Blood on Blood, Unknown Press, November 22nd, 2016
“A striking vision of Springsteen’s iconic Nebraska, Devin Kelly’s Blood on Blood is a great example of the potential of the ekphrastic form: communicating so deeply with another work of art that a whole new work and world springs forth. Stretching beyond the songs, the poems spread wide their lyric virtuosity, exploring the beautiful, tragic and tender American condition.”
—Bianca Stone, author of Someone Else’s Wedding Vows, I Want To Open The Mouth God Gave You, Beautiful Mutant, and I Saw The Devil With His Needlework
“Devin Kelly is a master storyteller. He weaves together mysterious lyricism with narrative so naturally and effectively, I feel like I know the narrator like myself, but am excitedly intrigued by the ghostly presence of all the characters. Each poem makes me want to know more, makes me hungry for details and more lines. Kelly takes surprising turns and twists while telling it like it is, such as in this line: “God’s a good lie. & even God knows.” He’s definitely a poet to watch.”
– Joanna C. Valente, author of Sirs & Madams, The Gods Are Dead, and Marys of the Sea
“This is poetry to live with. Devin Kelly is an American writer who’s spun life and song into a traveling tale of petty crime, of a blue kind of violence, of love at dusk and dawn, and of God (whoever she is). Kelly’s is a world of meaning and unmasking, an astonishing poetry of loss and becoming.”
“Kelly goes between the songs, between the words, the notes. He keeps going until he hits marrow. This isn’t tribute. It’s the work we knew was inside Springsteen’s masterpiece all along.”
– William Lessard, author of Rembrandt with Cellphone
