Photography

Koss 2023 Year-End Publication Update

December 5, 2023 ·

Shed in snowy field with oak tree — Shed, Michigan

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.

Visual Poetry/Asemic Art

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

Poems

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

Fiction/Flash/Micro/Hybrid

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

Award Nominations

Readings

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.

Bonemilk II from Gutslut Press | Koss

March 12, 2023 ·

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. I’m grateful that the gut sluts at Gutslut Press have the courage to publish the hard stuff. Buy it here!

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

Hyacinth Review | Photographs

August 22, 2022 ·

Hyacinth, a gorgeous new journal that publishes a range of poetry, photography, and art, published a suite of photographs, August, on August 11, the anniversary of Max’s suicide. Three of these were taken with her by my side a couple of days before she died. Two were shot shortly after. One angel piece also appeared in Harpy Hybrid, who published several poems and photos last year. It was kind and thoughtful of the editors to publish them on this day. They are also publishing a poem about healing from grief in November.

red church and graveyard in england with blue sky background — Photographs by Koss in Hyacinth Review

The above photo was taken with Max two days before she suicided. This one was not included in the review. A black and white version previously appeared in Harpy Hybrid Review.

Koss Poems in Harpy Hybrid Review

June 29, 2021 ·

Honored to have poems today in Harpy Hybrid Review (plus some images and an Imayo broadside). There are other links, but for today, here is one, my usual square “album cover.” There’s lots of great writing in this issue (will add links later). These editors were some of the nicest to work with. They even asked for me to send them an image contract, which I sent. I will be writing a post soon about contract writing for creatives.

Koss poem I was told there'd be no service with angel review. Harpy Hybrid review publication. — “I Was Told There’d Be No Service” poem by Koss in Harpy Hybrid Review

“I Still Talk to You Two Years Later,” excerpt from a poem in Harpy Hybrid Review

Photo of church in york black and white — Photo, Church in York

Okay, I’m totally giving it all away here, but do read the issue because it has interesting work that is not mine including work by Shareen Murayama, a poet I admire very much (plus she did the cover artwork). Also, I do have explanations not replicated here. This piece is an imayo, a Japanese poetry form originally intended to be sung. It has a fixed syllabic structure: 7, 5, 7, 5, 7, 5, 7, and 5. Some imayos were very melancholy and some conveyed spirituality (you can read more about online and maybe even write some). I feel a bit uncomfortable about this piece as I really feel I borrowed it (I’m not Japanese). I know many poets write/steal/borrow forms including popular haiku, and I write a lot of zuihitsu-like pieces, but this one . . . I hope I honored the tradition which I feel informed this poem, and yet, this was written with the purest intentions and that it achieves a kind of stillness. You can read a bit about it on Harpy Hybrid’s page. Read about mahasamadi online (Sanskrit or Hindi) and in the calm of this piece, there’s something potentially socially explosive if read contextually (Max completed suicide . . .). I will write more about this aspect in some essays in the near future.

I like how the words form a path that curves opposite of the photo, creating a slight tension or opposition. Note, Harpy Hybrid is hosting a reading on July 17th. Will add this to my calendar.