Rebecca Kosick
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rkokayokay.bsky.social
Rebecca Kosick
@rkokayokay.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Comparative Poetry and Poetics. Co-director Bristol Poetry Institute. Out now: HÉLIO OITICICA: SECRET POETICS. Out next: DISPATCHES FROM THE AVANT-GARAGE: THE ALTERNATIVE PRESS. Bristol, England // Lake Michigan
Tomorrow in Britain I’ll be getting a blood draw and working on a grant but at least there’s some very Michigan things happening somewhere
November 26, 2025 at 4:59 PM
broadsides, postcards, and handmade works, Dispatches from the Avant-Garage establishes the press as a vital, innovative force in postmodern American literature and art.”
—William Barillas, author of The Midwestern Pastoral: Place and Landscape in Literature of the American Heartland (Barillias 2/2)
November 26, 2025 at 10:57 AM
“Emerging from Detroit rather than the coastal capitals of publishing and art, the Alternative Press reimagined the possibilities of collective creation and circulation. Through Rebecca Kosick’s keen analysis and a generous selection of reproduced (Barillas 1/2)
November 26, 2025 at 10:57 AM
We should be grateful to Kosick for the gift she has given us.”
—John Yau, author Diary of Small Discontents: New and Selected Poems, 1974–2024 (Yau 5/5)
November 26, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Bumper stickers, poems handwritten on postcards, artworks, broadsides, and other ephemera were put into a manila envelope and mailed to subscribers and friends. This partial record is the only one we have. (Yau 4/5)
November 26, 2025 at 10:57 AM
and figures such as Amiri Baraka, Ted Berrigan, Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg, Alice Notley, John Sinclair, and Anne Waldman have become belatedly recognized by the literary establishment. As Kosick points out, many of the works were lost. (Yau 3/5)
November 26, 2025 at 10:57 AM
For thirty years, they ran a press in Michigan that brought together a wide range of poets and artists, many of whom did original works. Their enthusiasm and love were boundless. The list of contributors and members of countercultural community grows more astonishing as the years pass, (Yau 2/5)
November 26, 2025 at 10:57 AM
“Rebecca Kosick has done a great service for American letters by assembling the story of the aptly named Alternative Press, which was started by poet Ken Mikolowski and artist Ann Mikolowski. (Yau 1/5)
November 26, 2025 at 10:57 AM
That was my first experience teaching, at a medium security state prison in Michigan. I treasure the beautiful, profound education (not job “training”) I had the luck to receive.
November 25, 2025 at 5:08 PM
"A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home. / I have wasted my life." (www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47734/...)
Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota
Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly, Asleep on the black trunk, Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
www.poetryfoundation.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Rebecca Kosick
childcare for instance is the second one. parents fund it out of pocket, meaning it's insanely expensive (bc of rising wages over time), but only for a couple years. it should instead be funded by everyone like K-12, spread the burden as wide as possible
November 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM