thomas devaney

ONandOnScreen poems + videos WINTER 2012

2012-01-27T20:21:00.013-05:00

ONandOnScreen
is pleased to announce its
fifth issue WINTER 2012.

Featuring Joanna Fuhrman, Jena Osman, Farid Matuk, Cara Baldwin, Wayne Kosetenbaum, Catherine Wagner, David Lehman, Kevin Killian, Matt Hart, Jared Stanley, Gabie Strong, Lytle Shaw, Leonard Gontarek, Adam Fitzgerald, Chris Girard, Mark So.

With bonus videos by Zoe Strauss, Emma Cocker,
Brendan Lorber, and mIEKAL aND.

ONandOnScreen is that conversation between moving words and moving images, on and on.

Edgar Allan Poe's "Dream-Land" on PoemTalk with McGann, Devaney, Timpane, & Filreis

2012-01-27T19:51:00.017-05:00

Ill, Angelic Poetics (PoemTalk #48)
Edgar Allan Poe, "Dream-Land"
Hosted by Al Filreis

Featuring Jerome McGann, John Timpane,
and Thomas Devaney

PoemTalk is a podcast series co-published
at the Poetry Foundation and Jacket2.

“Dream-Land”

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule—
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE— out of TIME.

To read the full text of the poem and listen to the podcast click here: Ill, Angelic Poetics (PoemTalk #48)

OREGON AVE two photos by Zoe Struass and poem by Thomas Devaney

2012-01-13T23:57:00.036-05:00

OREGON AVE
for Zoe Strauss

You can’t find a place to smoke anymore
Ro says, smoking and rifling
through her handbag looking for a number.
She sits in the backseat with Meg.
They’re not singing.
The ballgame’s on inside
and outside
the game is always on.
Actually, sometimes they do sing.
What year is the car, a ‘98?
A Ford? A Focus?
They always tip too.
There is dust, always; and terrible dirt;
but if that’s what you see you’re hardly looking.
They believe in the front stoop.
They believe the back of the Ford.
They believe that in the heat of day
shadows come back.
The trashcan on fire says things are hotting up.
The street’s a mix, water, water ice, LIVE CRABS,
jumbo jets, fire crackers.
Summer days are huge and often overlap late into fall.
Seriously, when you have a good spot, why move the car?

Our Emily Dickinson the blog and article

2011-12-06T16:11:00.024-05:00

OUR EMILY DICKINSON the blog

The Our Emily Dickinson blog features a selection of work of students from Thomas Devaney’s Introduction to Creative Writing Poetry at Haverford College in the fall 2011. The project was designed as a meeting place between Emily Dickinson’s poems and their own work. After immersion in Dickinson's poetry, students responded by authoring poems influenced by her work.

An article about the project:
Emily Dickinson Inspires Class of New Poets

A poem after photo by Zoe Strauss at BOMBlog

2011-12-02T18:53:00.015-05:00

My poem "The Blue Stoop"
published at BOMBlog’s
WORD CHOICE.
Photograph by Zoe Strauss

HOW WILL I FIND YOU?

2011-11-30T18:59:00.032-05:00

HOW WILL I FIND YOU?

I AM WEARING A RED HAT SHE SAID.

I SAID OK—I'LL LOOK FOR YOU.

EACH RED HAT I SAW I SAW YOU.

THOSE HATS STOPPED ME.

AND MORE RED HATS.

YOU TEXTED I'M LATE.

YOU TEXTED I’M HERE NOW.

IT WAS WET, BUT NOT RAINING.

I AM HERE, I'M HERE YOU SAID.

STILL I COULDN'T SEE YOU.

A MAN TOLD ME TO GET JOB, YOU SAID.

AND WHAT DID YOU SAY?

JOBS COME AND GO BUT I HAVE SOMETHING ELSE TO DO,

THE WORK WE ARE IN.

IT IS GREAT AND IT IS REAL.

BUT IS IT ENOUGH?

YES IT IS.

BUT NO, IT ISN'T.

ENOUGH, ENOUGH.

YES, ENOUGH.

AND THEN ENOUGH, ENOUGH

COMING DOWN THE STREET.

Poem published at OCCUPY WRITERS. Photo by Brendan Lorber.

Louis McKee 1951-2011

2011-11-22T14:36:00.027-05:00

GE Reutter asked me for a quote about Louis McKee for his obituary -- below is part of my comment about Lou:

"McKee was a poet who was able to capture the unexpected music of his working class Irish-Catholic world. Lou was mightily modest and mightily proud. He had a great ear and a great eye, but above all, he had a great heart.”

Read GE Reutter's full OBIT of Louis McKee at Northeast Philly.com

Louis McKee (born July 31, 1951, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) has been a fixture of the Philadelphia poetry scene since the early 70s. He is the author of Schuylkill County (Wampeter, 1982), The True Speed of Things (Slash & Burn, 1984), and fourteen other collections, including River Architecture: Poems from Here & There 1973-1993 (Cynic, 1999), Loose Change (Marsh River Editions, 2001), and a volume in the Pudding House Greatest Hits series.

Naomi Shihab Nye says, "Louis McKee is one of the truest hearts and voices in poetry we will ever be lucky to know."

McKee was a longtime editor of the Painted Bride Quarterly. During his tenure, he edited three special issues, celebrating the work of Etheridge Knight and John Logan, as well as a retrospective, 20th-anniversary volume of the PBQ. He was the publisher of Banshee Press and the magazine One Trick Pony.

Our Emily Dickinson — a reading Nov 17th

2011-11-16T13:28:00.021-05:00

OUR EMILY DICKINSON
A Reading of Poetry by and inspired by Emily Dickinson
November 17, 8:00PM
Haverford College
Woodside Cottage Meditation Room
for more information see program link above.

Rachel Blau DuPlessis Conference at Temple University OCT 21, 2011

2011-10-18T15:34:00.013-04:00

A Celebration
of the
Poetry and Criticism of
Rachel Blau DuPlessis

Featuring —

Rachel Blau DuPlessis,
Bob Perelman, Libbie Rifkin, Eric Keenaghan, Ron Silliman, Jena Osman, Brian Teare, and readings by alumni and members of the Philadelphia poetry community: Holly Bittner, CA Conrad,
Thomas Devaney, Sarah Dowling, Ryan Eckes, Lucia Gbaya-Kanga, Pattie McCarthy, Michelle Taransky, Heather Thomas, Kevin Varrone.

October 21, 2011 - 10 am to 5 pm -
1810 Liacouras Walk -Temple University, Main Campus

New poems & an interivew with Bill Berkson in ZOLAND POETRY

2011-08-30T18:27:00.009-04:00

I have new poems in Zoland Poetry #5. They are "Darkroom Dairies" and "all day dance 1963." In the same issue I also have an interview with Bill Berkson entitled "The Education of Poetry."

Here is the opening/introduction of my Berkson interview:

That the critic and the poet should be the same person is not a surprise when it comes to the work of Bill Berkson. Both activities have fruitfully informed each other in the over five decades that comprise the poems in his new and selected Portrait and Dream (Coffee House Press, 2009). But what is surprising is how each poem and each essay continue to be so distinctively and affectionately rendered. In his “Critical Reflections” Berkson writes that he’s interested in “communicating the spontaneously dense, specific and often paradoxical events of consciousness in the face of contemporary works,” and that he desires “to tell the polymorphous story of the thing.”

Zoland Poetry : An annual of contemporary writing from around the globe, Zoland Poetry brings together original unpublished poems, translations into English, and interviews with featured poets. Published and edited by Roland Pease and issue #5 edited with Christopher Mattison.

Haverford grad Eve Gleichman wins Stony Brook Fiction Prize

2011-08-30T18:08:00.007-04:00

Congratulations to Eve Gleichman for winning this year's Stony Brook Short Fiction Contest.

I am quoted about the prize and Gleichman's fiction below:

"Eve uses a minimal prose style to a quirky maximal effect... There is feeling of saturation via consumerism, brand names, and so-called 'new realities,' which are all matter-of-factly handled... Eve’s characters yearn for escape, yet they continue to perpetuate their own loneliness."

See articles on Gleichman here: Haverford College News
and The Village Patch

Philip Levine named U.S. Poet Laureate

2011-08-30T17:37:00.018-04:00

The Philadelphia Inquirer quotes me on Philip Levine:

Tough yet tender poet
Philip Levine
is new U.S. laureate
August 11, 2011
By John Timpane,
Inquirer Staff Writer

Here is the paragraph from Timpane's article and my quote:

Philadelphia poet Tom Devaney says he clipped out "What Work Is" and "taped the poem onto my wall next to my desk. For Levine, work and love are the same subject. His poems are often about the working class, but the poems go further than that, illuminating work's greater meaning in all of our lives. His question of 'what work is' is a defining one, and one that reverberates poignantly in this American moment."

Harriet & the Poetry Foundation on ONandOnScreen's BOMB issue!

2011-06-12T12:48:00.019-04:00

Harriet the Blog on

ONandOnScreen's
summer issue with BOMB MAG

From Harriet, the news blog
of the Poetry Foundation

ONandOnScreen Summer 2011 | BOMB Issue!

2011-06-09T05:21:00.006-04:00

ONandOnScreen
Issue 4 | SUMMER 2011
BOMB Issue

ONandOnScreen is pleased to partner with BOMB Magazine on our summer issue, in a convergence of our shared projects exploring text and images.
Each week BOMBlog will highlight a new poem and video selection.

With work by:

Cedar Sigo
Elaine Equi
Susan Briante
Rosanna Bruno & Jeanine Oleson
Ernest Hilbert
Carter Ratcliff
Christina Davis
Kyle Schlesinger & Scott Stark
Joseph Massey
Matthew Zapruder
Jeannie Simms, Fiona Ng, Susie Hu & Miles

Thomas Devaney at PHILA POETRY FESTIVAL & the ICA's LAUNDRY BOAT APRIL 23, 2011

2011-04-21T11:27:00.021-04:00

Featured poet

Philadelphia Poetry Festival
1 PM
Saturday April 23, 2011

Main Auditorium of Central Library

Parkway Central Free Library
1901 Vine Street
Philadelphia, PA

Admission is Free
The Festival runs from 12-5 PM

- and -
A Toast at the ICA
April 23, 2011
Thomas Devaney will make a toast
in honor of the Bateau Lavior
at 4:30 pm

Following the toast
Matthew Buckingham will present
Navigate the Streams:
From the Seine to the Hudson

In conjunction with the city-wide
Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA).

Institute of Contemporary Art
University of Pennsylvania
118 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

On Ross Gay's Bringing the Shovel Down

2011-04-18T16:11:00.007-04:00

My book review of poet Ross Gay's
Bringing the Shovel Down

published in The Philadelphia Inquirer
Sunday April 17, 2011

La Belle Époch: Poetry from the Banquet Years

2011-03-30T18:56:00.011-04:00

La Belle Epoch: Poetry from the Banquet Years
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 6:00PM
Skyline Room | Admission is FREE

The Free Library and the city-wide the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) present a lively evening of French poetry hosted by poet Thomas Devaney.

Local literary luminaries and Francophiles shine a spotlight on poetry in fin de siècle and early 20^th century Paris with readings from Rimbaud, Verlaine, Mallarmé, Valéry, Apollinaire, Stein, Jacob, Cendrars, Reverdy, Desnos, among others. Readers at the event will include Marcella Durand, Daniele Thomas Easton, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Maud McInerney, Elizabeth Scanlon, Laura Spagnoli, and Seth Whidden.

The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA)

Two poems in The Awl

2011-03-17T18:32:00.008-04:00

Two New Poems in The Awl

The Death of Erik Satie & Baby Black Bear

For My Irish American Family | The Philadelphia Inquirer first published March 17, 2002

2011-03-17T08:44:00.010-04:00

For my Irish American Family

By Thomas Devaney

It is ironic that the day set aside to celebrate Irish Americans is the day that reinforces the most unfortunate stereotypes. Middle March is an onslaught of unflattering Irish images—parading leprechauns binge-drinking green beer till the cows come home.

No other ethnic group in this country would stand for it. It is odd that a group with so many storytellers, so many successful and articulate professionals, would not do more to get the word out.

But it’s very Irish not to talk about certain things, and while some have the reputation for being big talkers, the truth is Irish Americans are a self-effacing bunch who often downplay their achievements – a not always helpful precaution we have against becoming “too bigheaded.”

My father – Thomas E. Devaney, skilled builder, talented athlete, U.S. Army drill sergeant, father of three children, little league baseball coach, small business owner (now working in the public sector) – is one of the dearest, most severely modest, and funniest men I have ever met. But he’s not what is called witty. His subtle art is mostly in the telling – his manner, the body language and mightily intuitive timing. It is always a joy to bring friends over (having a full house is something both parents love) because he puts people at ease and can talk to anyone about almost anything.

From tracing our family’s genealogies, restoring old photos, and taking care of his mother and Colleen, a daughter of 31 with mental retardation, to conducting his long-standing water balloon fight with the now 12-year-old kid across the street – my father loves to mix it up.

His childhood friends called him “Do,” and I’ve never met a man who did do more for more people, especially in a tight spot: fixing heaters, broken-down cars, leaky roofs, flooding basements; cashing squirrels and birds out of the house – and at all hours! Helping people out is something he just does, and always has, and doesn’t talk much about.

Recently my brother Jim made journeyman in the Philadelphia electricians union. Irish Americans figure prominently in the American labor movement, and as both workers and leaders in the building trades. I clearly remember when Jim (not a person who suggests reading materials) handed me an article he had put aside about his politically prominent business manager John Dougherty. Although he didn’t show it, I understood he wanted me to know who Mr. Dougherty was, and that he was proud to work for the man he called “Johnny Doc” and proud to be an electrician.

My mother’s sense of family – indistinguishable from a private sense of duty – is unflinching and remarkably graceful. Her love of holidays and special occasions is the love of being surrounded by family and friends; yearly vacations down the Jersey shore to Sea Isle City (or what we affectionately call the Irish Riviera) amount to the same thing: family.

Irish American mothers have long been idealized by their sons, so it would be strange if I did not say my mother is one of the most decent, giving, strong, beautiful, sincere, and truly kindhearted people I have ever known, but she is. Maureen Devaney (maiden name Haugh, pronounced Hall and in Ireland Hawk) is the real article.

With more than 30 years of volunteering and unpaid advocating for her daughter and adept at bringing people together my mother has established herself as a behind-the-scenes force for the rights of people with disabilities. She worked closely with former Gov. Ridge on several major initiatives and in 1996 she went from parent-advocate to parent-professional, cofouding the organization Vision For Equality where she is Co-Executive Director with Audrey Coccia, which currently employs more than 28 staff members.

There was a time when I didn’t feel Irish American. I think I didn’t know – didn’t want to know – that, in fact, for all of the good (and some of the more stubborn characteristics I’ve talked less about here), there’s something very Irish about me. I have become a poet, love to hear and tell stories and mix it up, have a bona fide reticent streak – and yes, I am very close to my family. And I am going to enjoy myself on this St. Patrick’s Day

Published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday March 17, 2002 page C5.

Dead Tired: Sleep Texts of Patty Chang & Thomas Devaney | Momenta Art | performance 3/20/11

2011-03-15T20:47:00.026-04:00

Momenta Art is pleased to present
a new video installation by Patty Chang
on view from March 17- March 27, 2011.

A special performance
Dead Tired: Sleep Texts
of Patty Chang and Thomas Devaney
will be performed on March 20th at 3 PM

About Chang's video work at Momenta: Patty Chang examines the psychic and physical spaces of labor and production. By juxtaposing images of workers peacefully sleeping or resting in the spaces where they work, Chang explores how a space, specifically the workplace, is affected by the energy present. This exploration serves as a kind of refusal of production through not working and maybe even dreaming. This work also highlights the potential danger inherent in equating production with progress and self worth.

About the performance--

Dead Tired: Sleep Texts of Patty Chang and Thomas Devaney explores artists' labor through free-floating apparitions between waking and sleep. Reveries, exhaustion, blankness, misspellings and misunderstandings. Cat naps and the fertile if anxious territory between an artist and a poet are the raw material from which Chang and Devaney will present a new performance on Sunday March 20, 2011 at 3 pm.

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Patty Chang is well known for her performative works, which deal with themes of gender, sexuality, language and empathy. Working predominantly in video Chang initially uses the medium to document her performances, often utilizing the camera’s potential to misrepresent. Her works often challenge viewers’ perceptions of what they see, frequently creating visual sleights of hand that highlight fantastical representations of “Asia”. More recently she has taken more of an off-screen role, shooting Shangri-La, a 2005 video documenting various attempts to recreate its eponymous subject, in the real life Shangri-La, a town in China’s Yunnan province renamed in 2002 to attract tourism. Chang’s work has been exhibited internationally. She is currently working on a multichannel video with David Kelley about hair washing, modernization and a road built through Northern Laos.

Thomas Devaney 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). Projects with the Institute of Contemporary Art (Phila) include "Poe's Empty House," for The Big Nothing (2004) and "No Silence Here, Enjoy the Silence," Locally Localized Gravity (2007).Other projects include poems written for "Common Ground: Eight Philadelphia Photographers in the 1960s and 1970s" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (2009). He is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Haverford College and is the editor of ONandOnScreen (poems + videos).

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Momenta Art
359 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, NY
718.218.8058 | info@momentaart.org
Gallery Hours: Thurs through Sunday 12-6pm

Poets and Painters in Collaboration at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery

2011-03-09T20:19:00.007-05:00

Roberta Fallon & Libby Rosoff published my review
"Dawn breaks thousands of windows in the city:
Poets and Painters in Collaboration at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery" on THEartblog.

The essay has also been featured on the site
for The Best American Poetry.

James Castle poem MP3 posted at Poetry Project

2011-03-09T20:02:00.005-05:00

An audio file of my James Castle poem

is posted on the Poetry Project's website.
From a reading at St. Mark's in February 2011.

Poem published here:
"Depictions of a Screen Door"
in The Brooklyn Rail (Dec/Jan).

ORIGAMI & ORIGAMI HEADPHONES

2011-02-16T16:42:00.006-05:00

I was excited to find this image online of CD I made in 2003. The limited edition origami was made by the artist and graphic designer Lizzy Lee for a reading at the Drawing Center hosted by Lytle Shaw. The other readers were Thomas Sayers Ellis and Lisa Jarnot.

A selection from
ORIGAMI HEADPHONES

severely clear

The funeral business was creepy as it probably still is.
We knew we wouldn’t change the world, but had the decency
to embarrass the guilty. Persons in the house were often made
to feel an unspeciﬁed levity. Whether it had anything to do with
our ﬂuorescent ceilings ﬂickering one thing and our computers
ﬂickering another you can better tell. It was all in front of us, part
of the articulated body of problems, with dozens of bit parts,
which also broke your heart.

emergency numbers

Dirty waters found us before we found them.
It might sound obvious, but by the time everyone knew,
there was no one to tell.
Saved from the waste of waters, the secret
and hidden determination of some living
and intelligent nature—ancient waters over the present world.
We distrusted our spigots—there was no story.
One day everyone was just drinking bottled water.
And then we were not.

dog people

Grandmother’s Duke was a Boston Bull Terrier.
Three Dukes in a row were Boston Bulls, and
who needs cloning? Close enough for jazz. No,
they weren’t all the same, but neither were we:
and Duke and Duke and Duke.

drop ceiling

Light and dirty as air.
As soon as you walked into the room,
and could think, you thought—
How fast can you get it down?
One way in, one way out:
Head poked up into the dark,
dusty space.
Lights built into the mix.
Inexplicable wires
amid the buckled woodwork.
Trashed as it is, you work towards
the ceiling, holding the ceiling—
wreckage all the way up.

the great chain of being

We had a hard time with time.
We weren’t the we
we thought.

A bull’s-eye. Brass tacks.
One station shufﬂing in your ear
((from God to bottomless clod))

A sort of Runic rhyme that welled:
the bells, bells, bells.
We called our cells when we said.

Salad days
were the days
we kissed and kissed.

A weird delayed ﬁreworks reaction.
A duet for juggler and harp,
our future twins.

Shapes
in all of their shapes
were part of the range.

And all yet to be undone—
all before your eyes.
Your finger tapping eyes.

roughly fickle activity

A father had died, several were dead.
People stood loosely together.
Their standing was a swerve felt
against other things once felt—
ideas that survive their occasion;
Something physical kept close,
similar to 2000 B.C. when the Japanese king
had ‘ﬂying sun discs’ for advisers,
or when Sodom and Gomorrah were plowed under by angels
for not being perverted enough, and Knossos was consumed
for no reason at all. Wind power, bicycles, a dumpster of bricks:
if you wanted to know a good restaurant,
you could still ask your butcher. A cat and the shadow of the cat.
The weight of the head in the hand remained in the hands.

—from A Series of Small Boxes (Fish Drum)

The Home Front: Jane Irish's Art of War at Locks

2011-02-11T20:26:00.006-05:00

The Home Front:
Jane Irish's Art of War

Feb 4 - Mar 12, 2011

At Locks Gallery
600 Washington Square
Philadelphia, PA

Locks Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings and ceramics by the artist Jane Irish. The Home Front: Jane Irish's Art of War will be on view February 4 through March 12, 2011.

Irish’s work addresses the representation of the physical and emotional landscapes of Vietnam, both before and after the Vietnam War. The artist’s large scale paintings and decorative vases honor the anti-war legacy, without being consumed in bloody imagery.

ONandOnScreen poems + videos Winter 2011!

2011-01-24T20:37:00.015-05:00

The Winter 2011 issue of ONandOnScreen
poems + videos is now available.

Featuring Kostas Anagnopoulos, Bill Kushner,
Arielle Greenberg, Geoffrey O'Brien, Aaron Igler,
Steve Dickison, Ish Klein, David Trinidad,
Kathy Lou Schultz, Dana Ward, Benjamin Friedlander,
Steve Turtell, Noelle Kocot.

ONandOnScreen is poems + videos. Here videos are linked with poems and poems with videos in a shared space, widening the spectrum and essential strangeness of each. ONandOnScreen is a conversation between moving words and moving images, on and on.

Reading at St Mark's Poetry Project Bill Kushner & Thomas Devaney 2/2/11

2011-01-12T16:56:00.011-05:00

Bill Kushner and

Thomas Devaney

A poetry reading at St. Mark's Poetry Project

February 2, 2011

On 'Set Pieces' & NYTimes Slide Show

2011-01-05T09:44:00.013-05:00

Excerpt from 'Set Pieces' catalog essay
"That Obscure Object of Desire" by Thomas Devaney

The 'Set Pieces' exhibition (that continues through FEB 13, 2011) is a bridge connecting many by-gone worlds to our own time. The objects here are evocatively arranged on stage sets, dream-like plinths, and in cases under glass. The exhibit, culled by Virgil Marti from works rarely seen from the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s collection, groups together art under that all-purpose name of the antique. There is a silver goose, a black basalt urn, a gold leaf mantel clock, a miniature Oldenburg drum kit. The group of George Washington busts might be reclassed in the category of Queer Americana. The heads of these well powdered objects call to mind several well-preserved drag queens. The arch of their elongated necklines are elegant and the attitude of their pitched back heads indicate a certain longing. Marti is drawn to the pleasures and perversities of the decorative, yet his sensibility remains casually exquisite. The show invites us to look again at what has been overlooked, set aside, or simply written off. But Marti does more than simply ask us to look again (that is an appeal to our thinking selves). Instead, Set Pieces is designed to woo us into the orbit and mysterious allure of its objects.

'Set Pieces' - Slide Show
in The New York Times
Photographs by Aaron Igler/Greenhouse Media

James Castle poem in The Brookyn Rail DEC 2010

2010-12-09T08:09:00.011-05:00

My poem "Depictions of a Screen Door"

is in the DEC issue of The Brooklyn Rail.
There is a construction by James Castle
included with the poem,
courtesy of Fleisher/Ollman Gallery.

Attention Span 2010

2010-10-13T17:50:00.010-04:00

Each summer Steve Evans at the University of Maine invites readers of his Third Factory to contribute lists & commentaries charting their current interests in poetry. My list was posted today.

Third Factory/Notes to Poetry

Attention Span 2010
Thomas Devaney

ONandOnScreen poems + videos fall 2010

2010-10-05T20:45:00.011-04:00

ONandOnScreen is poems + videos

New work by Randall Couch,
Bill Berkson, Shonni Enelow,
Greg Fuchs, John Wheelwright, Thomas Devaney, Heather Bowlan, Paul Siegell, John Coletti with Brendan Lorber, Emily Dickinson, Rodrigo Toscano, Sarah Zar, &
Ian Keenan.

ONandOnScreen
is a conversation
between moving words
and moving images, on and on.

A Fan’s Poem for José Feliciano, new on ONandOnScreen

2010-10-04T18:49:00.004-04:00

A Fan’s Poem for José Feliciano
By Thomas Devaney
Fall 2010 issue of
ONandOnScreen
(poems + videos)

Reading at Rosenbach for Banned Books Week 9/30

2010-09-23T15:01:00.012-04:00

Authors of Mischief

At the Rosenbach in celebration of Banned Books Week

Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Last year The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote an article about Banned Books Week and quoted me several times in it -- here is a link to Cynthia Henry's Inquirer article: "Banned books celebration promotes freedom of expression."

Banned Books Week is an annual celebration of the freedom to read that reminds Americans not to take that precious freedom for granted.

To recognize this event, the Rosenbach is hosting Authors of Mischief, featuring readings of banned and censored books in the Rosenbach collections. The program will include passages from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, and many more.

Scheduled readers include:

Thomas Devaney, Visiting Assistant Professor, HaverfordCollege; reads Desiderius Erasmus, The Praise of Folly

Marina Brownlee, Robert Shirmer Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, Princeton University; reads Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Nathalie Anderson, Professor of English, Swarthmore College; Poet-in-Residence, Rosenbach Museum & Library; reads Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Karen Getz, Actor & Performance Artist, and Kelly Jennings, Actor & Performance Artist; read Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Mary Tasillo, Artist and Writer; reads Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Bill Adair, Director, Heritage Philadelphia Program, Pew Center for Arts & Heritage; reads Maurice Sendak, In the Night Kitchen

RSVP: (215) 732-1600 ext. 123 or rsvp@rosenbach.org.

This event is free with general admission.

Going Home: Readings on September 25 & 26th Northeast Philadelphia!

2010-09-21T19:44:00.034-04:00

I am going home to the place I grew up this weekend to give a reading and spend some time with my family. My father had a small business called Precision Business Equipment that was located in Cheltenham, PA. On Saturday 9/25 afternoon I am giving a reading (roughly two blocks down from his old store-front business) at the Three Sisters Corner Cafe in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia.

The strange and beautiful photo above is by the inimitable Zoe Strauss. Zoe gave me a print of this photo a few years ago because, as she said -- with her eyes -- as much as her big heart and words: "You NEED to have this one Devaney." Zoe, god bless her, knew this photograph (a mile below Three Sisters Cafe on Cottman Avenue) was one of the central landscapes of my youth: The Roosevelt Mall.

On Sunday morning 11 am I have an online reading and conversation on the Joe Milford Show. Joe Milford's web radio show is utterly earnest and free-form. I will be calling in to speak to Joe from my parent's house, which is located in another corner of Norhteast Philadelphia, this one a far-off branch of the wild and heavily wooded section of Pennypack Park.

THE FOX CHASE READING SERIES
7950 OXFORD AVENUE, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 19111
SEPTEMBER 25TH 2PM TO 4PM
Michelle Belloumini and Thomas Devaney

THE JOE MILFORD POETRY SHOW
SEPTEMBER 26TH 11 AM
Listen online Joe Milford Poetry Show!

L.S. Asekoff on PennSound

2010-09-21T16:05:00.006-04:00

PennSound has added a new author page for the beloved poet, teacher, and longtime director of the Brooklyn College MFA Program, L.S. Asekoff. The reading was recorded in June 2010 at Fisher Bennett Hall at the University of Pennsylvania. Asekoff was visiting my MLA (Master of Liberal Arts) creative writing seminar.

I wrote a note for PennSound Daily to announce the page:

For many of the poems Asekoff offers candid and thoughtful introductions, which is apt as the poems cover, what he describes as "a whole landscape of references." Introducing the politically-charged "Empathy" Asekoff comments that the poem explores "the reach and limits of imagination and of empathy." The mystery of Asekoff's monologues and dramatic projections lay not only in their fugitive language, but also their menacingly measured cadences.

Reading from his new collection, The Gate of Horn (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, 2010), each Asekoff poem is a world unto itself, and often a lost one. The poem "Ghost Warrior" begins "Any time I walk into a place like this / I know I'm on the wrong side of the moon." Partly channeling scholar Raul Hilberg Asekoff closes his reading on the deeply haunting "The Keeper of Records."

Godspeed a poem in Jacket 40

2010-09-13T10:45:00.006-04:00

GODSPEED

Set Pieces at the ICA fall 2010

2010-09-13T10:25:00.009-04:00

My essay on Marti for the Set Pieces catalogue is entitled "That Obscure Object of Desire." -TD

Read Rachel Pastan's excellent blog Miranda for more on Set Pieces!

Set Pieces
Curated by Virgil Marti from the Collection of The Philadelphia Museum of Art

September 15, 2010 - February 13, 2011
Opening Reception: Wednesday, September 15, 6-8pm

Set Pieces restages objects and art works from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Organized by guest curator Virgil Marti, a Philadelphia-based artist, the selection of seventy-five objects taps treasures from the museum’s storage spanning three centuries.

Marti has been invited by ICA to act as Katherine Stein Sachs CW'69 and Keith L. Sachs W'67 Guest Curator. The artist is working closely with Joseph J. Rishel, Philadelphia Museum of Art Gisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator of European Painting before 1900, and Ingrid Schaffner, ICA Senior Curator, to select works from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Set Pieces is organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with contributions by Thomas Devaney, Lia Gangitano, Claudia Gould, Joseph J. Rishel, and Ingrid Schaffner, and a conversation between Richard Meyer and Virgil Marti.

Thomas Devaney On "The Raven"

2010-09-13T10:18:00.004-04:00

Wedding poem "Earth and Air" for Kelly Cobb and Aaron Igler Maine 2010

2010-09-13T10:07:00.001-04:00

Drawing the Line: Toby Olson & Philadelphia, 1992

2010-05-19T22:01:00.014-04:00

Toby Olson stood up and drew a line on the chalkboard. When a teacher who doesn’t write on the board, or even walk around in class stands up, you pay attention. This is especially true when he was Toby Olson. Olson was a tall man, like a tree, or at least as tall as the door frame. He wore a full beard, his eyes were warm and watchful, and his Yankee face was stoical, almost classical. Toby Olson published his poems and novels with New Directions. He had a powerful reserve, but he was never restrained in anything I ever witnessed him say or do.

The workshop was an introduction to creative writing poetry at Temple University. The semester, I believe, was the spring of 1992. In a deliberate gesture Toby made a mark down the middle of the board. The blackboard was green; the sound of the chalk was sharp, muted, and
clean. Toby said, “In life you have to draw the line.” He paused and remained standing. He mentioned Paul Goodman and his essay “Drawing the Line.” He told us that Goodman was a poet too, and that he wrote an intelligent piece on anarchism as well. As aside he mentioned that his copy of Goodman's book was red.

Line by line Toby continued to draw and talk. Each line was striking: one, and then another, and several more. The lines began to take the shape of an irregular box; they looked like an asymmetrical Giacometti, or at least a tangled-up rectangle, certainly a rectangle.

Toby said whether we know it or not we were always drawing lines. So, he continued, it's best to do it as knowingly as possible, "because over time the lines we draw become the person who we are.”

Toby stood at the board for a good minute. He placed the piece of chalk down. He walked back to his chair and sat. Other poets sitting in the class and circle included Frank Sherlock, Heather Wendt, Chris McCreary, and Jenn DiGuglielmo McCreary.

Published in LUNGFULL! Magazine, issue 18, spring 2010

***

Tom Paine's Pigeons: Sparrow & Thomas Devaney at the Powel House May 8, 2010

2010-04-29T22:16:00.012-04:00

TOM PAINE'S PIGEONS

By Sparrow & Thomas Devaney
Saturday May 8th at 2 pm
at the Powel House in Olde City Philadelphia

"Tom Paine's Pigeons," is a performance by Sparrow and Thomas Devaney in conjunction with Nadia Hironaka and Matthew Suib's exhibition, "Post-Revolutionary Selections from the Powel House Moving Image Archive, 1888-2089."

"How can we make a modern revolution?" is one of the questions Sparrow and Devaney answer, through story, invective, song, minimalist dance, and poetry. Thomas Paine and his carrier pigeons are heroes of this groundshaking afternoon, Saturday, May 8th at 2 pm.

Powel House Museum
244 S. 3rd Street
Philadelphia, PA
Thurs-Sat 12-5, Sun 1-5
Pay-what-you-wish admission

In collaboration with
The Philadelphia Society
for the Preservation of Landmarks

Article on Poetry Tree Tour at Haverford College

2010-04-29T09:35:00.004-04:00

Under an Oak: A Tree Tour in Poetry
at Haverford College April 2010
a joint project with students in Thomas Devaney's creative writing class
and Haverford's Arboretum Association

Under An Oak: A Tree Tour in Poetry - 4/16/10

2010-04-14T22:20:00.003-04:00

Under An Oak: A Tree Tour in Poetry

“Under An Oak” is a joint project between students in the Advance Poetry Workshop and Haverford's Arboretum Association. Each student has chosen a tree on Haverford’s campus to write about for the spring semester. The tour includes readings at each of the dozen trees the students selected. The poetry tree tour will embark from Sharpless Hall at 3 pm on April 16th. That evening students and faculty in the English Department will also give a reading of tree poems in Woodside Cottage at 8 pm. The program will be hosted by Visiting Assistant Professor Thomas Devaney and will be introduced by Arboretum Director Bill Astifan.

"Dog People" a poem & A Very Good Wednesday at the ICA w Sarah McEneaney

2010-04-09T09:21:00.006-04:00

Dog People

Grandmother's Duke was a Boston Bull Terrier.
Three Dukes in a row were Boston Bulls, and
who needs cloning? Close enough for jazz. No,
they weren't all the same, but neither were we:
and Duke and Duke and Duke.

By TD, from ORIGAMI HEADPHONES

Photos from “A Very Good Wednesday” on flickr

On WHYY's Radio Times - Susan Stewart, Thomas Devnaey, and Elaine Terranova 4/6/10

2010-04-09T09:07:00.003-04:00

Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane
90.9 WHYY
"The Life of Poetry"
April 4, 2010
With guests Susan Stewart,
Thomas Devaney, & Elaine Terranova

Seven Philadelphia-area poets to savor

2010-04-05T10:50:00.002-04:00

An excellent feature in

The Philadelphia Inquirer

by John Timpane

April 4, 2010

Seven Philadelphia-area poets to savor

A.D. Amorosi's City Paper article on the Philly Poetry Scene

2010-04-01T10:15:00.002-04:00

PHILLY VERSES THE WORLD

CITY PAPER Reading at the TIN ANGEL March 31st

2010-03-27T14:02:00.009-04:00

The City Paper Poetry & Fiction Reading

The City Paper is celebrating
their annual writing contest
with a reading
by the winners and judges

Here’s the line-up:

Fiction Winner Jessica Penzias, “Death By Oboe”
Poetry Winner Sean Webb, “The Bridge”
Fiction Judge Elise Juska, author of One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
Poetry Judge Thomas Devaney, author of A Series of Small Boxes

Wednesday, March 31, 7:30 p.m., FREE!
at The Tin Angel at Serrano
20 S. Second St, 215-928-0978
tinangel.com

PoemTalk: Armantrout, Dinh, and Devaney on Kit Robinson

2010-03-22T08:31:00.008-04:00

PoemTalk
podcast/radio series
hosted by Al Filreis

Rae Armantrout, Linh Dinh,
and Thomas Devaney discuss Kit Robinson's poem
"Return on Word."

Return on Word

If we look in the direction
these words will have to do
adding to the enormous burden of words

The entire concept
is entirely too conceptual
all we need is a few good words

Anybody can relate to
to declare an identity
no one can take away

But which ones
a handful of interest
several people in a room

For several hours
couldn’t come up with
the point is to decide

Then move as one
up and down
in an altered state

This is easier said than done
we are getting close, very close
we are getting better

We are going to have a great year
there is going to be hell to pay
it’s gonna be a fuckin bloodbath

Then the return to words
thought has taken a contract out on
in order to move them around

ONandOnScreen: Debut Spring 2010 issue!

2010-03-01T12:39:00.008-05:00

On Kevin Varrone's g-point almanac: passyunk lost

2010-02-22T18:51:00.011-05:00

In Kevin's Varrone's deeply serious g-point almanac: passyunk lost (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2010) text is never more than an extension of texture. Varrone's deep skepticism of language is counter-braced by an aggregate interface with the living world "of wissahickon mica/ schist 'til/ heft is on us." Here, the "heft" indeed "is on us," life-force and all. In Varrone's graceful hands texture is not merely texture, but its full weight in text.

-TD

The Central Library's Monday Poets Series - Rosemurgy & Devaney 3/1/10

2010-02-22T18:36:00.005-05:00

Monday Poets Series

at the Philadelphia Central Library

presents

Catie Rosemurgy and Thomas Devaney

Monday, March 1, 2010 at 6:30PM

Central Library

1901 Vine Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103

(20th and the Parkway)

For more information: 215-567-4341

MLA Off-Site Reading DEC 2009 - Pattie McCarthy, Ron Silliman, Thomas Devaney

2010-02-07T20:03:00.006-05:00

MAIRA KALMAN reading at the ICA Jan 30

2010-02-03T18:38:00.015-05:00

Thomas Devaney & Lucy Gallun reading

Chicken Soup, Boots
at the Institute of Contemporary Art
Saturday January 30, 2010
for the
Maira Kalman:
Various Illuminations
(of a Crazy World)

The Gate of Horn, poems by L.S. Asekoff

2010-01-13T12:38:00.007-05:00

The Gate of Horn
poems
L. S. Asekoff
Northwestern University Press

Sean Webb's "The Bridge" winner of the CP's Poetry Contest 2009

2009-12-30T22:35:00.020-05:00

Comment below by Thomas Devaney on Sean Webb's poem "The Bridge" winner of the City Paper's Poetry Contest. Elise Juska was the judge of the Fiction entry "Death by Oboe."

The poem "The Bridge" is a bridge. It's one between worlds: between a parent and a child, between sky and water, between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and other less physical yet no less perceptible, states of being. It is a journey where there is always more: more to consider, more to explore, more boundaries, more perceptions. Part of the poem's understated power emerges from the fact that the writer seeks to apprehend the moment more than to explain it. "The Bridge" is a walking poem, but it is not simply that: its rhythm is informed by an adult who is walking with a child. There is nothing precious about it. The consciousness of the poem is centered in the parent and reflects the way his or her mind is working, its multiple vantages, during the walk. The author writes: "Even if the wide green earth of it appears/ Never to end, it ends." The more I read it the more I like it. I suggest printing out the poem, reading it a number of times, making copies of it, and giving it away. -TD

The Bridge
by Sean Webb

The bridge my daughter and I are crossing
on foot into a New Jersey winter is more
air than bridge, just as my body is more
water than self when it crosses over
into sleep. The swallows and swans
are more air and water, moving from
state to state. Pennsylvania is more air
than state. Even if massive stone buildings
anchoring each county suggest permanence,
even if the wide green earth of it appears
never to end, it ends. The great bare trees
are more air than we believe, more wind,
and more rain. The folks walking past,
snug in gray overcoats, are more air
than mothers and fathers, more water
than brothers and sisters. The people
above and below, bound by earth and sky,
the quick between them is more breath
than stone, more memory than distance.
My budding daughter, her hand in mine,
is more trepidation and wonder than bird
in a garden, more river than light dancing
on the river. The cold air racing beneath
our feet, over the swirling black water is
more bridge than absence as it carries us
to a place not unlike where we've been.

MLA offsite Reading 12-29-09!

2009-12-26T13:46:00.003-05:00

2009 MLA Offsite
Tuesday, December 29, 7:00 PMPhiladelphia
The Rotunda 4014 Walnut Street

hosted by
Julia Bloch & Michelle Taransky

Readers include CA Conrad, Frank Sherlock, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Ron Silliman, Gregory Laynor, Aldon Nielsen, Bob Perelman, Adrian Khactu, Danny Snelson, Bill Howe, Carlos Soto Román, Jamie Townsend, Laura Moriarty, Jenn McCreary, Chris McCreary, Lisa Howe, Tyrone Williams, Timothy Yu, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, CS Carrier, Ryan Eckes, James Shea, Eric Selland, Charles Cantalupo, Jennifer Scappettone, Thomas Devaney, Pattie McCarthy, Evie Shockley, Barrett Watten, Carla Harryman, Michael Hennessey, Ish Klein, Charles Bernstein, Suzanne Heyd, Kim Gek Lin Short, Jason Zuzga, Nava EtShalom & more

Haverford College

2009-12-26T11:06:00.003-05:00

Joshua Marcus & This Land

2009-12-05T14:54:00.009-05:00

Recent press on
Joshua Marcus's
This Land: An Environmental Justice Folk Recording

Philadelphia Weekly Profile

City Paper's Feature

Phillyist Review

PHILA City Paper's Fiction/Poetry Contest!

2009-12-04T20:34:00.008-05:00

SUBMIT to City Paper's Writing Contest

Submissions due Dec. 11th

Poetry Judge: Thomas Devaney

Fiction Judge: Elise Juska

-->FOR MORE INFO CLICK HERE<--

City Paper Writing Contest

123 Chestnut St., Third Fl

Philadelphia, PA 19106

Reading with Hal Sirowitz & Bob Holman

2009-12-04T18:31:00.034-05:00

Recently I read with Bob Holman and Hal Sirowitz. It was one of those rare nights when everything comes together: the readers, the space, the audience, which at capacity -- full house -- seated around twenty-plus friends and family. Minter Krotzer organized the evening. All around it was nearly a perfect night. Holman performed poems from his "India Journals" and a large verbal canvas piece on Pablo Picasso. I cannot think of another poet who comes close to Bob's descriptive zoom and big-hearted comfort. Hal read some classics and some newer poems about death and dying, which have a disarming power. They're some of my favorite poems he's ever written. Bob and Hal switched off every few pieces. There was a musician (first name Marshal) who backed-up their poems, at turns on the double bass, banjo, flugelhorn. It was a beautiful thing to hear -- two old friends doing what they love, together. I read from a new suite of poems. The Stillhouse Theatre space, run by the artist couple Tim and Buffy, was as snug as a bug in an enchanting chanting rug.

A Stillhouse Run
Saturday November 21st 8:00 PM
Stillhouse Theatre
Carpenter Lane, West Mr. Airy

Hal Sirowitz
+
Bob Holman
+
Thomas Devaney

CANNONBALL at Haverford Nov 11th!

2009-11-09T18:04:00.002-05:00

MAD MEN & POE

2009-10-25T09:56:00.003-04:00

I wrote an article on madmen
& Edgar A. Poe
published in today's Philadelphia Inquirer
(in time for Halloween)

For more on Poe
including my essay "The Empty House"
see the POE link on my homepage

Reading for Common Ground: Eight Philadelphia Photographers in the 1960s and 1970s OCT 22nd

2009-10-15T13:51:00.030-04:00

Reading for Common Ground at the PMA

In conjunction with Common Ground: Eight Philadelphia Photographers in the 1960s and 1970s, the Philadelphia Museum of Art presents a reading by Thomas Devaney.

I will read a selection of work including poems composed in response to photographs in the exhibition.

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Perelman Café, Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building
Happy hour 5-6 PM followed by
the reading 6-7 PM

For information (215) 684-7768 or
ascfriends@philamuseum.org

On Cid Corman PoemTalk

2009-10-07T13:01:00.006-04:00

"PoemTalk"
a discussion of Cid Corman's "Enuresis"

with Frank Sherlock, Thomas Devaney, and Fran Ryan

<- Cid Corman's poem "Enuresis"

Enuresis

Terror--Ed--is not

Sitting in one's piss.

I know--I've sat there--

I've slept there and did

Most of my childhood.

That was warmth--in fact--

And comfort--in spite

Of the unconsealed

Unconsealable

Smell. Terror? That was

And always will be

Mother cursing Dad

And there there I am

Alone in that night

Hearing that door slam.

Massive POE conference in Philadelphia

2009-10-05T23:53:00.004-04:00

The Third International Edgar Allan Poe Conference:
The Bicentennial in Philadelphia
October 8 to 11, 2009

New Invisibles Cites: Penn undergrads adapt Calvino for Puppets!

2009-10-03T14:07:00.013-04:00

A new video!

NEW INVISIBLE CITIES

A puppet performance

by my Creative Writing students at Penn

for The Institute of Contemporary Art's

THE PUPPET SHOW

March 2008

On Trevor Winkfield & his new book with John Ashbery Faster Than Birds Can Fly

2009-09-23T16:07:00.010-04:00

The cover of John Ashbery's Flow Chart has become an icon among contemporary book covers.

In the bottom right corner a tangerine band surrounds an orange wheel within a wheel. Inside that, green wheel spokes provide a sense of internal movement. Inside that, there is a blue bulls-eye, ringed and centered with a red eye, and then, blue inside of that again. The colorful image in the cover's central panel is a banner, or a flag, and there are what appears to be three stalks of wheat, each a ripe node of energy unto itself. The artwork, of course, is by the painter Trevor Winkfield.

Since the groundbreaking “A Special Issue of Collaborations” Locus Solus II, edited by Kenneth Koch in 1961, the writers, artists, and some publishers associated with the New York School have been known for their inspired collaborations.

Winkfield and Ashbery’s new book Faster Than Birds Can Fly (published by Granary Books) takes its place among the most pleasurable and successful collaborations in this poet and painter mode.

The book's most striking feature is the roomy space it supplies for both Winkfield’s compositions and Ashbery's poem. The production values are of the highest grade. The opening stanza of Ashbery’s poem is this:

Faster than birds can fly, realizing
Breath in living out of the extent,
Imagining the strict space to come,
Dressing for the fall in rigid ocean way,

The large format book, designed throughout by Winkfield, highlights two of his most winning characteristics: an inspired color palette, which is one of the most unorthodox in contemporary art; and his exquisite (sometimes orderly, sometimes tangled) rhythmical patterns. Winkfield’s colorful images provide visual echoes, which continually open-up.

Ashbery has described Wikfield's paintings in this way: "It's as though seeing and hearing merged into a single act, and the 'meaning' of the picture were lodged at the intersection of the two senses, where one is pleasurably enmeshed, deliciously hindered."

Publication Release for book:

Artbook @ X
548 W. 22nd Street
(between 10th / 11th)
New York City

Wednesday September 23, 2009 7 - 9 pm

Sparrow, Sirowitz, Devaney - SAT 9/12

2009-09-09T03:06:00.018-04:00

A Poetry Reading
with Hal Sirowitz, Sparrow,
& Thomas Devaney

Saturday, September 12, 2009
3:00 PM
Big Blue Marble Bookstore
West Mount Airy
551 Carpenter Lane
Phila, PA 19119

SPARROW's work has appeared in The New Yorker, CL WN W R, Monster Trucks, and The Sun. Three of his books have been published by Soft Skull Press, including America: A Prophecy -- The Sparrow Reader.

HAL SIROWITZ is the author of four books of poems, Mother Said, My Therapist Said, Father Said, and Before, During & After. Sirowitz has performed on MTV’s Spoken Word Unplugged, PBS’s Poetry Heaven, and NPR’s All Things Considered. Hal has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, and he is the former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York. He has a poem in Garrison Keillor’s anthology, "Good Poems" and in "Poetry in Motion from Coast to Coast" (WW Norton).

THOMAS DEVANEY is the author of A Series of Small Boxes (Fish Drum, 2007), Letters to Ernesto Neto ( Germ Folios, 2005), and The American Pragmatist Fell in Love (Banshee Press, 1999). Recent poems have been published in A Best of FENCE: The First Nine Years (FENCE Books, 2009), POEM: Poets On (an) Exchange Mission (Fish Drum/Double Change, 2009 bilingual French-English edition).

Big Blue Marble Bookstore
West Mount Airy
551 Carpenter Lane

(R8 & R7 Regional rails stop a few blocks away,
the store is next door to the Weavers Way Food Cooperative)

Lost Oppen Letter & New Oppen Essay

2009-09-08T14:11:00.016-04:00

Two new items have been added
to the George Oppen feature I edited for Jacket (36).

One is a lost Oppen letter that was found and has been added to Pat Clifford's essay "George Oppen, Buddhadev Bose and Translation."

The other item is a new essay by Joy Katz "Writing, and Something Other Than Writing: George Oppen’s Silence."

Pat Clifford writes:

Buddhadev Bose’s daughter, Damayanti Basu Singh, recently found one of the lost letters (dated February 19, 1962) written by Oppen to her father. The letter refers to Oppen (and Bose’s) poem “To Memory," which had just appeared in the San Francisco Review and Oppen had forwarded a copy of the issue to Bose in Kolkata. Apparently unbeknownst to them both, the poem was described there as “translated by Buddhadeva Bose and George Oppen.” In the letter, Oppen expressed his concern that the description “translation” might be an embarrassment for Bose because the poem was, in fact, an experimental transcreation based on Bose’s own translation. In previous communications, Bose had confided that this reworking had resulted in a product “more your work than mine.” The awkward and unwarranted byline made the process seem unjustifiably collaborative.

In her essay "Writing, and Something Other Than Writing: George Oppen’s Silence" Joy Katz's asks the following question:

Does George Oppen’s silence say something about an ideal relationship between living life and the life of the imagination?

Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets

2009-08-27T21:19:00.011-04:00

I have several entries in the new
Encyclopedia
of the New York School Poets
edited by Terence Diggory

FACTS ON FILE

Covers by Susan Landers

2009-08-26T07:20:00.002-04:00

Some hunt like owls. Some hunt like cats. Some come home
early. Some loot. Some feel like someone else. Some sing.
Some whack babies against the wall. Some do not believe in
words. Some cannot find the right words. Some tell others
what to do. Some do what others tell them.

-Susan Landers “Fear Box” from Covers (O-Books, 2007).

On Duchamp's "Etant Donnes" at the PMA: Thomas Devaney speaking with Serge Fauchereau

2009-08-23T12:41:00.029-04:00

Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Aug. 15-Nov. 29, 2009
Curator: Michael R. Taylor

Marcel Duchamp's Étant donnés is the MONA LISA of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Duchamp’s infamous installation the PMA has assembled 80 related works: known studies, photographs, and objects of note. It is a fascinating and scrupulous exhibition.

Still, with all the assembled ephemera and art historical machinery in motion to put the installation in context Duchamp's resilient work survives the very close unpacking.

Étant donnés is nothing if not an enduring mystery.

About five years ago I had a conversation with the French poet and art historian Serge Fauchereau about Étant donnés . We held forth on the Duchamp for some time.

Then something happened. Fauchereau became reserved. For the moment we stopped talking about the piece, but I've kept thinking about what he said ever since.

At the time I remarked (I believe) something about the lighting on the woman in the installation. At this point Fauchereau seemed confused, as if I was speaking another language, or saying something that was just plain wrong-headed.

After a significant pause Serge simply said this: he wasn't sure that the object I was speaking of was a woman at all.

Incredulous, I protested, "But Serge, it's obviously the figure of a woman!"

He paused, and in a reply that was as sober as it was serious Fauchereau said, "There is nothing obvious, or given about Duchamp's Étant donnés ."

A Gorgeous Semi-Colon

2009-08-13T14:05:00.008-04:00

Semi-colons are not pretty. Physically they are unsettling. There's something jarring about their split personality: a mini shock absorber between stopping and going.

What they lack in physical beauty they make up for in raw purpose. The punctuation mark itself, which is typically a pause twice as long as the comma, is less of a problem than its misuse, or distracting overuse.

Still, there are moments when two seemingly independent clauses can perfectly join; or when certain items in a series are captured and released by a single sleight of hand.

I am not obsessed with semi-colons. I was however seduced by one in particular. I discovered it in the second stanza of the handwritten copy of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." The manuscript was on display at Free Library of Philadelphia as part of their bicentennial celebration of Poe, which ran until February 2009. I wrote the essay for the exhibition and commented on Poe's handwriting:

Many of Poe's literary aspirations can be seen in his impeccable penmanship—neat, well proportioned, and impressive on the page. His exquisite manuscript of "The Raven" is typical. His signature Edgar A. Poe appears as if it were branded, itself becoming another example of the Poe brand. …Tellingly, Poe's super legible writing acts as a cover for the more turbulent and disruptive forces occurring both in his life and work.

The clause before Poe's gorgeous semi-colon is this:

Eagerly I wished the morrow;

Both the phrase and the use of the semi-colon here are unremarkable. But it was simply the impetuous mark of Poe's script itself that blew me away. It was an eye and the faded pictograph of a beak that got stuck in my own eye.

I continued to dwell on Poe's semi-colon. I remembered a conversation I had with Hal Sirowitz when he moved to Philadelphia in the spring of 2007. After dinner at his house in the Mt. Airy section of the city, Hal showed me few new poems he had written. I liked them all, but had one suggestion for a possible semi-colon. Hal was clear about not using a semi-colon for the line. He said he never used them.

Hal had read an essay by Richard Hugo that said poets should not use semi-colons because "they look ugly." Hal continued the story: "At first I thought Hugo was crazy—how can you call a punctuation mark pretty or ugly? But then I started taking more notice of semi-colons and saw that they were ugly. I haven't used one yet in a poem. I did sneak one into a prose piece."

I admit that semi-colons are graceless, but I still can't shake the one I saw. At their most startling they can catch you in the throat: an indicative, yet ever-yielding pause; a dotted-line connection, discretely made; an architectural hinge and pivot where all that stays and all that goes assume a terrible balance.

This essay was first published in LUNGFULL Magazine, Issue 17.

The Art of the Box Lunch - Online!

2009-08-12T15:56:00.005-04:00

THE ART OF THE BOX LUNCH

The Art of the Box Lunch
was published in the late May 2009.

I edited the book, which
features four student essays
and my introduction.

A PDF of it is now online.

The project grew out of an assignment
for my “Art of Eating” Critical Writing seminar
at the University of Pennsylvania.
Students worked in Penn’s Rare Book
& Manuscript Library researching
Chef Fritz Blank's cookery collection.

Here is the link:

THE ART OF THE BOX LUNCH
PDF File

Penn's food magazine Penn Appetit
published an article about the book
"Thinking Inside the Box Lunch"

BEST OF FENCE: THE FIRST NINE YEARS

2009-08-11T16:26:00.005-04:00

I am in volume one of the new A BEST OF FENCE:
THE FIRST NINE YEARS VOLUMES ONE & TWO
Edited by Rebecca Wolff

NJ skylines August 1, 2009

2009-08-02T18:20:00.004-04:00

POEM event at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France June 26th & 27th

2009-05-26T21:20:00.004-04:00

Reading in Paris on June 18 at Université Paris Est Marne-La-Vallée

2009-05-26T21:12:00.007-04:00

Colloque « La Géographie dans le monde anglophone

(littérature et civilisation) »
Jeudi 18 – Samedi 20 juin 2009 Université Paris Est Marne-La-Vallée
IMAGER (ANGLES) EA 3958

Jeudi 18 juin

- 18h: Poetry reading. Thomas Devaney (University of Pennsylvania)
Poet, Critic, and Senior Writing Fellow Critical Writing Program, Department of English. Author of A Series of Small Boxes (Fishdrum) ».

The long & short of it: Teaching Ashbery's 37 Haiku

2009-05-14T13:45:00.015-04:00

This week Al Filreis invited me to lead
a workshop on a poem with a group of students
visiting Kelly Writers House.
I taught John Ashbery's poem "37 Haiku."

When I reflect upon Ashbery's poems, Haiku
is not my first association. Ashbery may be difficult
to categorize, but he sure as heck isn't a minimalist.

I handed out two translations of Basho's
"Old pond" poem as a jumping-off point
to talk about Ashbery's poem.

Al Filreis wrote about the session --
here is the post: high school, haiku, tweet tweet.

Ernesto Neto at the Park Avenue Armory

2009-05-13T13:19:00.009-04:00

Ernesto Neto's Anthropodino

with Tom Eccles and Rebecca Robertson
in Wade Thompson Drill Hall at
Park Avenue Armory

Article in The New York Times
on Neto's Anthropodino

Forthcoming in July 2009:
My book Letters to Ernesto
online. There were originally 300 copies
of the book published with letter press cover
and design by Nicole Michels.
I am working with a designer on an interface
for book for the web. -TD

Tom Devaney, Lon Chaney

2009-05-03T17:29:00.001-04:00

April 30th at Robin's -- Jen Currin, Thomas Devaney, Suzanne Heyd & Christine Leclerc

2009-04-24T08:21:00.005-04:00

MOONSTONE READING AT ROBIN'S

110A S 13th St - Apr 30, 2009 at 7:30

Jen Currin, Thomas Devaney, Suzanne Heyd &
Christine Leclerc

Jen Currin has published two books of poems, The Sleep of Four Cities and Hagiography. The Inquisition Yours is forthcoming in 2010. She lives in Vancouver, where she is currently pursuing a Masters in Literature at Simon Fraser University, and trying to grow vegetables in her front yard.

Thomas Devaney is the author of A Series of Small Boxes (2007, Fish Drum). He was a curatorial consultant for the exhibition "Quote the Raven" on Edgar Allan Poe for the Phila Free Library (2008-09). Devaney has worked with the ICA on a number of site specific, multi-sensory projects, including "No Silence Here, Enjoy the Silence" for the Locally Localized Gravity exhibition (2007). His reviews and essays have been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer and Artforum.

Suzanne Heyd is the author of Crawl Space (2007, Phylum Press) and the forthcoming Fascicles (Finishing Line Press, June 2009). She is the recipient of a 2009 Artists Fellowship from the State of Connecticut and the 2008 Literal Latte Poetry Award. Recent work appears in Ploughshares, jubliat, AGNI, Third Coast, Spillway, and Interim.

Christine Leclerc, originally from Montreal, now lives in Vancouver. She is the author of Counterfeit (2008, Capilano University Editions). Her work has appeared in 42opus, Dig, FRONT, FU, Memewar, OCHO, Pistola, subTerrain, terry, the Worksound gallery, and is forthcoming in Interim.

LUNGFULL! MAGAZINE GALA at Zinc Bar- 4/18

2009-04-08T19:15:00.002-04:00

4/18: LUNGFULL! MAGAZINE RELEASE GALA AND NEW NEW DEAL PARTY

Welcome to the interesting times we were warned about living in.
On Saturday April 18 at 6:45 they get a whole lot more interesting...
LUNGFULL! MAGAZINE RELEASE GALA AND NEW NEW DEAL PARTY
Join us as we usher in the latest issue AND a new era of shantytowns
decorated with the discarded blackberries of vanquished bankers,
& the quaint but worthless wallets of laid off ad men.
At the event, pick up the latest issue of LUNGFULL!
-- perhaps the last which will be available for "money" --
next year bring a pair of shoes and some fried squirrel,
someday you'll point to your copy of LUNGFULL and
dazzle your kids with stories about paying for things
with little plastic rectangles and pieces of paper.
200 pages of poems, fiction, rough drafts, art, world news reports,
irate letters to the editor. A complete list down below.

Saturday 4/18 at 6:45pm
Zinc Bar
82 West 3rd Street NYC
Between Sullivan and Thompson
Subway ACEBDQF to West 4th RW to 8th or Prince

$5-15 sliding scale fundraiser. $20 gets you in plus a copy of the magazine.
Madoff Victims and AIG Excs willing to divide their bonuses among the audience get in free.
Still reading this invitation?
Good, now that it's just the two of us, I can further invite you
to hit the (relatively) TOTALLY NEW www.lungfull.org
• sneak preview of the upcoming issue.
• video for those too drunk/lazy to read
• explanation of why the crash is a good thing
• because LUNGFULL receives state money, full financial dislosure. Main sources of income: buying beer for teenagers at the bodega and stealing old people's medicine to resell to poets. Cost saving measures: eating coworker's lunch - just click on "budget" for more.
If lungfull.org won't run on your broke down computer, upgrading's never been easier now that looting is the new paypal.
Pick up a new hi-def TV and homemade ice cream maker while you're out.
Some people came to New York to make a buck. Others to live a creatively fulfilled life. With no money left to be made, anyone left is either a chump or a creative genius. In either case, you'll feel right at home at the LUNGFULL! RELEASE GALA AND NEW NEW DEAL PARTY.
Hope to see you there my fellow bums & hobos.
Brendan
lungfull.org
Many of the following contributors will be there, singing or reading a poem or two.
New writing from:
Matt Hart, Jessea Perry, Sam Magavern, Nathan Hoks, Nick Antosca, David Berrigan, Bradford Gray Telford, Sean Kilpatrick, Stephanie Cleveland, Rebecca Loudon, Anthony Farrington, Elizabeth Hughey, Craig Cotter, Duane Vorhees, Todd Colby, Jeni Olin, Chris Martin, Scott Abels, Eugene Ostashevsky, Fred Schmalz, Lee Ranaldo, Noelle Kocot, Will Morris, Marianne Vitale, Mike Topp, Clnt Frakes, Kevin McWha Steele, Suejin Suh

World News Reports From:
Sawako Nakayasu in Japan
Dmitry Golynko in Russia
Eugene Ostashevsky in Florence, Italy
Bernadette Mayer & Phil Good in Upstate New York
Sparrow on Long Island, NY
Edmund Berrigan in Brooklyn, NY
Thomas Devaney in Philadelphia, PA
Michael Kelleher in Buffalo, NY
John Most in Virginia
Chuck Stebelton in Milwaukee, WI
Eric Lorberer in Minneapolis, MN
J.S. Makkos in New Orleans, LA
Shafer Hall in Austin, TX
Julie Reid in Petaluma, CA
C.E. Putnam in Seattle, WA
Visual Art from:
Jeff Benjamin, Tracey Mctague, Deth P. Sun, Marci Washington

BRENDAN LORBER • LUNGFULL.ORG

Spotlight on food class in 34th Street

2009-04-02T13:27:00.006-04:00

There is a nice blurb about my class Food for Thought at Penn
in today's 34th Street, which is the weekend magazine
of the Daily Pennsylvanian

Currin, Devaney Heyd, Leclerc at Moonstone 4/30/09

2009-03-30T18:03:00.008-04:00

MOONSTONE READING AT ROBIN'S BOOKS

Jen Currin, Thomas Devaney, Suzanne Heyd & Christine Leclerc
110A S 13th St
Apr 30, 2009 at 7:30 PM

Jen Currin has published two books of poems, The Sleep of Four Cities and Hagiography. The Inquisition Yours is forthcoming in 2010. She lives in Vancouver, where she is currently pursuing a Masters in Literature at Simon Fraser University, and trying to grow vegetables in her front yard.

Thomas Devaney is the author of A Series of Small Boxes (2007, Fish Drum) and The American Pragmatist Fell in Love (1999, Banshee Press). He was a curatorial consultant for the exhibition "Quote the Raven" on Edgar Allan Poe for the Philadelphia Free Library (2008-09). Devaney has worked with the Institute of Contemporary Art on a number of site specific, multi-sensory projects, including "New Invisible Cities" for The Puppet Show (2008) and "No Silence Here, Enjoy the Silence" for the Locally Localized Gravity exhibition (2007). His reviews and essays have been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Review, and Artforum.

Suzanne Heyd is the author of Crawl Space (2007, Phylum Press) and the forthcoming Fascicles (Finishing Line Press, June 2009). She is the recipient of a 2009 Artists Fellowship from the State of Connecticut and the 2008 Literal Latte Poetry Award. Recent work appears in Ploughshares, jubliat, AGNI, Third Coast, Spillway, and Interim.

Christine Leclerc, originally from Montreal, now lives in Vancouver. She is the author of Counterfeit (2008, Capilano University Editions). Her work has appeared in 42opus, Dig, FRONT, FU, Memewar, OCHO, Pistola, subTerrain, terry, the Worksound gallery, and is forthcoming in Interim.

Chayotes on a Saturday

2009-03-29T12:20:00.004-04:00

Experiments with Chayotes boiled and baked --
boiled is better (12 mins), tho must season.
Snap of the raw chayotes.

BY HEART at Haverford 4/6/09

2009-03-28T10:45:00.013-04:00

BY HEART
A Night of Poetry Recited By Heart

****************************************************************

Monday, April 6th 2009
HAVERFORD COLLEGE
8:00 PM
CPGC Café Stokes 104

The students of the Advance Poetry seminar ENGL 292
and Thomas Devaney will host an evening of lively verse, poetry,
and relevant passages that have been committed to memory!

****************************************************************


Spring has come again. The earth
is like a child who has learned poems by heart,
many, oh many ...by working long
and hard at her lessons, she has won the prize.

Her teacher was strict. We liked the white
in the beard of the old man.
Now, if we ask her to name the blues,
the greens: she can, she can!

Lucky, vacationing earth, play
now with the children. We try to catch you,
happy earth. The happiest will do it.

Oh, what her teacher has taught her--so much
and everything that's printed in roots, and long,
difficult stems: she sings it, she sings!

-from Sonnets to Orpheus, by Rainer Maria Rilke
(translated by Christopher Hawthorne)

Red Rover by Susan Stewart

2009-03-27T10:41:00.006-04:00

"The Complaint of Mars" is a serial poem

in Susan Stewart's gorgeous new book Red Rover.
Here is a stanza from a section of the poem entitled Complaint:

At first bite, the fish has all he desires
and cannot know he's hooked to hurt.

READ LUNGFULL!

2009-03-24T21:23:00.003-04:00

LUNGFULL! Magazine

Lyn Hejinian's "The Book of a Thousand Eyes" PoemTalk

2009-03-09T16:11:00.004-04:00

Episode #15 of PoemTalk is out today:

http://www.poemtalk.org

Tom Mandel, Bob Perelman and Thomas Devaney discuss Lyn Hejinian's unfinished series, "The Book of a Thousand Eyes."

PoemTalk is sponsored by the Kelly Writers House, the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, and the Poetry Foundation.

Donald Riggs and postcard of Cezanne's "Portrait of Victor Chocquet"

2009-03-09T13:31:00.005-04:00

I ran into poet Don Riggs on Saturday in Center City Philadelphia and took this photo of him. Don said he continues to write his daily sonnets, which he composes while bathing each morning. Don also said he's getting ready to present a paper on time travel narratives at The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, which will be held in Florida.

Three poems from FENCE's AWP reading in Chicago - FEB 2009

2009-03-02T18:04:00.006-05:00

I read three poems at FENCE'S 10th Anniversery Reading in Chicago at AWP -- the poems here are: "They're Fighting in Atlantic City, in Atlantic City," "Sonnet," and "Trying to life as if it were morning."

Ron Silliman's the Alphabet

2009-02-17T21:49:00.006-05:00

Ron Silliman read tonight at the Kelly Writers House. The achievement of the Alphabet is stunning and a testament to a life-long engagement of the world via language, words, observation, ideas.

Now let's think
about a piece called "Ink."
I am what iamb trochee. -page 841

AWP Bookfair & Conference in Chicago 2009

2009-02-15T23:04:00.007-05:00

Across the street from the Hilton there were about 20 odd ice sculptures. I took a liking to this mini snow being.

-Marcella Durand and Thomas Devaney (we weren't this blurry).

James Castle's soot and spit drawning "SALT"

2009-02-09T00:40:00.002-05:00

George Schneeman 1934-2009

2009-01-29T06:34:00.020-05:00

The artist George Schneeman died this past Monday. He was 74. I invited Schneeman to give a talk at the Kelly Writers House for the Poet and Painters Series we did with the Penn School of Design in 2003. Schneeman spoke about his many projects over the years with poets, specifically a limited edition book he did with Ron Padgett called Yodeling into a Kotex, and a recent series of landscapes he had painted from outside of Siena, Italy.

Schneeman did numerous collaborations. His book Painter Among Poets: The Collaborative Art of George Schneeman is a genuine testament to a life of making art through collaboration and conversation.

George Schneeman's obituary in The New York Times.

Pamphlet release for "The Absolute Literary Case"

2009-01-21T09:15:00.006-05:00

The Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia presents a program to mark the release of Thomas Devaney's pamphlet "The Absolute Literary Case." The essay was written for the "Quote the Raven" exhibition celebrating Edgar Allan Poe's Bicentennial. The event will be held in the Elkins Library at Central Free Library, 1901 Vine Street at 7 pm on Thursday January 22, 2009.

For information call: 215 686-5416.

A MURDER OF RAVENS on Poe's 200th at the Kelly Writers House

2009-01-17T16:38:00.025-05:00

WATCH THE PROGRAM: video

A MURDER OF RAVENS
THE KELLY WRITERS HOUSE
JANUARY 15, 2009
HOSTED by THOMAS DEVANEY

* * * * * * * * * * * *

THOMAS DEVANEY, Introduction

EDWARD PETTIT, the Philly Poe Guy

SHONNI ENELOW, reading Baudelaire's translation

A group adaptation of the poem by: MICHAEL TOM VASSALLO, KAEGAN SPARKS &
THOMSON GUSTER

A partial screening of The Simpsons’ s
”The Raven”

HELEN MCKENNA-UFF, National Park Service Ranger of the Poe National Historic Site

DANIEL HOFFMAN, author of Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe

On Edgar A. Poe in today's Inquirer

2009-01-13T05:34:00.006-05:00

I am quoted in Tirdad Derakhshani's article
"Poe's heart belong elsewhere? Nevermore!"
on Edgar Allan Poe in today's Philadelphia Inquirer.

Derakhshani writes:

The University of Pennsylvania's Thomas Devaney, whose essay "Edgar Allan Poe at 200: The Absolute Literary Case" accompanies the library's Poe exhibition, said the debate is significant because it has brought so much attention to Poe's works.

"The debate over the poet's bones are about his legacy - that's what Pettit is talking about . . . his body of work," Devaney said.

He said it's hard to overestimate Poe's influence on American - and European - culture. Poems such as "Annabel Lee" and "The Raven," he said, are "in the DNA of our culture."

Devaney will host an evening of readings devoted to "The Raven" at the Kelly Writers House on the Penn campus on Thursday. He said Poe is everywhere in today's culture: Tim Burton's film Vincent; the series of Poe films made by Vincent Price; the songs of Lou Reed and Patti Smith; even Matt Groening's The Simpsons. (The animated show's riff on "The Raven" will be screened during the Writers House event.)

The Great Poe Debate is tonight at the Phila Free Library at 7:30 PM.

EDGAR ALLAN POE

2009-01-11T17:00:00.019-05:00

A MURDER OF RAVENS at the Kelly Writers House:

Thursday, January 15th at 5:00 PM A MURDER OF RAVENS, a celebration of Edgar Allan Poe's 200th birthday, featuring multiple readings of "The Raven". Hosted by THOMAS DEVANEY, the program will include readings by DANIEL HOFFMAN, SHONNI ENELOW (reading Baudelaire's translation of the poem) and JAY KIRK; a group adaption of the poem by MICHAEL TOM VASSALLO, KAEGAN SPARKS, and THOMSON GUSTER; and an excerpted screening of the infamous rendition by The Simpsons.

THOMAS DEVANEY'S essay "The Absolute Literary Case" is a pamphlet published by the Philadelphia Free Library for their current exhibition on Poe, "Quote the Raven" in the Rare Book Department.

DANIEL HOFFMAN is author of the book "Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe," which remains a classic study on Poe and was nominated for the National Book Award in 1971. He is also the author of "The Whole Nine Yards: Longer Poems."

SHONNI ENELOW is a playwright and doctoral student in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania.

JAY KIRK teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Penn, and is included in the anthology "Submersion Journalism" (The New Press, 2008).

MICHAEL TOM VASSALLO is a film maker and the Multimedia Assistant at KWH.

KAEGAN SPARKS is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and curator of the KWH Art gallery.

THOMSON GUSTER is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania and the Digital Sound Archivist at KWH.

**********************

Other POE BICENTENNIAL events happening in Philadelphia this week:

For the most complete listings see EDWARD PETTIT'S excellent site: Ed & Edgar Poe my adventures in the cult of Poe -- The Bibliothecary.

January 13, 7:30 p.m. — "Great Poe Debate" between Poe scholars Jeff Jerome of Baltimore, Paul Lewis of Boston and Edward Pettit of Philadelphia about what city has the best claim on Poe's legacy

Free and open to the public

Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine Street.

**********************
January 16, 6 p.m. — The Official Friends of Poe Bicentennial Birthday Party!

The festivities will include a special preview of the new permanent exhibit at the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site. The exhibit, Edgar Allan Poe: the Many Sides of Genius, will focus on the incredible life and literary legacy of Edgar Allan Poe. Other key program features will include a visit by "Poe," unveiling the official Poe Bicentennial Poster, and a wine-tasting reception of vintages mentioned in Poe's works.

Registration Fee: $10 for members; $15 for non-members
Please register by phone at 215-597-7919 or e-mail to

reservations@friendsofindependence.org

Festivities will take place at the German Society, 7th and Spring Garden Streets, across the street from Poe. Actors and Park Rangers Paul Campbell and Helen McKenna-Uff will perform an original piece "Doppelganger Poes," also featuring Rangers Eric Knight and Steve Medeiros and the Philly Poe Guy, Edward Pettit. There will be a wine-tasting of vintages mentioned in Poe's works and a preview of the new exhibits.

**********************
January 16, 7-9 p.m. – At the Mütter Museum, Grover Silcox explores how mid-19th century medicine influenced the dark author's life and work. The curious event includes a keynote speech from UPenn Hospital internist Michael Cirigliano, as well as a Q&A session with the requisite Poe impersonator. Registration required. Fri., Jan. 16, 7-9 p.m., $12, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 19 S. 22nd St., 215 563-3737, collphyphil.org

**********************
January 17, 2 p.m. — Official opening of new Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site exhibits, with a talk by Daniel Hoffman, poet and Poe scholar, 532 N. 7th Street.

**********************

January 22, 7 pm — A release and reading of the pamphlet "The Absolute Literary Case," by Thomas Devaney for the Poe exhibition "Quote the Raven" at The Free Library of Philadelphia. 1901 Vine Street, Rare Book Department (third floor) in the Elkins library. For information call: 215-686-5416.

thomas devaney

ONandOnScreen poems + videos WINTER 2012

Edgar Allan Poe's "Dream-Land" on PoemTalk with McGann, Devaney, Timpane, & Filreis

OREGON AVE two photos by Zoe Struass and poem by Thomas Devaney

Our Emily Dickinson the blog and article

A poem after photo by Zoe Strauss at BOMBlog

HOW WILL I FIND YOU?

Louis McKee 1951-2011

Our Emily Dickinson — a reading Nov 17th

Rachel Blau DuPlessis Conference at Temple University OCT 21, 2011

New poems & an interivew with Bill Berkson in ZOLAND POETRY

Haverford grad Eve Gleichman wins Stony Brook Fiction Prize

Philip Levine named U.S. Poet Laureate

Harriet & the Poetry Foundation on ONandOnScreen's BOMB issue!

ONandOnScreen Summer 2011 | BOMB Issue!

Thomas Devaney at PHILA POETRY FESTIVAL & the ICA's LAUNDRY BOAT APRIL 23, 2011

On Ross Gay's Bringing the Shovel Down

La Belle Époch: Poetry from the Banquet Years

Two poems in The Awl

For My Irish American Family | The Philadelphia Inquirer first published March 17, 2002

Dead Tired: Sleep Texts of Patty Chang & Thomas Devaney | Momenta Art | performance 3/20/11

Poets and Painters in Collaboration at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery

James Castle poem MP3 posted at Poetry Project

ORIGAMI & ORIGAMI HEADPHONES

The Home Front: Jane Irish's Art of War at Locks

Feb 4 - Mar 12, 2011

At Locks Gallery600 Washington SquarePhiladelphia, PA

ONandOnScreen poems + videos Winter 2011!

Reading at St Mark's Poetry Project Bill Kushner & Thomas Devaney 2/2/11

On 'Set Pieces' & NYTimes Slide Show

James Castle poem in The Brookyn Rail DEC 2010

Attention Span 2010

Third Factory/Notes to PoetryAttention Span 2010Thomas Devaney

ONandOnScreen poems + videos fall 2010

New work by Randall Couch,Bill Berkson, Shonni Enelow,Greg Fuchs, John Wheelwright, Thomas Devaney, Heather Bowlan, Paul Siegell, John Coletti with Brendan Lorber, Emily Dickinson, Rodrigo Toscano, Sarah Zar, &Ian Keenan.

A Fan’s Poem for José Feliciano, new on ONandOnScreen

Reading at Rosenbach for Banned Books Week 9/30

Going Home: Readings on September 25 & 26th Northeast Philadelphia!

L.S. Asekoff on PennSound

Godspeed a poem in Jacket 40

Set Pieces at the ICA fall 2010

Thomas Devaney On "The Raven"

Wedding poem "Earth and Air" for Kelly Cobb and Aaron Igler Maine 2010

Drawing the Line: Toby Olson & Philadelphia, 1992

Tom Paine's Pigeons: Sparrow & Thomas Devaney at the Powel House May 8, 2010

Article on Poetry Tree Tour at Haverford College

Under An Oak: A Tree Tour in Poetry - 4/16/10

"Dog People" a poem & A Very Good Wednesday at the ICA w Sarah McEneaney

On WHYY's Radio Times - Susan Stewart, Thomas Devnaey, and Elaine Terranova 4/6/10

Seven Philadelphia-area poets to savor

A.D. Amorosi's City Paper article on the Philly Poetry Scene

CITY PAPER Reading at the TIN ANGEL March 31st

PoemTalk: Armantrout, Dinh, and Devaney on Kit Robinson

ONandOnScreen: Debut Spring 2010 issue!

On Kevin Varrone's g-point almanac: passyunk lost

The Central Library's Monday Poets Series - Rosemurgy & Devaney 3/1/10

MLA Off-Site Reading DEC 2009 - Pattie McCarthy, Ron Silliman, Thomas Devaney

MAIRA KALMAN reading at the ICA Jan 30

The Gate of Horn, poems by L.S. Asekoff

Sean Webb's "The Bridge" winner of the CP's Poetry Contest 2009

MLA offsite Reading 12-29-09!

Haverford College

Joshua Marcus & This Land

PHILA City Paper's Fiction/Poetry Contest!

Reading with Hal Sirowitz & Bob Holman

CANNONBALL at Haverford Nov 11th!

MAD MEN & POE

Reading for Common Ground: Eight Philadelphia Photographers in the 1960s and 1970s OCT 22nd

On Cid Corman PoemTalk

Massive POE conference in Philadelphia

New Invisibles Cites: Penn undergrads adapt Calvino for Puppets!

On Trevor Winkfield & his new book with John Ashbery Faster Than Birds Can Fly

Sparrow, Sirowitz, Devaney - SAT 9/12

Lost Oppen Letter & New Oppen Essay

Encyclopedia of the New York School Poets

FACTS ON FILE

Covers by Susan Landers

On Duchamp's "Etant Donnes" at the PMA: Thomas Devaney speaking with Serge Fauchereau

A Gorgeous Semi-Colon

The Art of the Box Lunch - Online!

At Locks Gallery
600 Washington Square
Philadelphia, PA

Third Factory/Notes to Poetry

Attention Span 2010
Thomas Devaney

New work by Randall Couch,
Bill Berkson, Shonni Enelow,
Greg Fuchs, John Wheelwright, Thomas Devaney, Heather Bowlan, Paul Siegell, John Coletti with Brendan Lorber, Emily Dickinson, Rodrigo Toscano, Sarah Zar, &
Ian Keenan.

Experiments with Chayotes boiled and baked --
boiled is better (12 mins), tho must season.
Snap of the raw chayotes.