William F. DeVault

150pxPoet, author. Called the "Romantic Poet of the Internet" by Yahoo, (1996).

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, USA, August 16 1955. Graduated Morgantown High School, Morgantown, West Virginia, 1973. Briefly attended West Virginia University.

DeVault began writing at age eight, to strong approval. He later launched himself into neo-Romanticism (or, as he sometimes insists, "neo-metaphysics"). His early works were full of yearning and passion, including "the unicorns", "I should have been immortal", "tread softly" and "Monument". His "voice" includes religious and mythological allusions and a tendency towards lines so long they wrap most published pages. He is a "single draft" poet who feels that editing destroys the "purity" and "emotional resonance" of his work. He often uses metaphorical pseudonyms or "totem-muses" for his lovers, such as "the Panther", "the Goldenheart", and "Brigit, the Goddess of Fire and Poetry".

In the mid-1990s he wrote a weekly humor column for America Online's Writers Club and helped establish the Poets Place on AOL, becoming their first chat host (his "Romantic and Erotic Poetry Group" became a showcase for the best and brightest of the "digital renaissance" poets online.) The "digital renaissance" movement involved thousands of poets, mostly young, posting to websites or even creating their own websites.

During this time his "Panther Cycles" became his first major breakthrough, hundreds of poems that served as a literary diary of the ups and downs of an extramarital affair DeVault was having with an artist he had met online, whom he named "The Panther" to mask her real identity and give his poems a metaphorical frame. When this relationship ended in 1996 he finalized his divorce and headed to Los Angeles, where he settled into the artists' community of Venice Beach and proceeded to write some of his most enduring and emotionally tortured works while being involved in a series of high profile affairs.

All of DeVault's collections of poetry have been vanity published through companies such as Lulu.com, Writer's Club Press, Writer's Showcase Press, and iUniverse.

In the fall of 2002, he was one of a handful of writers (and one of the first American poets) selected to take part in the Edinburgh International Internet Festival of the Arts in Scotland.

The foreword of his fourth book, "Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion", was written by Larry Jaffe, the International Readings Coordinator for the United Nations' Dialogue Among Civilizations Through Poetry.

In 2004 he was named to the Appalachian Education Initiative's list of 50 Outstanding Creative Artists from West Virginia.

He refers to himself as "the amomancer" (one who casts spells with words of love). He is also known to have written under several pseudonyms .

He has worked as a management, technical and proposal writing consultant with such firms as Computer Sciences Corporation, Perot Systems, DMR-Fujitsu, CACI and GE-Capital.

Recent times have found him blogging and podcasting from his website, and he has added experimentation with music fused with his poetry to his arsenal of creative interests. He has recently released a CD of his compositions, entitled "The Last Romantic Verb".

Quotes about him

"A modern poet of real literary, musical and cultural consequence." - Aberjhani, author, "Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance"

"William F. DeVault's poetry embodies the essence of romance..." - Brandy Walton, senior poetry editor, EWG Presents.

"Sensuous and intoxicating...William DeVault's poetry burns with romance, mystique, and passion." - Robin C. Travis-Murphee, editor, Poetic Voices.

"A master...the future of the Digital Renaissance." Poetry Now! (UK).

"William F. DeVault, known as the "amomancer" is a living legend who will live beyond time, as his words are forever captured by his prolific pen. - Lupi Basil, CEO/Editor, Wings of Dawn Publishing, Emotions Magazine.

"William F. DeVault is easily the most self-impressed, self-promoting, verbally incontinent, and talentless writer I have ever encountered" - Adam Bede, editor, The Readers' Vine, May, 2001

Books

* PanthEon (1997). Now out of print.
* From Out Of The City (1997). Subsumed by "from an unexpected quarter".
* From An Unexpected Quarter (1999).
* Love Gods of a Forgotten Religion (2001).
* 101 Great Love Poems (2002).
* INVOCATO (2005).
* The Morgantown Suite (2005).
* The Compleat Panther Cycles (2005).
* "101 Great Erotic Poems" (2006, announced, now delayed until 2007).
* "Ronin in the Temple of Aphrodite" (2006, announced).
* "Psalms of the Monster River Cult" (2006, announced) Joint project with Daniel S. McTaggart).

CDs

* The Last Romantic Verb (2006).
* Nemicorn (2006).
* The Naked Reads (2006).

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