Thomas Devaney is a poet and documentary filmmaker. Of his new collection Getting to Philadelphia he says, “I shouldn’t be here.” Here, in the city of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, in all its weighty history and brutal poverty, the Philly native captures the rugged working-class tensions he internalized as a kid.
The collection tracks the unexpected discoveries of writing one’s way back to their hometown. It is the fraught process of returning to the place we all long to leave. The book is a true anthology of Philadelphia, accumulating and celebrating people, artists, talk, and images close to his heart, and to the heart of the oldest and poorest major American city.
Devaney’s New and Selected spans his life’s work as a poet, and comes at a moment, which includes co-directing a documentary film on the Bicentennial in Philadelphia (in production), and the publication of You Are the Battery by Black Square Editions. His work is featured in Best American Poetry 2019. Recently, his poem "The Blue Stoop" inspired a thriving group of Philly writers to name their new literary hub Blue Stoop after his piece.
Devaney is a 2014 Pew Fellow. He is the author of six books, including the solo-opera Calamity Jane, Runaway Goat Cart, and The Picture that Remains with photographer Will Brown. For the past ten years he has taught creative writing at Haverford College.
Portrait by Patrick Montero
