Kos Kostmayer is a novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter. His debut novel Fargo Burns was published by Dr. Cicero Books in 2020 and called “harrowing as well as joyful” by Kirkus Reviews. Fargo Burns has been translated into Arabic by Osama Esber and published by the Jordanian publishing house of Khutut Wa Zilal. Kostmayer’s second novel, The Politics Of Nowhere, comes out from Dr. Cicero Book in the fall of 2026.

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Kostmayer’s plays have been seen in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Harare, Berlin and a number of colleges and universities and been honored with the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, numerous Drama-Logue Awards, Best of the Fringe, the Experimental Theater Prize and the Otis L. Gurnsey Prize from the Association of American Theater Critics.

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His work has been translated into Swedish, German and Arabic, and his poems have appeared in numerous magazines and been featured by GCAS (Global Center For Advanced Studies) and CAPA (Chicago Area Peace Action). Kos recently completed One More Hymn Before We Die, a volume of poems written in support of the Palestinian people and in opposition to the genocide carried out in that beleaguered land by Israel and the U.S.A. At the invitation of the acclaimed Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish, Kos joined The Friends Of Palestine, a collective of artists, intellectuals and activists from around the world who oppose the legacy of colonialism and support the Palestinian people’s right to self determination. One More Hymn Before We Die will be published in 2026 by Incipit/Zarathustra, the publishing offshoot of the Global Center For Advanced Studies.

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Kos has completed two additional volumes of poetry and is working on a novel. He served for many years as Supervising Writer and Field Producer for Big Blue Marble, the Emmy Award winning documentary educational TV series for children. He then went on to write for a number of episodic tv shows, including Simon & Simon and Four Seasons, before writing the screenplay for I Love You To Death, a Lawrence Kasdan film featuring Kevin Kline, Tracy Ullman, Joan Plowwright, River Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, William Hurt, Jack Kehler and James Gammon. His screenplay adaptation of his award-winning play On The Money has now been optioned by Thunder Alley Productions, an independent production company in Los Angeles, and is tentatively scheduled to begin principal photography in the spring of 2027. Kos is married to the artist Martha Ferris, and he and his wife live and work in the Hudson River Valley.