• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
cartoon face 512 pixels wide

Koss Works

Writing | Poetry | Art

  • Home
  • About Koss
  • Books
    • Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect
  • Visual Art
    • Photographs
    • Poetry | Video | Experimental Works
  • Awards & Honors
  • Publications
    • Poetry & Hybrid
    • Anthologies
    • Fiction, Flash, and Microfiction
    • Creative Nonfiction
    • Features
    • Reviews, Interviews & Mentions
    • Art and Illustration
    • Visual Poetry & Asemic Art
    • Photography
  • What’s New
  • Creative Services
    • Web Design and Website Update Services
  • Blog
  • Show Search
Hide Search
ponds black and white

Koss Poetry & Art

I am here.

Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect – Now Shipping!

cover aerial view of book dancing backwards towards pluperfect by koss with brown tones and black wire and telephone pole with birds

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.

PURCHASE a signed copy


Blog Posts

Bonemilk II Poems and Photography by Koss angel praying photo plug excerpt of poems on black background

Bonemilk II from Gutslut Press | Koss

Honored to be included in this cool anthology along with lots of edgy writers. Bonemilk II is the second anthology from Gutslut Press, edited by Aimee J. Sanghvi and P.D. Hogan. I have a poem, “You, Drawing” in this issue, along with a longer, experimental grief piece, “Dreaming in Tongues” and a caged angel photo. […]

Read More
mermaid tail green on blue water with poetry promo text

Bending Genres Issue 30 | Poems

Honored to have two poems published in Bending Genres Issue 30. I’m also happy to be in the company of so many great writers including: Kim Magowan, Quinn Rennerfeldt, Hannah Greico, and many others. I’m behind in my posting and Issue 31 is live, so be sure to check that out too.

Read More
three asemic writing excerpts in circles on black background with promo text

Asemic Writing in diode poetry by Koss

Very happy to have some asemic writing published in diode poetry this past December. This is the second batch of visual poems Patty Paine published (see previous issue too). For more information about asemic writing, check out this book review in Art News.

Read More
Visual poetry crossword poem by Koss with Harpy Hybrid header text

Harpy Hybrid Review | Visual Poetry

Honored to have some visual poetry in Harpy Hybrid Review (three pieces included). This is my second publication with them, so I’m thrilled to be invited back. They include questions for the artists to complete describing their process, so I did my best to shed some light. This is a great issue with lots of […]

Read More
Gone Lawn 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominees Screenshot

Gone Lawn Pushcart Nominations 2022

So happy to be among the nominees in Gone Lawn’s Pushcart Nominations 2022 list. Very grateful to Owen Wyke and Amy Copella Barnes. The piece was a flash called The Dictations of Cabbages. Other nominees include Susan Triemert, Betsy Finesilver Haberle, Kim Magowan, James Montgomery, and Olga Musial.

Read More
dull green shop window with lights

Alternate Thanksgiving Poem

Alternate Thanksgiving (published in Chiron Review, Winter ’24 Issue) In the alternate universe, we dwell—early morn—in the ironiesthat are Thanksgiving, discussing abundance and at whose expense. I am your “Cherokee dude”and in kindness, you pull a comb through my wet tangled hair, wresting the handle with your weight.You wouldn’t mind my pounds of grief, speaking […]

Read More
dark space photo with list of Variant Lit's 2022 pushcart nominees

Variant Lit Pushcart Nominations 2022

Surprised and honored to receive my first CNF (creative non-fiction) piece nominated for a Pushcart prize for non-fiction from Variant Literature. Grateful to the editors and wish us all luck!

Read More
candle on black background with poetry excerpt from koss poem in hyacinth review

Hyacinth Review | Koss Poem

Koss has a mystical poem about grief published in Hyacinth Review.

Read More
Black and white photo of notebook with a gratitude poem, a canon lengs, and coffee cup.

Koss | Some Examples of List Poems

Writing list poetry is a great way to jumpstart your poetry writing. Use it to generate creative material or organize and refine it into finished works. Lists can be as short as a couple of words or extend into more complete thoughts like a Zuihitsu.

Read More
dark hallway in abandoned building

Meg Tuite | White Van Review

In White Van, Tuite creates her own genre of darkness, of inescapable trauma drawn in vignettes that smear into a miasma of despair. Point of view shifts and blurs, creating a disembodied, dissociative vibe.

Read More
Petrichor publication promo with poem excerpt by Koss on pink background with pink text

Petrichor Magazine Issue 21 Poetry

Petrichor Issue 21 is full of interesting writing and includes a number of great visual art pieces. My work is an ekphrastic poem about Joan Mitchell’s “The Hudson” painting from the 50s, called “The Hudson Looks Different.” Also included is an asemic art or writing piece, made from old journals and sketchbooks, a palimpsest of […]

Read More
Gone Lawn flash publication with cabbage moon face by Koss--a green moon on black background

Gone Lawn Issue 46 | Flash | Koss

Honored to have cover art and flash in Gone Lawn Issue 46. The artwork is hand drawn, then enhanced digitally. The flash, “The Dictations of Cabbages,” is, I think, a COVID persona piece written in the voice of a carrot on the moon. Okay, I hope I didn’t spoil it. It’s unlike anything I’ve written. […]

Read More
123456789
123456789

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Let’s Connect on Social!

  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2025 Koss | Log in