Donna Kossy
U.S. writer and zine publisher
Donna J. Kossy is an American 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".
Life
Early life
Donna Jean Kossy 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!" Kossy attended Evanston Township High School. After graduating college in 1979, she 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."
Adult life
At one time, Kossy was the housemate of fellow zine maker Pagan Kennedy.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Donna Kossy” as u.S. writer and zine publisher. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as u.S. writer and zine publisher. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5296383. VIAF identifies the subject as 26334900. The Library of Congress control number is n96110244. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994, 2001, 1996 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Donna Kossy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.