Thomas DeFreitas

Poet

Arlington, MA
Massachusetts US

Author's Bio

Thomas DeFreitas was born in Boston, was educated at the Boston Latin School, and attended the University of Massachusetts (in Boston and in Amherst) for two years. His poems have appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Dappled Things, Ibbetson Street, Pensive, Plainsongs, and elsewhere.

In 2018, Thomas’s poem “Chasing the Waves” was chosen by Arlington, Massachusetts Poet Laureate Cathie Desjardins to be part of the Talking Chair Project, an interactive poetry exhibit installed during National Poetry Month at the Robbins Library in Arlington. In the summer of 2019, “Detox” was chosen as an Award Poem by the editors of Plainsongs.

Thomas’s third collection, Swift River Ballad, appeared on Labor Day weekend, 2023, under the Kelsay Books imprint. His forthcoming poembook, Walking Between the Raindrops, will be published by Kelsay in 2025.

A resident of Arlington, MA since 2010, Thomas is a contributing member of the Academy of American Poets, and retains active membership in the New England Poetry Club, Boston’s Black Seed Writers, and Arlington’s Bee Hive Poets.

Publications & Prizes

Books:
Walking Between the Raindrops (Kelsay Books, 2025)
,
Swift River Ballad (Kelsay Books, 2023)
,
Longfellow, Tell Me (Kelsay Books, 2022)
,
Winter in Halifax (Kelsay Books, 2021)
Journals: , ,
Ibbetson Street
,
Light
,
Muddy River Poetry Review
,
Mudfish
,
Orchards Poetry Journal
,
Ovunque Siamo
,
Plainsongs
, ,
Soul-Lit
Prizes won: 

Plainsongs Award Poem, "Detox," Summer 2019

Personal Favorites

Favorite authors: 
Dylan Thomas, Theodore Roethke, W. H. Auden, Marianne Moore, Ted Kooser, Seamus Heaney, Mary Oliver, Julia Fehrenbacher, Elena Lee Johnson, Mary Buchinger, Hilary Sallick, Victor Howes, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Linda Haviland Conte, Jennifer Martelli, Jennifer Markell, Mercedes Lawry, Countee Cullen, Adam Zagajewski, Hart Crane, Kenneth Koch, William Shakespeare, Catullus, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman
What I'm reading now: 
Oculus by Sally Wen Mao, The Unfolding by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Sukun by Kazim Ali, Sleeping in the Same World by Margaret Lloyd, Where That Leaves Us by Michael P. Hill

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
American
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Boston, MA
Massachusetts
Raised in: 
Boston, MA
Massachusetts
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Last update: Nov 02, 2024