Author Biography

I am an author and playwright, and an actor. Along with my two novels, The Silenced and Blue, I have also written about twenty plays. The first thing I can remember wanting to be was a writer. However, it took me twenty years before I actually acted on that thought.

As a young man I filleted fish for a living on the open boats off of Long Island, NY. The thought of being a writer never left my sixth grade classroom where I’d first thought of it. (Although, looking back, I noticed that the daily fish and weather journals I kept on the fishing boats read more like short stories than data.) I worked for five seasons on the boats. Along the way, I dropped out of college twice, stayed in school the third time, got interested in the arts, and then went to schools for five years. I didn’t start really writing until I was about thirty-one. I was an actor at the time and wrote myself a one-person show because I was out of work. I kept writing after that: plays, short stories, really bad poetry, and then books. I didn’t know much about writing, so I kept running to the library and taking out books on ‘how to write books’, and then books on ‘how to publish books’, and then books on ‘what to do when you can’t get your book published’. I love libraries. I am still learning how to write, every time I put pen to paper—or my two fingers to the keyboard, I should say. (Although I have given up on the poetry.)

I live in Spring Green, WI, with my wife and two children. I am a volunteer EMT, and have been a member of the acting company of American Players Theater for the past fifteen years.

I still have a note from my 6th grade teacher taped beside my computer which says: “Perhaps one day you’ll be a writer.”

Additional Information

• James DeVita's web site
• Ad for The Silenced on YouTube: