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Erasure Poetry

Sage Cigarettes Magazine | Sketches & Erasures

February 1, 2024 ·

Honored to have work included in Sage Cigarettes Magazine just before they change their format. Featured are two sketches, one of a tornado and one of a marsh, and a diptych made from two Wuthering Heights erasure/collages, previously published in Permafrost. It’s lovely to see this online as well as in print as they’re sure to find a broader audience.

The editors at Sage Cigarettes Magazine are professional, cool, and kind. This is an inclusive publication that regularly publishes BIPOC and queer writers.

eyeglasses with round excerpt images of a swamp and a tornado on a beige background with promotional text for the publication

Permafrost | Winter ’24 Issue

January 27, 2024 ·

After a very long delay, Permafrost Magazine’s Winter ’24 Issue Has Arrived. Note that this was supposed to be a March ’23 Issue, and I’m not sure how it will be listed on their website. From what I can tell, you need a Submittable account to purchase it from their site.

I have two Wuthering Heights erasure poem collages in it. They are both traditional and digital media and part of a series of Wuthering Heights erasure poems I’ve been working on over the last five years. Use the search bar to the right or see “categories” to see other blackout poems (including some from this series).

Wuthering Heights erasure poetry page with collage and ink and pencil with woman sitting on stairs and claw-like configurations in tanned paper color and pale green.
Wuthering Heights erasure poem with handrawing and digital colorizing and coat hangers.
Permafrost Magazine Winter '23-'24 issue with multiple orange, yellow, and dark colored images in a sequence.

2023 Three-Quarter Year Publishing Update | Koss

November 3, 2023 ·

asemic art with earth tones, watercolor, and black ink characters in square format
Asemic Writing Image Published in Cutbow Quarterly

It’s been a busy publishing year and since creating a “What’s New” page, I’ve been really lazy about updating the site. I see people are actually looking at my blog, so I should be writing something brilliant for you (thank you for checking it out). Truth is, my Aquarian brain is sometimes visual, sometimes verbal, and sometimes able to write things. But I’ve mostly been in visual mode all year… so I hope you enjoy those things. I’ve had lots of publications since my last update. You will find some, but not all on my “What’s New” page. If you are not up to reading, you can certainly skip to that page for quick links. But know there are some erasure poems at the end of this article.

Compared to other years I submitted SIGNIFICANTLY less this year, but I did submit some. You may have read the popular blog post suggesting you submit 100 subs. I think 200-300 is a better range if you are serious about publishing. Of course, if you do long-form writing, 300 will probably not be possible, but if you write microfiction, flash, and poetry, maybe…


You will hear criticism about sending lots of subs and, of course, editors would like to feel their magazine is special so you should only submit to them and a couple of select others, but here’s the thing, their journals can still be special while you are trying to take care of yourself. Subbing in quantity is especially important for marginalized people as we don’t have access to the same networks and, I have to say, privileges that certain other groups have. This does not reduce it to a numbers game — you should still send to journals you like and editors you trust. If 300 is overwhelming, then start with 100. If you’re only submitting to say, those university presses and fancy publications, you might get a 3-percent placement. From what I’ve heard, this would not be a bad number, depending on the acceptance rates of the publications. But enough of my advice.

So here are a few highlights of my publishing life since April (when I published my last update). I had five poems including a new erasure published in Speakeasy, a new queer journal. They are to be compiled into their inaugural issue. If you like Transformers, you’ll like the erasure. It’s so nice to get a little love for erasure poems.

Cutbow included an asemic piece and used it for the cover (check out the main image on this page). If you haven’t seen Cutbow, it’s a very professionally managed (by editor, Arden Hunter) print and digital journal for experimental and visual poetry.

pink flamingos with beaver mag text and orange and pink psychadelic background

I have two Wuthering Heights visual erasures forthcoming in the print version of Permafrost. They say it will be released this month after a long delay. Fingers crossed. You can find more of my Wuthering Heights pieces here and here in several other journals including Sage Cigarettes and Beaver Mag, both run by lovely people, I can’t say enough nice things about the Sage Cigarettes staff (Sadee, L.E., Steph and all). Beaver Mag also included one of my crossword poem/collages in their “Tacky and Tasteless” issue this past summer. Beaver Mag is a queer-friendly newer journal with very diverse taste in art and poetry. They are LOVELY and friendly. You should send them work if they seem like a good fit.

black eyeglasses with purple lenses on pink background with promotional text

Another of my favorite journals for experimental work, Petrichor, also published crossword poems in their latest giant issue. They were published in the Pebbles section and they have a new future/sci-fi call up soon you might want to check out. I believe the deadline was extended, but I’d check out their Twitter or Blue Sky page for updates. Petrichor also blew me away with a BoTN nomination for an ekphrastic poem they previously published. Find it here. Seth (EIC) is another extremely professional editor and I highly recommend Petrichor, especially for experimental writing and visual poetry.

I have several new asemic writing pieces up at Up the Staircase Quarterly. They do an excellent job of displaying art and there’s lots to look at in this issue, so be sure to check it out. April is another super-nice-professional editor to work with.


I was lucky to get invited to Second Sunday readings. You already missed it, but it lives on YouTube.


And, finally, I was blessed to receive some Best of the Net nominations this year. You can read about them and find links to the work, along with many of the other nominees on this dedicated page. I’m very grateful to all of the editors for thinking of me, and this happened during a rather discouraging time… Being a writer and artist is a tough path, as I’m sure you know if you’re reading this.


Be well. Keep writing, painting, drinking coffee, and most of all, I hope you’re making space for joy. My recent joys include joining an asemic group on social and seeing all the wonderful work people do. There is something very different about taking in art as opposed to reading for me as it occurs in a “brain-rest” state. I highly recommend inviting visual art into your world. The other joy over the last couple days is the blackout rejection letter poems people are sharing on social. I’ll leave you with several I made. Thanks for stopping by.

Wuthering Heights Erasure Poem | Publication

May 13, 2023 ·

erasure poem white over a page of wuthering heights with jagget lines and holes

Grateful to have erasure work in (Re) An Ideas Journal. Thank you H.E. Fisher and Felice Neal for including me. Pleased to share space with James Diaz, M.A. Scott, Twila Newey, and everyone else!

Check out my other posts and pages for more Wuthering Heights visual poems. They are inspired by someone I love and lost but explore a range of subjects, including grief, women’s issues, and suicide.

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Erasure Poetry | Wuthering Heights

May 7, 2023 ·

I’ve been doing a series of artworks based on Emily Brontë’s novel, Wuthering Heights. Some of them have a feminist bend, some are about someone I lost (who loved this book). Most are pretty nightmarish. Whether you call them collages, blackout poems, or visual meditations, it does my soul good to do them.

This one was from an introduction by Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë) from a very old copy I’ve been working from. This, like many others, is a combination of handmade materials and digital enhancement. This started out with meditative, modulated pencil work. William Blake meets art deco airbrush meets Xerox machine.

Among other things, I’m searching for a unique visual approach to erasure art, and allowing text to show through, multiple readings, is also part of the practice, as you’ll see on my “garbage dump” page. It may not be “erasure poetry” at all, but I’m more interested in the journey than the destination (name), or aspiring to be like something else. And if you can make anything look remotely original in this post-modern era, just yay! Most of the work is jolie laide or art brut. I try to avoid “designing” or being illustrative, although this one could go that way.

View more erasure poems here or on my thrown-together, temporary gallery. Thank you to the journals who have published them (diode, Anvil Tongue, Up the Staircase Poetry, Harpy Hybrid Review). I also have several forthcoming from (Re)Ideas and in Permafrost’s next print journal. Check out the (Re)Ideas on here.

erasure poem from a wuthering heights page with man's head, body, and upper legs from a statue

Anvil Tongue | Emily Dickinson Poems | Wuthering Heights Erasures

July 7, 2022 ·

Happy to be included in this release of Anvil Tongue, a website and book publisher run by Daniel Ryan. An Emily Dickinson erasure on hope, a written poem, and some visual word art based on Wuthering Heights are included. The work is in my manuscript about the suicide of a person dear to me. Some of it is erasure, some of it Art Brut. It defies categorization. See the page here and be sure to check out the whole issues. Also see more images/erasures from this series in Up the Staircase Quarterly (also published this year).

Hope, an Emily Dickinson Erasure Poem by Koss on coarse burlap background in black and white.
Hope, an Emily Dickinson Erasure Poem by Koss
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