In conversation with Devin Kelly, poet, author, and teacher.
Devin joins me fresh from a hard track session with his New York run club. He’s sitting in his grandmother’s tiny old chair, the exact chair he sat down in every night to pen his latest novel, Pilgrims, a tale of two brothers, one monk, and one racing runaway. The story explores a sibling dynamic, but also a journey “to explore the multitudes of personalities that can exist inside a person.”
Devin’s got a devoted literary fanbase, born of the personal essays he’s written over the years for LongReads. See: Stumbling can be lovely, newly featured in the 2025’s anthology of This Year’s Best Sports Writing – the second time he’s made the cut.
Our conversation covers everything from profound themes of suffering to pedestrian themes of learning to drive. The value of play, laughter, his creative process, and making friends with poets at grad school, “always my favourite people.”
There’s so much wisdom here, all delivered with Devin’s signature grace and eloquence. Thank you, Devin, for your art and your words.
PILGRIMS is out on Great Place Books on 18th November, 2025
Devin’s Substack, Ordinary Plots
Recommends/mentions: In the Driver’s Seat and Through the Children’s Gate by Adam Gopnik, Zen Motoring, the poet Larry Leavitt, author Max Porter, Denis Johnson (Jesus’ Son), Raymond Carver, James Baldwin, Marilyn Robertson, Ali Smith, William Finnegan (Barbarian Days), Bill Buford, Carl Phillips (My Trade is a Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing)
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