Koss Blog

(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

• Cover art, Gone Lawn (BotN nomination)
• Cover art, Memezine (BotN nomination)
• Cover art, Book, Lannie Stabile When the Forest Finds You
• Cover art and asemic art, Harpy Hybrid Review
• Photograph suite of five in Anti-Heroin Chic
• Two photos, two Wuthering Heights erasures, Anvil Tongue
• Erasure Poems and Sketches in Sage Cigarettes
• Two Visual Erasures (Wuthering Heights) in Permafrost Issue 44.2
• Asemic bird art in Mom Egg Review print issue plus online feature
• I published a number of pieces on social media, and this was kind of cool and empowering, so it deserves to be on this list (see my visual Instagram account)

Publications Poetry

• Poem, Reprint, Thin Spaces and Sacred Spaces anthology
• Poem, “Living with Dead Poets (for Paula Harris),” Anti-Heroin Chic
• Three poems, Reprints in Querencia’s Winter ’24 Anthology
• Poem, “Molotov Mother,” Reprint in Diode’s Substack newsletter
• Poem, “Untitled (Earth),” Reprint in Secrets in the Gardens anthology
• Poem, “The Girl-Shopping Store,” in Action Spectacle
• Five poems published in Speakeasy Journal and unpublished (the whole journal) same year (will update with editor names in the near future, but it is elsewhere on this site). This is the “flipsnack” file.
• Poem, “Three for,” San Pedro River Review
• Five Poems, Reprints, Anvil Tongue
• Poem, “Airport Meeting,” Reprint, Duets Anthology
• Poem, “Interrupta: Two” in Hyacinth Review
• Three poems, Reprints in Diode Poetry
• Poem, “The Sounds of Night, Instead,” Reprint in Hyacinth Review
• Two poems, Reprints in Lillith anthology (the publisher is already “unpublishing” this, so I don’t consider it a publication as much as it was just a really weird, disappointing experience).
• Poem, featured poet, Reprint in Ovation anthology (the publisher is already “unpublishing” this, so I don’t consider it a publication as much as it was just a really weird, disappointing experience).
• Poem, “Economies,” Reprint in Bulb Culture Collective
• Poem, “February Pond,” Dead of Winter III Anthology
• Embellished erasure poem, “A Passing on the Waste Land,” in Prelude
• Poem, Red Ogre Review Anthology, Reprint from ’23 December Issue
• Poem, Untitled, (Earth), Fifth Wheel Press ’24 Anthology
• Poem, An Alternative Thanksgiving, Chiron, Winter ’24
• Poem, Giving Thanks, Chiron, Winter ’24

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

• “Affection,” Reprint, in SugarSugarSalt Magazine

• “The Craft of Listening” in Reckon Review

Interviews, Reviews, Etc.

• Thoughts about a zuihitsu piece in Bulb Culture Collective
• Interview with Katie Jean Shinkle about my book in Write or Die Magazine
• Interview with James Diaz about book in Anti-Heroin Chic
• Review of my book in MicroLit by Elaine Fletcher Chapman
• Wrote blurb for Kristine Esser Slentz’s feminist experimental book, Exhibit
• Mini-review of Dancing Backwards by Barton Smock

Award Nominations

• Best of the Net, Cover art, Gone Lawn
• Best of the Net, Cover art, Slop Issue, Memezine
• Best of the Net, Erasure collage/poem “Like to a Dream,” Diode Poetry
• Pushcart Nomination for “The Theft,” Ran Off With the Star Bassoon

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

• Eat the Storms Season 9

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!