Koss Works

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2024 Koss Publications – End-of-Year Report

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red leaves, maple tree, fire rings with mulch and leaves

(6 minute read)

Thank you for visiting. I’ve decided to post this early because I’m not expecting to have any more publications this year. Some folks do an “eligibility post” because of nominations. To skip to the link list, click here. Republished pieces are clearly marked with a bold “reprint” and many are new. I’m including art publications, interviews, readings, and and other stuff just to be a completest, and you can see the visual pieces on my visual Instagram account.

It has been a mixed-bag year which is ending on a very troublesome note with the election results and its accompanying existential shit. There have also been blessings in the form of people, literary wins, etc. with a big gift being the publication of my debut book (from Diode Editions), a very good thing for which I’m grateful to Patty Paine, Law Alsobrook, and Zoe Shankle Donald for. And there were also many other publications, the joy of seeing some of my friends published, some poetry readings, new writer friends, and a good start to next year’s garden, which is worthy of it’s own blog post. ’24 has included, I’ll admit, some heartbreak and a lot of hard work, but with rewards to accompany it.

It’s also been the year I stopped trying a lot of things, and well, I let go of a lot of STUFF, including some dreams. Some lit journals. I stopped counting publications, stopped tallying rejections, and quit Duotrope, which saved my attention for other things. I muted annoying people also, and I stopped wanting to be published by some journals. I made a big effort to be more intentional and not give my energy to people who don’t value it also. Fortunately there are some who do…

I’m hoping to usher in something good and new in ’25, despite the anticipated political and social upheavals. I’m putting most of my hope for America’s future in millennials and Gen Z as I think they embody the Age of Aquarius spirit… and are not afraid of change… Or at least that’s how my Aquarius brain sees it. The fear of change, I’m afraid, is a very self-sabotaging energy, which I feel certain parties have shown over and over. And there’s my big political statement for the year. That’s all.

I cried my guts out over the 2016 election, but this year, I started planning and preparing the earth for a garden, a glorious, scalable vegetable garden, a resistance garden, a fuck-you inflation, fuck-Trump-humping, white supremacist-hater-crotch-rocket-gun-happy-neighbor-vegetable-haven. I’ll let you know how it goes next year.

My book release nearly coincided with the election (October 30th), but it was a joyful thing despite the election dread as some people in my writing community made it matter, and I’m so very grateful. Seeing people share photos of the book online and share kind words such as, “I couldn’t put it down” and “I laughed and I cried,” really warmed my heart. I don’t think I could ask for a better reaction. Also, some very kind folks volunteered to interview me and review the book. Please see links, my Instagram account (I have two), and for this year, my Unlinktree page for quick links to recent publications.

I published a lot of reprints this year, submitted way less, had a couple of finalist awards, and it’s all great. I’m grateful for the journals/editors who published me−and grateful for the nominations for Best of the Net for art. I received a bursary for a Granta memoir workshop which was an interesting experience (it isn’t quite finished). I didn’t finish the book but will have something significant to pitch.

This year has gone by really quickly, and I’m feeling super-run down as I embark on this last leg of it. Thank you, friends for being in my world this year. I think a lot about support and what it means to “show up,” what a mysterious and sometimes elusive thing it has been throughout my life. My grandparents who mostly raised me were clearly supportive, but many others in my family and circle, not at all, so when I found support accidentally in the lit community, well, y’all showed up at a good time in my life. I appreciate you, your work, your camaraderie. I’m sad to see people dumping Twitter, but they may be back, as this has happened before. And Instagram seems to be changing shape and people communicate more there… We’ll see. Enjoy your holidays, if you holiday, be kind to yourselves, and hang in there. We go on… We keep trying… We persevere.

Thanks for checking out this page. I hope you find/read/hear something that resonates with you here.

2024 Art Publications

Publications Poetry

Publications Fiction

  • Prose poem or micro about my ass in Ran Off with the Star Bassoon
  • Hybrid, micro-fiction, prose poem, “The Expatriates” in Harpy Hybrid Review
  • Seven or eight flash and micro pieces, Reprints, in Mythic Picnic
  • Flash fiction, “No One Knew,” in Midway Journal (Nominated for Best Small Fictions ’25)
  • Micro fiction or prose poem, “Wings of (Alternate Version),” in Bull.
  • Micro fiction or prose poem, “About the Author,” in Bull.

CNF

Interviews, Reviews, Etc.

Award Nominations

Awards Received

  • Best of the Net Finalist for artwork published in Sage Cigarettes
  • Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist

Book

  • Dancing Backwards Towards Pluperfect, released October 30, ’24 from Diode Editions

Podcasts

Readings

  • Midway at the Fine Arts Building, Chicago, October ’24
  • European Writers Salon, October ’24

*Note if you are here considering eligibility, my ’23 year-end publication list is here!

Wigleaf Top 50 Longlist 2024

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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!

wigleaf top 50 graphic 2024 brown, yellow, and red oxide text

Self-Publishing is Publishing Too

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pink and green square asemic piece with wavy striations and asemic writing in purplish and green tones

It has been a very busy month, so I thought I’d do a quick post with some links to things. But along with these publications, I want to share that I’ll be doing more self publishing, along with producing some prints, and further off, some broadsides. Please keep me in mind if you have a broadside project. I’d love to work together.

I have self published in some form since I was very young from the third-grade comic books, to punk art xerox books made in college and after. But in recent years, I got on the hamster wheel of publishing in journals, and as you probably know, it can be EXHAUSTING!

I’m not knocking it. I appreciate all the labor that goes into publishing, and am super-grateful for my publications. It is nice to see your work in print, online, and to get the recognition and approval that comes with it–and, of course, benefit from the readership a journal has built. I will still publish in zines. I’m not quitting. Just considering other ways to get work seen.

Mythic Picnic, a Twitter Zine (see my publication link below) also got me to thinking about alternative ways to publish work. I think publishing on social is really fabulous and empowering. You should check their account and see what they’re up to (and maybe even send them something. They consider previously published too.

A couple of writers reminded me of what is great about DIY print publishing. Those writers are Jimmy Broccoli and Angel Rosen. Both publish their own poetry books, and Jimmy also publishes anthologies of writers he likes.

Services like Lulu have made it really easy to self publish–and no I’m not endorsing them as a service. But some of these services even allow publishing from Word. No InDesign skills necessary.

I’m getting a little ahead of myself. I do not have a book I’m publishing yet (I do have a book Diode is publishing in the fall), but I will most likely be publishing an asemic art book–plus I have some prints in the works, which will be listed here on my website once the details are ironed out. Plus, I’ll be offering packages with my Diode book coming out this fall.

So my less ambitious self publishing project is just that I’m going to be publishing more visual work online, both here and on social. I created an additional Insta account. This one, for now, is public. Please follow it here if you need some visual pleasure in your mornings (perusing art on Insta is one of my favorite activities). Koss Visual Poetry should be interpreted in the broadest sense. Consider I’m a hybrid writer with blurry boundaries, although I like to think my real-life ones are fairly intact. All of the works will have a visual element, even if they are concrete poems… Think erasure poems, collage, my crossword puzzle poems, and asemic art.

The coolest thing about online publishing for art is that artists get to show their work without it having to be legitimized by dealers. And there is potential to reach much bigger audiences, and not share fifty-percent with dealers.

Also, did you know that you can self nominate for Best of the Net when you publish on a blog (writing and art)? Most journals don’t nominate for art, so there’s that. And Winning Writers hosts an annual contest, The North Street Book Prize, for self published books with multiple genre categories (I’m sure there are other contests out there also). I believe you can submit to some Lambda prizes too… Also, there is the Eric Hoffer Award, which is open to small presses and self-publishing authors. So maybe you don’t have to wait and hope for a nomination. It’s okay to be a bit proactive about your work.

Self publishing is personally empowering. No Submittable or fees. No waiting. No lost submissions. It’s immediate gratification with no anxiety, no rejection.

And now, the promised links to April pubs. Thank you lovely editors for the publications. And see you, readers, on social. Thanks for stopping by!

And don’t forget to follow my new Insta account. And if you have any thoughts about self publishing, feel free to share in the comments.

Literary Publications | 2024 First Quarter

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Like to a Dream, published in diode poetry

It has been a busy year so far, but I’m not complaining at all, as I’m happy to have so many works published. Many of these are re-publications. Since I’m not a famous person, I value re-publishing as it’s a great way to find new audiences for one’s work. It’s also great for getting print pubs online or vice versa. I love both.

Note, you will find some of these on my Unlinktree at the time of this writing (what’s new page), but here I provide more details (and the Unlinktree gets updated with deleted entries).

I just added some photos to my photo gallery here on this site. New photos are appended to the bottom and in no particular order. I’m trying to not impose rules because if it’s a drag, I won’t update it. Enjoy!

duets cover piano collage with multi-colored rainbow keys, duets anthology edited by Amy Marquez

In January, Duets, edited by Amy Marquez, was released, an interesting anthology of mostly flash and micro fiction by writers she has worked with. Each piece was paired with her artwork, and she also invited an accompanying story and thoughts about the intersection of her work with the art. Download a free copy or buy the print version here.

Other anthologies out include Milkweed Press’s Dead of Winter III, Fifth Wheel Press’s Secrets in the Garden, and Querencia Press’s Winter ’24 Anthology. I have work, much of it about suicide and grief, in these. All of the editors were lovely to work with.

I was happy to publish visual erasure poetry in Permafrost and in Sage Cigarettes (along with a landscape swamp sketch).

brown vignetted angel parchment image with quote text from a micro poem by koss in BULL

Bull published two micro fictions. Also see my previous publications with them. In February, Prelude published what I call a transformer poem, which was an embellished erasure from a section of The Waste land. Also see my previous publication with Prelude Magazine.

Action Spectacle, a new ‘zine by Adam Day published one of my “bad dating” poems in February. It was a huge issue full of really great writers. They are a very promising journal you should check out (as of this writing, they’re open for submissions).

San Pedro River Review published a poem I wrote about narcissism in their Shapes and Secrets Issue. It’s a wonderful issue and includes several poetry pals and writers I really admire.

Diode published an update on my forthcoming book in their Substack newsletter. Check it out here (you can also sign up for news about their other publications and happenings.

Winning Writers also included my recent and forthcoming publications in their newsletter, which was lovely. Note their Wergle Flomp Contest deadline is approaching at the end of March. Read about my 2021 win here.

black sprayed erasure poem with abstract skull over Wuthering Heights page

I had five poems re-published on Anvil Tongue, plus two early Wuthering Heights erasures and two photos (previously unpublished). Check them out along with some other experimental pieces on the site.

Two poems (re-published) are forthcoming from Chiron Review in the winter issue, which hopefully will be out in the fall as they are both sort of Thanksgiving pieces (from an anti-colonialist/indigenous perspective). One was previously published in Spoon River Poetry Review and one in Lumiere, so they may be new to you. Also due in March is a poem about loss in Ovation, an anthology edited by Jimmy Broccoli, and three poems in diode poetry’s 17th anniversary issue due out any day.

SugarSugarSalt Lit is publishing, or re-publishing a work called Affection on March 22. This work was first published by Variant Lit and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. I didn’t win, but the nomination was really an honor.

In April, I’ll have a personal craft piece published in Reckon Review. Other than a blog piece I wrote about list poems, this is the first of its kind. Bulb Culture Collective accepted a poem about one of my ancestors in their arbor issue, also out in April. Also, I have artwork in Mom Egg Review’s next print issue, due out in late April.

Also out in April, five new photographs in Anti-Heroin Chic. Find the photos here and the main issue here. This is a wonderful issue. I really admire Anti-Heroin Chic’s “heartful” mission and that they publish working-class writers (and writers of all persuasions).

cover of dead of winter III anthology with rib cage bones and red roses

I’ll be doing a reading with Milkweed Press to celebrate the release of Dead of Winter III on March 18. Sign up for the Zoom reading here. I’m looking for reading venues for fall/winter when my book is released. Please contact me on social if you think I might work for your venue.

Lastly, I have work forthcoming in Amethyst Review’s Thin Spaces & Sacred Places anthology in July, a flash in Midway Journal (in April), and work in Hyacinth Review in May and August, and a large suite of micros in Mythic Picnic in April. It’s a busy year, and my book will be released in the fall, but I don’t see any other publications in the winter (as I think I’m finished for now).

Thank you for stopping by. Keep writing, submitting, creating art, making it in whatever ways it takes, and reserve plenty of time for living. And happy spring (it will arrive any time).

*Update: There was a reading for the Dead of Winter anthology on March 18. It was recorded, so you can see it on YouTube.

Bull Magazine | Micro Fiction by Koss

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Pleased to have two micros in Bull Magazine, also known as Bull, Mr. Bull Bull, and Bull Men’s Magazine. Don’t ask me why so many names but it has evolved into something more inclusive than a men’s-only magazine, and they publish some really great fiction.

fiery red sky background with excerpt from a micro by Koss in Bull Magazine
angels in sky with antiqued paper veil and brown text with excerpt from a micro by Koss in Bull Magazine

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