Photo by Zoe Strauss.

Thomas Devaney
Senior Writing Fellow in the Critical Writing Program,
Department of English, at the University of Pennsylvania

bio statement

Thomas Devaney is the author of A Series of Small Boxes (Fish Drum, Sept. 2007) and The American Pragmatist Fell in Love (Banshee Press, 1999). Devaney is a Penn Senior Writing Fellow in the English Department at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Brooklyn College, CUNY in 1998 where he was a student of Allen Ginsberg. In 2001 he joined the Kelly Writers House, Penn's literary hub, for four years as program coordinator and producer of the monthly radio program "Live at the Writers House," on 88.5-FM WXPN. Projects with the Institute of Contemporary Art (Phila) include: a performance "No Silence Here, Enjoy the Silence," for the "Locally Localized Gravity" exhibit (2007); "Tales from the 215" for the "Philadelphia Freedom" exhibit with Zoe Strauss (2006); a collaboration with Troy Brauntuch for the "Springtide" exhibit (2005); a two week performance "The Empty House" at the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site for "The Big Nothing" exhibit (2004). Other projects in the art world include collaborations with the Tibor de Nagy gallery and Devaney's book Letters to Ernesto Neto (Germ Folios, 2005). Devaney's poems have been published in The American Poetry Review, jubliat, Fence, Jacket and in the anthologies Walt Whitman, Hom(m)age, 2005/1855 (Turtle Point Press and Editions Joca Seria) and American Poetry: The Next Generation (Carnegie Mellon 2000). His poems and essays have also been translated into French and published in Arsenal, Java, Poesie, and Double Change. His reviews and essays have been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Poetry Project Newsletter, The Boston Review, and Rain Taxi.

poetry

• A poem "POEM" in ars poetica April 10, 2007, first published in issue 12 of jubliat.

• A poem "Deliberate" published in Jacket 30, summer 2006.

• Two poems "Quick Bear Poem" and "No Such Poem," published in issue 25 of Cross Connect.

• A poem The Car, a Window, and World War II, published by Institute of Contemporary Art for their 2005 exhibit: Springtide.

• A poem "The 1,000-Year Storm" published in The Philadelphia Inquirer January 2005.

• A poem, Trying to live as if it were morning, published in the Nov/Dec 2000 issue of The American Poetry Review

• A poem "A free-for-all ends at A.C. Airport," commissioned by an Inquirer editor based on a headline and article in the The Philadlephia Inquirer, published on December 28, 2001.

• A poem "The Rat and the Flower Pot," in POM2: Property of Many.

• Click here to view a recording of Thomas Devaney reading two poems," presented as part of a program called "Finding the Words: Responses to crisis from the Marianne Moore papers & Philadelphia poets," co-sponsored with the Rosenbach Museum and Library, on November 7, 2001.

• Audio links to poems by Thomas Devaney on PENNsound.

articles - essays - interviews

• Edited the "Featured MP3s" section for PENNsound winter 2006-2007. The headnote essay for the mp3 selection is entitled "Death Poems & PENNsound"

• An interview with Sparrow in Rain Taxi summer 2006.

• Catalogue essay on painter Sarah McEneaney for Tibor de Nagy gallery exhibit, April 2006.

• The Romance of Life and Art: An interview with William Corbett in Rain Taxi spring 2005.

• A conversation with Carl Rakosi in Jacket 25, interview originally published in The American Poetry Review July/Aug. 2003 issue.

• A profile of translator Edith Grossman in the spring 2004 issue of Penn Arts & Science News.

• The Art of Talking: An interview with Eileen Myles in Rain Taxi Summer 2003.

• An article on The Paul Green School of Rock Music in The Pennsylvania Gazette's January/Feburary 2003 issue.

• A reivew of John Ashbery's Chinese Whispers in Jacket 21-- February 2003.

• An essay: An Introduction to reading Philip Whalen, in Jacket #11, April 2000.

• A brief essay on contemporary puppet theater, "Profiling Puppets," in the New York Foundation for the Arts publication FYI: For Your Information NIFA, Summer 2002.

• "For My Irish American Family," an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, published on St. Patrick's Day March 2002.

• A review of John Coletti's The New Normalcy in TOOL a Magazine.

• A review of Greg Robinson's "A Tragedy of Democracy" in the March/April 2002 edition of The Pennsylvania Gazette.

• P O N G an on-going conversation over email with poet Edwin Torres, from May 12, 2000 to April 21, 2001.

articles & interviews on or about

• A feature article about Devaney's Critical Writing course Food for Thought, Movable Feast: The pen and the platter”(February 23, 2006).

• Philadelphia Weekly article on Devaney's "Empty House Tour" at the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic site: the Poe House tour for the ICA's Big Nothing, June 2004.

• An interview about Letters to Ernesto Neto in The Penn CURRENT , September 19, 2002.

• A short essay on Devaney's poem "It's no fun living in the no-fun zone," by Eirk Sweet fromTOOL a Magazine May 2002.

• An article about the ICA's Springtide poet and painter project, 2005.

• A review of The American Pragmatist Fell in Love in Rain Taxi, spring 2000.

• An article about the program "Seven-up on Gold: A luminous exploration of the color gold" at the Kelly Writers House, 9/29/04.

• A group Q&A from CAConrad's 9for9 Series, July 15, 2003.

• A Village Voice Shelter feature on Dean Daderko's Parlour Projects gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, July 10, 2002.

• An article in The Philadelphia Weekly (Sept. 29th - Oct. 5th) about the 2004 215 Festival.

• A Philadelphia Inquirer article on the "Open Letters" series and the all letters Live radio program, May 10, 2002.

radio

LIVE at the Writers House on WXPN 88.5-FM, hosted by Michaela Majoun. The one hour radio show features poetry, music, & other spoken-word art and is recorded live for broadcast in the Arts Cafe. Producer from Sept 2001 to May 2005.

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