Koss Works
Writing | Poetry | Art
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…
September is here, and I thought I’d share a few thoughts as eclipse season approaches.
Along with some publications the past few months, I received some finalist news, a couple personal and professional blows, and some Best of the Net nominations for art! As is always the case, success comes in small packets and with plenty of rejection. I feel very grateful for all of it, even the non-wins as they give me perspective, and also for the small and wonderful community I’ve been invited into online−folks who help sustain me and make writing worthwhile. Having a community, plus lit and art things to look forward to has kept me going through losses, through COVID, and through some of the most difficult times of my life. I’m so very grateful for this.
Feeling bad for those impacted by the hurricane. I hope you and yours are safe.
I have been in a Granta memoir workshop which lasts ’til mid-November, so I haven’t been very active on social. With the election coming, this is a good time to not be on it, to be honest. I’ve lived through too much as a queer at election time to be open to any ‘splaining by ANYONE. I don’t have the emotional energy for it this time around. For me, this feels like the most existential of elections in my lifetime. That’s all I have to say.
‘Nuff of my discursions, I promised some updates, so here they are in a digestible list with links where appropriate. Happy fall to you and sending you love and wishes for joy, peace, painless and purposeful eclipses, safety, and good health. Thank you, as always, for stopping by.
Ⓒ Koss, 2024. All rights reserved.
It’s a tremendous honor to receive some Best of the Net nominations for the 2025 issue (out next year). Best of the Net is an annual digital anthology of literature and accompanying art published in a one-year period (usually July to June, I believe). Best of the Net is an imprint of Sundress Publications and they have different category judges each year. I’m happy to have received art nominations from two journals this month (it’s August at the time of this writing). Gone Lawn nominated my “Swamp” drawing, cover art for issue 52 and Memezine nominated my mixed media piece, “Love Letter, Some Version?” from their wonderful May ’24 “Slop” issue. Thank you, Owen Wyke, Amy Barnes, Chel Campbell (plus the Memezine Dream Team), and will be updating this page with more links and photos soon. Lastly, I received a BoTN nomination from Diode for an erasure poem/drawing/collage made from an art history survey book (published last year). Very grateful. Diode has been good to me.
I’m very honored to be a finalist for the Best of the Net 2024 Anthology. This asemic, mixed-media work was published in Sage Cigarettes as a visual art feature in 2023. It’s ink, acrylic paint, and collaged dots on handmade paper. The judge for art this year was Astri Snodgrass. I’m grateful for the nominations this year, and very grateful to managing Editor, Tennison Black and Editor-in-Chief, Darren C. Demaree.
There’s always an element of luck to this. There was a lot of art published in journals, great art, that wasn’t nominated. A lot of journals don’t nominate for art, so I’m hoping you’ll spread the word that they can.
Here is a list of the finalists in each category. Find the ’24 Best of the Net Anthology here.
Karyna Aslanova’s “Economy” from The Ilanot Review
Harry Bauld’s “The Rain It Raineth Every Day” from Split Rock Review
Karen Boissonneault-Gauthier’s “Bird Calls” from Hayden’s Ferry Review
Parag Borse’s “Combs & Senility Pastels 28″x30” from The Wise Owl (Jade Edition)
Brendan Bray’s “Dive” from Beaver Magazine
Kathy Bruce’s “Untitled” from Haus-a-rest
Michael Campbell’s “Mothers of Mercy” from Cream Scene Carnival
Camryn Casey’s “Edible Sun” from 128 LIT
Camryn Casey’s “Melatonin” from 128 LIT
Nathan Cho’s “Mirrored Glare” from Tint Journal
Minhee Chung’s “An Ocean Wide” from Santa Clara Review
Tyler Cohen’s “Semantic Shift” from MUTHA Magazine
Rachel Coyne’s “Untitled” from Kitchen Table Quarterly
jessi eoin’s “unexpected joy” from just femme & dandy
Catherine-Esther Cowi’s “Heirloom” from Aquifer: The Florida Review Online
Johnny Damm’s Excerpt from”I’m a Cop” from ANMLY
Martins Deep’s “Untitled” from Radon Journal
James Diaz’s “I HAVE A MOTHER LIKE THAT TOO” from The Dawn Review
Darren Donate’s “CODEX” from COMP: an interdisciplinary journal
Arnold Fokam’s “Essence of Life” from West Trade Review
Daniel Kent Foley’s “Preservatoin vs. Retention” from Split Lip Magazine
Peyton Fultz’s “Liminal” from Phoebe
Helen Gwyn Jones’s “The Poisoner” from Acropolis Journal
Megan Joubert’s “Leggy Lady of Leisure” from fifth wheel press
Amy Lynne Hill’s Cover Art (Issue 13) from Screen Door Review
Anastasia Hiorns’ “Untitled 2” from ANMLY
Jacqueline Huskisson’s “Playroom” from long con magazine
Caylin Jayde’s “Self Portrait in Spring” from Sixth Finch
Jezzelle Kellam’s “Reverence For My Cell” from Jet Fuel Review
Koss’ “Love Letter to Queers Who Suicided.” from Sage Cigarettes Magazine
Janis Ledwell-Hunt’s “UNTITLED – BUG” from Flapper Press
Nora de Mariaffi’s “Eden” from orangepeel literary magazine
Laura Marker’s “Witness” from Metachrosis Literary
Aiyana Masla’s “July Pelvis” from West Trestle Review
Tajla Medeiros’s “The Last Bird” from Raw Lit Mag
Judy Moore’s “Everything Is Somewhat Repaired: Images That Reflect Yourself” from The Offing
Dimeji Onafuwa’s “Introspection (Ironu)” from North Carolina Literary Review
Taban Peter Pal’s “Untitled” from The Wise Owl (Pine Edition)
Bethann Parker’s “Ship Out to Sea” from Terrain.org
Erin Bryant Petty’s “Knowledge” from The Icarus Writing Collective
Theresa Pisani’s “A Summer Night at the Palace” from Split Lip Magazine
Jan Price’s “Forgiving” from Eastern Iowa Review
Kathleen Radigan’s “The Cloud” from Shenandoah
John Robinson’s “Self-Portrait Machine 1” from Sixth Finch
Nichola Rodgers’ “‘Wish Thee wurr err’” from Haus-a-rest
Carolyn Supinka’s “The Ocean Floor” from Ecotone
Luke Sutherland’s “Untitled” from ANMLY
Irina Tall’s “Untitled 4” from The Selkie Publications
Regina Valmadrid and Em Violet’s “In Reverie” from the borderline
Chris Vaughan’s “Prospero’s Nephew’s Notebook (Page 1)” from Big Other
Richard Vyse’s “Mindscape #6” from Mud Season Review
Caitlin Walton’s “Rest” from Crab Apple Literary
Ally Ang’s “Autoerotic Abecedarian” from Bellingham Review
Kay Bell’s “Girl” from BigCityLit
Mary Elizabeth Birnbaum’s “Quarry” from Empty House Press
Tina Cane’s “Towards a Father / Land Acknowledgment Statement” from Under a Warm Green Linden
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach’s “Week 33: Pineapple” from The Account
Heather L. Davis’ “The Pale Pink Ceramic Mug for Instance” from Quartet
Farnaz Fatemi’s “Ground” from Tab Journal
Anne-Marie Glasheen’s “Leakage” from TOWER
Aimee Herman’s “procedure in three parts” from Rough Cut Press
Heidi Kasa’s “Love Poems Are Changelings” from The Quilled Ink Review, Ode to Love
Maurya Kerr’s “My black” from Inverted Syntax
Karen An-hwei Lee’s “THE QUIET COUNSEL OF PEARS” from Poetry Northwest
Hillary Leftwich’s “Scarecrow” from Harbor Review
Megan Merchant’s “To prick a song from a dead bird” from Rise Up Review
Cecil Morris’ “after our daughter passes, we go camping” from Neologism Poetry Journal
Ehi-kowoicho Ogwiji’s “packrat” from Waccamaw
Gaia Rajan’s “Intuition” from Ran Off With the Star Bassoon
Michael Riedell’s “Porters” from Right Hand Pointing
Georgio Russell’s “Relic” from Surging Tide Magazine
Eli Shaw’s “Top Surgery” from Screen Door Review
Saranya Subramanian’s “Navratri on the Muni” from The Bombay Literary Magazine
Yuko Taniguchi’s “Two Views (After Tsunami)” from Ecotone
Myles Taylor’s “Unskilled Labor” from Posit Journal
Mimi Tempestt’s “basquiat’s revenge” from The Ex-Puritan
Christian Ward’s “On Nature” from The Winged Moon
Mimi Yang’s “Dinner Sonnet” from Chestnut Review
Eric Yip’s “雪 / Snow” from Diode Poetry Journal
Skye Anicca’s “Games for Heartland Girls, 1984” from Anti-Heroin Chic
Lindy Biller’s “In the First Draft, The Baby Dies” from SmokeLong Quarterly
Amber Blaeser-Wardzala’s “Costumes” from CRAFT
Nadia Born’s “Mother Tongue” from Hayden’s Ferry Review
Avery Briar’s “Beautiful Meanings in Beautiful Things” from beestung
Bethany Browning’s “How I Cured My Depression” from Reckon Review
Jayson Carcione’s “I Love You, Mrs. Tresca” from The Forge Literary Magazine
Christian Emmanuel Castaing’s “Pilgrim Pleasure Principles” from the museum of americana
Brennig Davies’ “Arm Wrestle” from The Cardiff Review
Eun Jung Decker’s “A Repetition of Longing” from ANMLY
Aisling Ní Choibheanaigh Nic Eoin’s “Weathering” from TOWER
RK Fauth’s “A Fever Dream In Which I Am Eve, Exiting” from NonBinary Review
Lisa Ferranti’s “Many Moons” from RUBY
Tracy Miller Geary’s “Addled” from Revolute
Erin Gravley’s “All This Will Be Underwater” from The Rumpus
Sam Khaikin’s “Welcome to Venus” from Pithead Chapel
Phoebe Kranefuss’s “Don’t Touch Me I’m Prickly” from The Rejoinder
Alec Evan March’s “casualties” from Chaotic Merge
Anna-Claire McGrath’s “Rats: A Love Story” from New Delta Review
Samir Sirk Morató’s “Girlish Duties” from Carmen et Error
Richie Narvaez’s “Moll (After Kincaid)” from The Disappointed Housewife
Gillian Perry’s “Somatics” from Cleaver Magazine
Nicholas Petty’s “MR TANAKA NEEDS SOME REST” from The Forge Literary Magazine
Reema Rao-Patel’s “We Americans” from Flash Frog
Dave V. Riser’s “Tirage” from The Arkansas International
J.C. Rodriguez’s “Six Notes on Red & a Red Note on Six” from Barrelhouse Magazine
Andreas Trolf’s “75 Simple Steps to Positive, Growing Change” from The Florida Review
Sonya Vatomsky’s “Here Are the Ones That Went” from ANMLY
Jacqueline Xiong’s “10 Years Later, Breaking Up While Listening to Leslie Cheung” from Surging Tide Magazine
Hanwen Zhang’s “The Neighbors” from Halfway Down the Stairs
Sarah Aziza’s “I Make Myself a Channel” from The Margins
A. Brown’s “Cleo and the Queen” from Honey Literary
Annia Ciezadlo’s “Because of the Droughts” from Adi Magazine
Kimberly Elkins “The Game for Winners” from The Cincinnati Review
Amelia Akiko Frank’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once (dir. Daniels, 2022)” from wig-wag
Vive Griffith’s “My Students’ Future Lives” from The Missouri Review
K Ho’s “Lines” from So to Speak
Jasmyn Huff’s “An Open Wound” from X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine
Rochelle Hurt’s “Quipo Womb (The Story of the Red Thread in Athens)” from The Adroit Journal
noam keim’s “Thinking about na3na3” from ALOCASIA
Manasi Nene’s “Pedalling Uphill” from Liminal Transit Review
Jeannine Ouellette’s “The Cost” from The Ilanot Review
Laura Rubenstein’s “Here Lies the Body” from Southeast Review
Julie Marie Wade’s “The Plague of Flies” from Phoebe
It was nice to see my name on the longlist for Wigleaf Top 50. Congratulations to all of the winners and longlisted folks. I see lots of writer friends on the list, and there’s lots to celebrate today. My piece was The Short Lives of Wombats published in MoonPark Review in ’23. Bonus, it’s a queer-content piece! So it’s a Pride sorta win. Also, Happy Pride! I hope you’re up to some gay things this June!
2023 has been a year of uncertainty, change, and loss, but it ends on a welcome high note as Diode Editions has picked up my long chapbook, Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect, for publication. See more about this in my contest announcement post. The book will be published in 2024, and I’ll post updates as things progress (here and on social).
Rather than make this a 1/4-year post, I’m switching the format and including the entire year’s publications and events on this page. My publication page has grown unwieldy, as has my unlinktree page, which I’m shortening. So here they all are in one convenient place, minus the publications that didn’t appear as scheduled in November. If they miraculously appear online this year, I’ll be updating this and posting on social. It’s Tuesday and I’m glowing inside and grateful to the editors who have published my work, the folks who read and shared my work all year, and especially grateful to Diode who has supported my work over the last few years. I respect their mission to publish diverse voices and am honored to be one of their authors.
Erasure Poem | (Re) Ideas
Erasure Art and Asemic Work x4 | Sage Cigarettes
Photograph | Bonemilk II Anthology
Crossword Poem/Collage | Beaver Magazine
Visual Poetry x 6 | Anti-Heroin Chic
Crossword Poems x 2 | Petrichor, Pebbles Vol. 3
Asemic Pieces & Erasure Collage x 4 | diode poetry Vol. 16., No. 3
Asemic Cover Art and Inside Publication | Cutbow Quarterly
Visual Poem | Beaver Magazine, October ’23
Asemic Pieces x 3 | Up the Staircase Quarterly Nov. ’23
Cover Art | Gone Lawn 52, Nov. ’23
Three Poems | Anti-Heroin Chic
Five Poems | Speakeasy
Storm | San Pedro River Review Vol. 15, No. 2
Color Therapy for Beginners (hybrid, prose, zuihitsu?) | diode poetry
Ms. Liberty | Beyond the Frame Anthology
Two Poems | Bone Milk II Anthology
To the Girl | San Pedro River Review Vol. 15, No. 1
And So On in a Week (hybrid, zuihitsu, prose?) | Bulb Culture Collective
47/August 11/Black Synchronicity (hybrid list poem) | Red Ogre Review
Eight poems | Roi Fainéant
The Short Lives of Wombats | MoonPark Review
Four Micros | Flash Boulevard
Fall of Toby and Lady (hybrid zuihitsu/published in the journal too) | Get Bent Anthology
Friday, Saturday | Anti-Heroin Chic
Backyard Passages (double haibun) | Soflopojo
Photograph BoTN | Anti-Heroin Chic
Artwork BoTN | Sage Cigarettes
Cover Art BoTN | Gone Lawn
Prose Poem BoTN | MoonPark Review
Poem BoTN | Petrichor
Second Sunday Readings | YouTube
Make the Yuletide Gay, Queer Reading & Open Mic (Dec. 24) | Sign up
In 2024, if all goes as intended, I have publications forthcoming in Reckon Review, Action, Spectacle, Sugar Sugar Salt Lit, Bull, Fifth Wheel Press’s garden anthology, Milk and Cake’s Dead of Winter III anthology, and Amy Marques’ Duets Anthology, so lots to look forward to in publishing.
Happy end of the year to you and may the new year bring you love, health, and everything you need.