Manners

Thomas McFadden is a poet, novelist, and filmmaker whose work moves across mediums in pursuit of the same thing: stories that stay with people long after the last page. Over more than nine years as a screenwriter and filmmaker, he learned to build worlds with cinematic scope and emotional weight, instincts he now brings to the page. His poetry turns an unflinching eye on the inner lives we rarely say aloud. In Manners, he explores womanhood in all its shades-tender and fierce, doubtful and defiant, and unapologetically human-stripping away the mask of expectation to reveal the person beneath. The collection follows his 2018 poetry debut, Caught Between, and his first novel, Around, a Southern Gothic and psychological horror story that marked his move into long-form fiction. A lifelong creative innovator, Thomas writes character-driven work about the complexity of being human-in verse, on screen, and across the page. Whatever the form, the mission stays the same: to create worlds readers can't quite leave behind.