybrid Review
Ensnared/Discarded | Kissing Dynamite Poetry
Loss | Rogue Agent
Love Song for a Friend | Scissors and Spackle
Love Songs to My Ancestors | Sinister Wisdom
Magpie Draws its Sorrow Line | Lunch Ticket
Magpies Dazzling | Lunch Ticket
CW – Max, Carrie’s Mother | Anti-Heroin Chic
Max’s Bedroom | Dreich Magazine
Modern Highway Death | Spillway
Molotov Mother | The Racket
Mother, Superego, When You Died, the World | Anti-Heroin Chic
Mourning Aubade | Amethyst Review
CW – My Therapist Sez | diode poetry
Myth of the Father | Anti-Heroin Chic
Navigation | What Rough Beast
Not on the Railroad Tracks | Bending Genres
CW – Nowhere Pussy | Filth Lit Mag
November Betrays All Jiltings | Eunoia Review
Opt-Out Mother | San Pedro River Review
Opt-Out Mother | diode poetry, 17.1 ’24
Passing on the Wasteland | Prelude, Mar. ’24
CW – Poems White Trash Don’t Write | Anti-Heroin Chic
Ponds | Entropy (defunct)
Repository | San Pedro River Review
Repository | Anti-Heroin Chic
CW – Reversals: May 18, Nine Months In | diode poetry
Sad Navigations of Passerines | Isacoustic
Shoulder Story | Rogue Agent
CW – Six for (Post-Partum) | Anti-Heroin Chic
Seven for | Dreich Magazine
Seven for | Anvil Tongue, Mar. ’24
Skins | Chiron Review
Skins | Anvil Tongue, Mar. ’24
Slippery Gods | Prelude
Soft Address to the Bottleneck: In Stillpoint Two | Amethyst Review
Soft Address to the Bottleneck: In Stillpoint Two | Hyacinth Review
Space Changes | What Rough Beast
Space Mermaid | Chiron Review
St. John’s Visitations | Alien Buddha Zine #35
Still Life w/Cherry Tomatoes and Singing Bowl | Rat’s Ass Review
Storm | San Pedro River Review
CW – Suicide Suit | Anti-Heroin Chic
Telemother | Schuylkill Valley
Ten Things to Remember About Me When I’m Dead | Rat’s Ass Review
The Dating Game | The Racket
The Expatriates | Harpy Hybrid (Aug. ’24)
CW – *The Fall of Toby and Lady, BotN Nom. | Bending Genres
CW – The Hudson Looks Different | Petrichor
The Sounds of the Night Instead | Boats Against the Currents
The Sounds of the Night Instead | Hyacinth Review May ’24
The Tourists | Westchester Review
Things Without You | 433
CW – Things to Do When An Abuser Dies | Spilled Ink
Three for | San Pedro River Review, Shapes & Secrets
Through the Body’s Bramble | Feral Poetry
CW – Twelve Past Dead | Lumiere
Unbearable Inertia of Clothes | Bending Genres
Untitled (Earth) | Mom Egg Review Online Portfolio
What Becomes, the Hawk | Amethyst Review
What Max Said Before Climbing into her Spaceship | Feral
What Max Said… | Anvil Tongue, Mar. ’24
What Was is Not | Roi Fainéant Press
Where Art Came From | Filth Lit Mag
W. Marx Performs John Cage’s 4’33: YouTube | 433
Without You | Dreich Magazine
Work But(t) | Flash Boulevard
Write Like Them | What Rough Beast
You, Drawing | Bending Genres
You, Drawing (revised) | Bonemilk II
CW – You, Earth | Up the Staircase Quarterly
You Kant Take it With You | Five Points
You, Me and Matthew Arnold | Dreich Magazine
CW – You Told Me He Threw Paint on the Building | Alien Buddha Zine #35
Your Voice, Ours (Seven for) | Dreich Magazine
Visual Poetry
Visual Poetry x 5 | diode poetry
Visual Poetry x 4 | Up the Staircase
Visual Poetry x 4 | Up the Staircase
Visual Poetry x 3 | Anvil Tongue
Visual Poetry x 2 | Permafrost Winter ’24
Photograph/I Still Talk to You | Harpy Hybrid
Photograph/I Was Told | Harpy Hybrid
Photograph/Imayo | Harpy Hybrid
Crossword Poems x 3 | Harpy Hybrid Review
Asemic Pieces x 5 | diode poetry
Erasure Poem | (Re) Ideas
*Erasure Art and Asemic Work | Sage Cigarettes
Crossword Poem/Collage | Beaver Magazine
Visual Poetry x 5 | Anti-Heroin Chic
Crossword Poems x 2 | Petrichor, Pebbles Vol. 3
Asemic Pieces x 4 | diode poetry Vol. 16., No. 3
Asemic Cover and inside pub | Cutbow Quarterly
Visual Poem | Beaver Magazine, October ’23
Asemic Pieces x 3 | Up the Staircase Quarterly Nov. ’23
Wuthering Heights Erasure Poetry | Sage Cigarettes Jan. ’24
Wuthering Heights Erasure Poetry | Anvil Tongue Mar. ’24
Wuthering Heights/Asemic Art | MER April ’24
Tornado Pencil Drawing | Pinch (print) Spring ’25
FICTION & FLASH
About the Author | Bull, Jan. ’24
Always Almost | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
Backyard Passages | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
CW – *Affection Pushcart Nom. | Variant Lit
Color Therapy for Beginners | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
Dead People Don’t Dream Hamburgers | Eunoia Review
*Dictations of Cabbages Pushcart Nom. | Gone Lawn
Dictations of Cabbages | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
CW – Friday, Saturday | Anti-Heroin Chic
CW – Friday, Saturday | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
Gayke Manifesto | Soflopojo
Hair | Flash Boulevard
Hair | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
Hue Sung | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
CW – *Kim | Cincinnati Review
CW – Kim | Mythic Picnic (Ap. 24)
Near-Death Experience at Hero’s BBQ | Flash Boulevard
Near-Death Experience at Hero’s BBQ | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
Road Trip | Bull
Road Trip | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
Sandwich | Schuylkill Valley Dispatches
Since You’re Gone: I Dream You Laughing | Schuylkill Dispatches
CW – Sister Story | Bending Genres
Still Life w/Cherry Tomatoes and Singing Bowl | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
CW – The General’s Daughter | Bull
*The Short Lives of Wombats BOtN nom. | Moonpark Review
The Short Lives of Wombats BOtN nom. | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
The Soup | Flash Boulevard
The Soup | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
TV | Rat’s Ass Review
Wings of | Bull
Work But(t) | Flash Boulevard
Work But(t) | Mythic Picnic (Ap. ’24)
No One Knew | Midway Journal Vol. 18, No. 2 (Ap. ’24)
The Theft | Ran Off With the Star Bassoon, Aug. ’24
creative nonfiction & ESSAYS
CW – *Affection Pushcart Nom. | Variant Lit
CW – Affection | SugarSugarSalt Magazine
The Craft of Listening | Reckon Review April ’24
Some Examples of List Poems | Blog Publication
anthologies
Fall of Toby and Lady | Get Bent (Bending Genres)
Fucked Up History | Punk Anthology Kissing Dynamite
CW – Kim | Best Small Fictions ’20
Postcard to Ms. Liberty | diode’s Beyond the Frame ’23
CW – Grieving in Tongues | Bone Milk II Anthology ’23
You Drawing | Bone Milk II Anthology ’23
Photo | Bonemilk II, ’23
Hue Sung | Red Ogre Review Anthology ’23
February Pond | The Dead of Winter III (Milk & Cake) ’24
A Modern Highway Death | The Dead of Winter III (Milk & Cake) ’24
(Untitled) Earth | Secrets in the Garden (5th Wheel Press) Jan. ’24
Max, Carrie’s Mother | Querencia Winter ’24
I Appeared in Your Suicide Dream | Querencia Winter ’24
Dead People Don’t Dream Hamburgers | Querencia Winter ’24
Airport Meeting | Duets, edited by Amy Marques ’24
Repository | Ovation, edited by Jimmy Broccoli ’24
What Becomes, the Hawk | Thin Places & Sacred Spaces
Because You Are Gone | Lilith, Aug. ’24
They Told Me There’d Be No Service | Lilith, Aug. ’24
Poem, (Untitled) Earth | Fifth Wheel Press’s ’24 Anthology (fc, Dec. ’24)
awards, HONORS & nominations
Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect | Diode Chapbook Win ’23
My Therapist Sez | Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Award ’21
Body’s Bramble | Finalist Diode Chapbook Competition ’21
tiny corpus | Runner-up Harbor Editions Micro-chap Competition, ’23
BoTN 2022 Nominee for Fiction | Bending Genres
BoTN 2022 Nominee for Poetry | Kissing Dynamite
BoTN 2023 Nominee for Poetry | Gone Lawn
BoTN 2023 Nominee for Poetry | Outlook Springs
Affection | CNF Pushcart Nomination from Variant Lit, ’22
Dictations of Cabbages | Pushcart Nomination from Gone Lawn, ’22
BoTN 2024 Nomination for Art (photo) | Anti-Heroin Chic
BoTN 2024 Nomination for Cover Art | Gone Lawn
BoTN 2024 Nomination for Prose Poem | MoonPark Review
BoTN 2024 Nomination for Poetry | Petrichor
BoTN 2024 Nomination for Art (Love Letter) | Sage Cigarettes Magazine
Granta Six-Month Memoir-Writing Bursary, 2024
Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist, 2024 | The Short Lives of Wombats
Best of the Net Finalist, 2024 | Love Letter to Queers Who Suicided
Best of the Net Nominee, 2025 | Gone Lawn Cover Art
Best of the Net Nominee, 2025 | Memezine Cover Art
Best of the Net Nominee, 2025 | Diode Erasure/Collage/Drawing
interviews, reviews, articles & MENTIONS
Koss Five-Part Interview | Mini Interviews
Dead People on Social | F(r)iction
Discussion on Writing | Harpy Hybrid Review
Wattenberg “Failure Poetics” | Cincinnati Review
Winning Writers | Subscriber Publication Update News
Mini-Interview | Bulb Culture Collective
Interview by Katie Jean Shinkle | Write or Die
Book Review by Elaine Fletcher Chapman |MicroLit
Interview by James Diaz | Anti-Heroin Chic (fc Dec. ’24)
Interview by Kristine Esser Slentz | (Re)An Ideas Journal (fc)
Features
Amuse Bouche | Lunch Ticket
Featured Poet | Kissing Dynamite
Discussion on Writing | Harpy Hybrid Review
Main page feature | diode poetry
Podcast Reading | Eat the Storms Episode 13, Season 3, ’21
Featured Pride Artist | Sage Cigarettes Magazine
Bulb Culture | Shine a Light On May ’24
Asemic Art Feature from Print | MER Lit, June ’24
Podcast Reading | Eat the Storms ’25
Art & Illustration
Suite of Paintings | Michigan Quarterly Mixtapes
Cover Art | Michigan Quarterly Mixtapes
Snake Drawing | Schuylkill Valley Dispatches
Tornado Art | Eat the Storms Inaugural Issue
Tornado Art | Inspired poem on Dan Cyran’s site
Cover Art | Gone Lawn Fall ’22
Cover Art | Gone Lawn, Dec. ’23
Two Landscape Sketches | Sage Cigarettes, Feb. ’24
Cover Art/Paint/Collage | Memezine May ‘24
Book Cover Design | When the Forests Finds You
Asemic Art x 2 | Harpy Hybrid, Aug. ’24
photography
Caged Angel Photo | Bonemilk II
Five Photos | Hyacinth Review
Two Photos, Landscape-based | Anti-Heroin Chic
Photograph/I Still Talk to You | Harpy Hybrid
Photograph/I Was Told | Harpy Hybrid
Photograph/Imayo | Harpy Hybrid
Two Photos | Anvil Tongue, Mar. ’24
Five Photos | Anti-Heroin Chic, April ’24
The Fall of Toby and Lady | Get Bent by Bending Genres, ’23
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