FEATURED POET: Thomas Devaney

In addition to spotlighting more than 25(!) of Philly's poetry organizations, the Philadelphia Poetry Festival is pleased to feature three of the Philadelphia's most prominent & hard-working poets. These poets and their work are influential in Philadelphia and the greater Poetry community (yep, Poetry - with a capital P). They've watched the scene in Philly grow, pulse & mutate. And we are excited for them to share their thoughts on Philadelphia poetry as well as their own amazing work.

Thomas Devaney, poet

The first of our featured poets will be Thomas Devaney. Thomas is the author of two poetry collections A Series of Small Boxes (Fish Drum) and The American Pragmatist Fell in Love (Banshee Press), and a nonfiction book, Letters to Ernesto Neto (Germ Folios). Recent poems have been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Jacket, and The Awl. His essay “That Obscure Object of Desire” was published in the catalogue for Virgil Marti’s Set Pieces exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art (2011). Other criticism has been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Poetry Project Newsletter. He teaches at Haverford College and is the editor of ONandOnScreen (poems + videos).