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Koss Poetry & Art

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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

collage with text from an author interview and the cover of Chiron Review 136 (Spring) showing a drawing of two people kissing. Multi colors throughout.

Hannah Greico Interviews Koss in Chiron Review 136, Spring, 2025

I’m so very honored to have this interview by Hanna Greico about Dancing Backwards (from Diode Editions) in the latest issue of one of my all-time favorite literary zines, Chiron Review! We discuss process, privacy issues, form and more! Thank you, Hannah, Michael Hathaway, and all the editors for publishing it and for this fabulous […]

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Photo of print journal drawing reproduction of androgynous women in black dancing in a field with a tornado in the background.

The Pinch Journal | Issue 44.3 Spring 2025

It’s very pleased to have art in The Pinch Journal, a journal I really admire. Very grateful to Editor-in-Chief, Courtney Miller Santo, Managing Editor, Joshua Carlucci, Art Editor, Isaiah Kennedy and the rest of the staff for putting together such a lovely issue (and for including me). There is lots of great art, poetry, and […]

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woman on a trampoline with two kids watching and a windmill in the distance in black and white

Book Review Dancing Backwards Toward Pluperfect | Carla Sarett | Trampoline Poetry

Carla Sarett wrote a beautiful book review of Dancing Backwards and Trampoline Poetry published it. It is a very thorough and generous review—I’m sure you will enjoy it. Note that their reviews seems to be loaded on one page, one after the other, so if you arrive on my page in the far future, you […]

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purple background with white quote text from book review by erin vachon of Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect

Review of Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect by Erin Vachon

Very pleased and honored by this very queer book review of Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect by Erin Vachon and published in Moist Poetry. Aside from the flattering recommendation, it’s nice to see my work resonating with other queers. And I agree that we need queer poetry right now more than ever as our basic civil […]

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gray corn field with white text and excerpt from Kristine Esser Slentz interviewing Koss

Interview (RE) An Ideas Journal, Kristine Esser Slentz

Very grateful for this interview in (Re) An Ideas Journal, today. Thank you, Kristine Esser Slentz for your time and thoughtfulness in this interview. And thank you, Felice Neals and H.E. Fisher (editors) for the publication. So honored! We talk about grief, healing, trauma, religion, and writing queer and working class. Be sure to read […]

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Peeling paint in faded white with text for a book review

Book Review | Barton Smock | Kings of Train

Pleased and surprised to find this lyrical book review by Barton Smock, a brilliant language-kind-of-poet with a heart. Barton published one of the poems (the last long list poem) in Isacoustic, his journal, a few years ago. Find the review here.

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graphic with red black and white shapes and quote from a book review for dancing backwards towards pluperfect.

Book Review: Heterodox Haiku by Jerome Berglund

Very surprised and grateful for this spicy book review by Jerome Berglund in Heterodox Haiku. It makes me feel good when someone gets pleasure out of reading my work. Here is a little excerpt, but please, if you have a few minutes, check it out here. And check out the ‘zine while you’re there!

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earth tone aerial view with black and red promo text for book

Review | Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect in New Pages by Jami Macarty

Jami Macarty wrote a fabulous review of Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect which was published on New Pages today! She expertly wove quotes from the review into an insightful, seamless, and clever. Makes you kind of want to buy it. Find it here on Diode’s site, or purchase a signed copy from me (include a note […]

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field in monochrome with snow and dead corn stalks

Welcome to 2025 – Is Social Media Dead?

Welcome to 2025 and the lotta things hanging over us… And David Lynch just died. I hope he went out gently. It’s interesting, sort of, to see what he meant to different people. Blue Velvet was one of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen. I felt disturbed for days by the scissors scene… And […]

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windmills with blue sky and orange and brown front with lavender promotional text for best small fictions 2025 nominees for Midway Journal.

Best Small Fictions 2025 | Midway Journal

I’m honored and grateful to receive a Best Small Fictions nomination from Midway Journal for a flash piece, “No One Knew,” one of my most-read pieces, published in 2024. Find the other nominees in this promo…

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rural landscape with promo text for interview all in earth tones, black and white

Interview | Anti-Heroin Chic | James Diaz

James Diaz was kind to interview me about my book. We discuss grief, grandmas, metaphors, and humor. Find it here!

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Pink background with black text and "wod" write or die logo with quote from an article interview

Interview – Write or Die Magazine – Katie Jean Shinkle – Koss

Honored to have an interview with Katie Jean Shinkle in Write or Die Magazine. We talk about queerness, Michigan, and grief. Read it here and find out more about Katie Jean and her new book, Tannery Bay (co-authored with Stephen Dunn) on her website.

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