I just got word from his sister that Steve Kostecke, the editor of the Underground Literary Alliance, which I was a member of for most of its years, died recently, on his birthday, from ALS.
He’d lived most of the past 10 years or so in the Far East. Even so he did a great job of editing and publishing “Slush Pile,” the journal of the ULA. He was one of the top 3 players of the group.
I published his candid coming-of-age novel “Wasted Angels,” a sex-drugs-booze-in-high-school story about growing up in Detroit. And I sold his zines, plus filled orders for “Slush Pile.” His zines were candid pictures of life as an ex-pat, covering his experiences with social life as an office-worker in Seoul, to drinking hard for long periods in Thailand, to sleeping in the bushes and working at Burger King in Germany. It’s really good travel writing.
He was a stand-up, straight-dealing, fiesty and mischevous guy.
I met him at the Amato Opera House event in NYC — a rowdy affair that launched the notorious ULA into the limelight which it enjoyed for several years before imploding like a dark star only WEEKS before I finished the launch of its line of radically relevant and engaging novels, as sold cheap here. Together we made it to the cover of the NYT and several of the major mags the newspapers of our day — including Black Book, The Believer, the New York Post, the UK Guardian, the Boston Globe, the Village Voice, the Chicago Reader, the Detroit Metrotimes.
I drove from Lansing once to meet Steve in Hamtramck on one of his rare visits to the USA. Mostly we just emailed across the water.
His last effort with the ULA was to publish a “best of,” but because his anthology included good writings from all ULAers — including past members who’d quit in a huff — his selection inevitably started trouble all over again and basically ended up with the ULA imploding. Sad.
Still, it was a miracle that what Steve and a few others started got as far as it did. We were the only alliance of literary folk in the US in recent times AND we were activist (yet without politics). How often do underground artists cooperate? They’re like cats! Actually, the zine scene we drew from was the rare exception — our teamwork successes there showed us we had what it took to make the art and get it out there ourselves with contagious synergy. We didn’t accept how things were in Lit-ville. We said the current situation was lame, irrelevant and driving away readers by catering so heavily to insiders and wannabes. It sure was fun.
Steve had another nifty idea that I wish I could’ve helped him make happen. (We came CLOSE. We had the will, but the way was elusive. Remember, the entire ULA was done with no money or time. That’s the situation of “everyday people” in contrast to those who are part of the system.) It was a flip book, a dual-book — with one novella and cover on one side and another printed upside down on the other side — two in one. Shades of the 50’s. That’s how they published some pulps back then. It’s still a neat idea. In this day of Kindle, print books can still have fun with nifty hooks.
A couple years after our group broke up I’d wondered what’d become of Steve but found no trace. I didn’t know he was sick.
His story ends on a high note, though. Before his death, which happened on his birthday, he finished translating what he calls a cinematic version of Socrates’ “Apology.” Fitting, I’d say. What a way to go. What gumption. Not many pull off a stunt like that. Good job, Steve! Actually, it’s about the best “parting shot” I’ve known. There’s both substance and humor in it, I daresay. I ordered a copy. Here’s a link:
www.amazon.com/Platos-Apology-Socrates-Translation-ebook/dp/B004USP8J6
