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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 16h

// OUR COLLECTIVE MEMORY IS SCANT, EVEN FOR A PLACE WE WON'T SOON FORGET// . Acrylic on canvas panel

An open field with hints of rural or fringe suburban life in the distance near the golden hour with fading horizon line and final bursts of orange reflected in the spotty clouds

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

// South of the Tracks // acrylic on panel (2022)

vertical landscape painting of a wet marsh and unkempt brush missing its foliage; three quarters of upper paitings is of light bluish-green sky with hints of light low-distant clouds; lower fourth is of the brush, marsh reflecting the sky, and muddy groundcover; railroad timbers are barely visible in the center of the frame.

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

// South of the Tracks // acrylic on panel (2022)

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Meat-Flavored Water might not sound like a winner, but I'm beyond grateful that @trampset.bsky.social believed in it and is giving it a puncher's chance. Just wow. Congrats Emily, Pravin and Sarp! Love your work. Best of luck to all BSF nominees!

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I taught many a man to horse, yet they remained thirsty. New pins arrived telling me I taught them to jackass, to pony, never to horse. Horse, they said, make him drinks water, always.

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Beautiful, and surreal, and anxious, and gentle, and... in a word, arresting. Love this piece.

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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Yes it could be argued that keeping up with world events is important but alternatively can I interest you in hugging an ancient mossy boulder that looks like a face and quietly listening while it tells you stories from centuries cloaked in mist.

A lovely mossy boulder with a face. I walked past this venerable stone gentleman on Dartmoor when I was beginning to write my first novel, Villager, and it whispered all 104,000 words of the book to me. So now I have to pay it all of my royalties. Unfortunately my ex-publisher stopped paying me royalties last year. Understandable, the boulder was not happy. But now I have a new publisher and the book has been republished. So remember if you purchase a copy you will be helping a boulder to eat, pay the rent on his riverside moss garden, and feed his boulder family.

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Gave a talk on creating this weekend. It was NOT a TED-like talk. I wrote & read a story instead the kind we loved in pre-K, at bedtime. It was in memory of my mother. I wore blue suede shoes (she loved Elvis). Not sure if the clapping was real or polite. But it felt good to go against the grain.

A black and white photo of a woman at home in a hospital bed with a nurse sitting bedside. Both have colored bubbles engulfing their heads, one signaling life, the other death. The nurse is wearing purple shoes (the dying woman's favorite color), a nod to Dorothy in Wizard of Oz who clicks her own ruby slippers, reciting "there's no place like home." The collage artwork is inspired from a line in the song What Sarah Said by Death Cab for Cutie -- “love is watching someone die."

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

At first it seems @pdforan.bsky.social is out to break your heart... then you realize he's working to heal it, with chisel & hammer, knocking off calcified pieces around your heart so you can feel more fully. Love this story. His book offers more. literarynamjooning.wixsite.com/litnam/post/...

literarynamjooning.wixsite.com

This New Zealand by Pat Foran

I didn’t see the loneliest tree in the world reaching out to me that morning, remember the conceptual popsicle stand the color of then that afternoon or hear the lo-fi moon static-crackling on my radi...

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Said goodbye to some art pieces that found a permanent this weekend

Painting of a slowly decaying bunch of flowers, white on black background; visually has the implied feel of a photographer's negative from a contact sheet

"Field within a Field" painting depicting the convergence of an athletic field with a nature preserve, where lights have become nesting areas for bird species and overgrown brush questions what type of field might have previously existed. A golden hour sky shows blues higher in the frame with yellows and oranges emerging lower in the skyline.

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

A bookend to #smallpoemsunday by Ted Kooser, from Splitting an Order (2014, Copper Canyon Press) cc: @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

"Newborns Suckling at the Teat of Their Chatbots" -- a home movie -- a dystopian novel -- creative nonfiction -- a villanelle -- an exhibition -- a peice of self-censored art -- a piece of legislation -- a sign of the times -- a coda, a curtain call

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

I don't talk much about my writer-artist-painter journey. This Saturday will be an exception. Humbled & a bit out of my element to speak at Created Conference with heavy hitters in the creative space. Reminding myself it's just storytelling -- and that's something I've been doing for a lifetime.

Clockwise from upper left: statica head sketch of man with scattered lines for a head on a blue acrylic wash; painting of autumn tree changing with power lines and pole at dusk; cloudy Turner-esque painting of a small waterfall over a tree and shale embankment; sketch/painting of architectural/geometric shapes, lines with text descriptions revealing a boy in running motion. Text overlay of THE STORY You Were Made For, Created Conference, Columbus, Ohio 9.19.2026

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

From Noah Falck's "Exclusions" (Tupelo Press, 2020) for #smallpoemsunday cc: @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

Poem Excluding City, a poem by Noah Falck:

The sky was a concussion of clouds
and notorious for dropping everything
at a moment’s notice. And the fog,
how it removed everything and then it didn’t.
People gathered in the distance and made history
until it hurt. They devoured field after field
with bad ideas and took pride in the
groomed ruins. It was never a photo
opportunity. The mood when the forest
met the asphalt: Too little, too late.

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

beer o'clock on a friday -- cheers! // Near Perfect Pour // acrylic on reclaimed wood

a pint of Guiness sits on a wooden bartop with late afternoon sunlight coming in from the right side casting shadows

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

ai apocalypse has entered the chat... a sitting prez promises payola for votes... embracing gas stations as tourist destinations... wake me when we get to the good part.

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Piżama Press @pizamapress.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The wonderful @eveninghouse.bsky.social recently had a store break-in & could use your help! Consider grabbing a book, Piżama or otherwise eveninghousebooks.com

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

At what point does a clown posse cease to be insane?

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The pool is now officially closed until next summer. 🙁 But the pre-order link is still open! 😀

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Make the easy choice. Pre-orders are open. www.thaddevassie.com/domesticated-creatures

brown bear in a residential swimming pool looking into the house where human is filming. Overlay of DOMESTICATED CREATURES book cover by Thad DeVassie provides a more reasonable, domesticated option.

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John Chrostek @johnchrostek.com · 03/09/2026

Why not grab a book from your friendly downtown Buffalo indie bookshop? (we wanna give you the literature)

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

what the holy had... thought you people might be asleep... @havehashad.com

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

When book work gets in the way of art work, blend them // LENT // analog collage on book bindery

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I can officially say it: PRE-ORDERS are now open! For signed copies (via me) and through the publisher. And did I mention there's a BOOK SOUNDTRACK? Find it all in the link... and thank you so much in advance. www.thaddevassie.com/domesticated...

Book cover for DOMESTICATED CREATURES by Thad DeVassie featuring the Edwin Landseer painting "Scene from A Midsummer's Night Dream, Titania and Bottom 1848-51"

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Love the beautiful layout of @thedodgemag.bsky.social marrying the prose, poetry and paint seamlessly. Thanks so much for having me in the Summer issue!

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Somebody's feeling anxious... maybe that's because we're taking pre-orders for signed copies of my forthcoming book. Web page is up. Things are starting to happen! 🚀🫏 www.thaddevassie.com/domesticated-creatures

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

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Yaroslav Barsukov #NoToWar #НетВойне @barsukov.com · 17/08/2026

AI RANT Following the cancellation of three major debut book deals over AI suspicions, I decided to put my own (needless to say, 100% human-written) prose to the test. My detector of choice was Originality AI, and the results proved to be jarring, to say the least. 🧵1/5

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I am absolutely judging this zine by its cover & loving it

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

beginning to think this rain will never end // URBAN DRIZZLE // ink + acrylic on paper

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Look closely. @adamvoith.bsky.social & @littleengines.bsky.social gave away two books, >500 pages of hard writing work, FOR FREE. That's as indie as it gets. Show some love. Spread the word. Get the book(s). Then tip at checkout. As generously as you can. Support the indies. TY Adam & LE.

Cover of Adam Voith's RIYL on top of The Walk Book, by Sean Thor Conroe -- both published by Little Engines. Small script at the bottom of each book includes the ISBN number and U.S. price of $0.00

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

alright rain, you win again today // BLUE BLUR // acrylic on canvas panel

A rural homestead with headlights approaching, shrouded in a in blur of blue color

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Punching above your weight is tiring but necessary. When the knockout comes, only a few will believe it. They are the ones who saw the long work, the unglamorous work, the zero fanfare work, the you-have-no-chance work. Keep swinging. Contact is coming.

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

That first line... "Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Tour" by Emily Hockaday Appearing in Stanchion 22 (the music issue/the encore) #smallpoemsunday cc: @tomsnarsky.bsky.social

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

It's not the words, or the perfect vintage image, or even the adornments that look effortless (they are not) -- it's the whole package. Sarah's work is deserving of a bigger platform, a larger stage, even as it speaks tenderly in your own hands. Galleries, museums, anyone? Anyone???

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

"We put our bags in the trunk and kissed beside the cart return, the most American chapel we could manifest." A conveyor-belt poem of modern existence. This is such a great read.

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Still in a bit of disbelief... upon opening Issue 7 of @asteralesjournal.bsky.social and seeing five of my paintings from the jump. Super grateful to Rachel Bunting and @djvorreyer.bsky.social for choosing to pair my artwork with such great writing in their elegantly designed journal.

screenshot of front page of Issue 7 of Asterales: A Journal of Arts and Letters, where one painting balances the masthead and four other painting are paired with written pieces. All visible paintings by Thad DeVassie

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

A steady flow of highly satisfying book mail as of late. Support indie writers + presses.

Clockwise from top left: Songs from the Blimp Ruins by Pat Foran (Silverbacked Punk); The Moose Lottery by Kelly E. Sullivan (Stanchion Books); Terrestrial by Suzy Enon (Malarkey Books); The E
Walk Book BY Sean Thor Conroe (Little Engines)

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

This is ridiculously generous. Consider test-driving authors you don't know or want to get to know better -- then buy their physical book. That's my approach. We need Malarkey and small indies to thrive for years to come.

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Thad DeVassie @thaddevassie.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

COVER REVEAL! I've been waiting a REALLY LONG TIME to bring this to life, and it's almost here. DOMESTICATED CREATURES is my novella-in-flash of a struggling writer & his wife, their pet donkey, reapers, jetpacks, suburban absurdity, music & more. Launch date + pre-order link coming soon!

Cover image of Edwin Landseer's painting -- "Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania and Bottom 1848-51" National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Felton Bequest, 1932. Image courtesy NGV, Melbourne.

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megpokrass.bsky.social @megpokrass.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I'm looking for a couple kinds of flash stories for an upcoming workshop I'm leading: 1. grueling road stories and 2. revenge stories. Please let me know if anything comes to mind. Thank you!

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