Donna Kossy
| Donna Kossy | |
|---|---|
| Born | Donna J. Kossy September 8, 1957 |
| Occupation | writer, folklorist |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Period | since 1984 (zine) since 1994 (book) |
| Subject | weird ideas and beliefs, "kooks", pseudoscience, fringe science, conspiracy theory, UFO, obscure books |
| Notable works |
Kooks (1994) Strange Creations (2001) |
| Website | |
| www |
|
Donna J. Kossy (born September 8, 1957) is a US writer, zine publisher, and online used book dealer based in Portland, Oregon. Specializing in the history of "forgotten, discredited and extreme ideas", which she calls "crackpotology and kookology", she is better known for her books Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief (1994, featuring the first biography of Francis E. Dec) and Strange Creations: Aberrant Ideas of Human Origins from Ancient Astronauts to Aquatic Apes (2001). Kossy was also the founder and curator of the Kooks Museum (1996–1999, online), and the editor-publisher of the magazine Book Happy (1997–2002, about "weird and obscure books").
Described by Wired as "an expert on kooks [who] has a genuine, if sometimes uncomfortable, affection for her subjects", Kossy wrote books reviewed in publications ranging from Fortean Times to New Scientist. Journalist Jonathan Vankin named her "the unchallenged authority on, well, kooks", and writer Bruce Sterling noted that she "boldly blazes new trails in the vast intellectual wilderness of American writers, thinkers and philosophers who were or are completely nuts".
Donna J. Kossy was born in 1957. She started doing zines in sixth grade, co-editing Kid Stuff with a friend: "It had gossip, fashions, poetry, jokes and even movie reviews. It sold for 5 cents. My mom typed it up and Xeroxed it at work!" After graduating college in 1979, Kossy became involved in punk culture via collage art, color xerox postcards and mail art.
Kossy eventually became a computer programmer, but also published zines because "Publishing is power, pure and simple", and turned "author and folklorist."
At one time, Kossy was the housemate of fellow zine maker Pagan Kennedy. She attuned Chicago writer Dan Kelly to cult "kook" Francis E. Dec. In the early 1980s, she was part of the Processed World (PW) magazine, then romantically involved with anti-PW and ex-SubGenius anarchist Bob Black until 1987, moving with him to Boston in 1985.
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