John Balaban (poet)
{{short description|American writer}}
{{Infobox writer
| embed =
| honorific_prefix =
| name = John Balaban
| honorific_suffix =
| image = John Balaban.jpg
| image_size =
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption = Balaban in 2017
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| pseudonym =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1943|12|2}}
| birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| death_date =
| death_place =
| resting_place =
| occupation =
| language =
| residence =
| nationality =
| citizenship =
| education =
| alma_mater = Pennsylvania State University,
Harvard University
| home_town =
| period =
| genre = Poetry
| subject =
| movement =
| notableworks =
| spouse =
| partner =
| children =
| relatives =
| awards = William Carlos Williams Award,
Medal for the Cause of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Viet Nam
| signature =
| signature_alt =
| years_active =
| module =
| website =
| portaldisp =
}}
John B. Balaban (born December 2, 1943)Baughman, Ronald. [http://www.bookrags.com/biography/john-b-balaban-dlb/ Excerpt from Dictionary of Literary Biography], accessed July 9, 2010. is an American poet and translator, an authority on Vietnamese literature.[http://www.smith.edu/poetrycenter/poets/jbalaban.html The Poetry Center at Smith College: John Balaban] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212215613/http://www.smith.edu/poetrycenter/poets/jbalaban.html |date=2012-02-12 }}, accessed September 19, 2007.
Biography
Balaban was born in Philadelphia to Romanian immigrant parents, Phillip and Alice Georgies Balaban.{{cite web|url=http://www.kaurab.com/english/interviews/balaban.html|title=John Balaban Interview|first=Ankur|last=Saha|publisher=KAURAB Online|year=2009|accessdate=July 9, 2010}} He obtained a B.A. with highest honors in English from Pennsylvania State University in 1966. A Woodrow Wilson Fellowship that he received in his senior year at Penn State allowed him to study English literature at Harvard University, where he received his A.M.{{cite web |title=Balaban, John B. 1943– |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/balaban-john-b-1943 |website=Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series |publisher=Encyclopedia.com |accessdate=February 25, 2019 }}{{cite web |title=John Balaban |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-balaban |publisher=Poetry Foundation |accessdate=February 25, 2019 }}
Balaban was a conscientious objector in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In a moment at Harvard which he writes about in his memoir Remembering Heaven's Face,{{page needed|date=February 2019}} he petitioned his draft board to allow him to drop his student deferment to go to Vietnam with the International Volunteer Services, where he taught at a university until it was bombed in the Tet Offensive. He was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel and evacuated; after his recovery, he continued his alternative service and returned to Vietnam with the Committee of Responsibility to treat war-injured children.{{cite web |title=Committee of Responsibility Records, 1966–1978 |url=http://www1.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/DG151-175/DG173COR.htm|website=Swarthmore College Peace Collection |publisher=Swarthmore College |access-date=2019-02-25}}
File:Poet John Balaban Vietnam Ministry of Culture Award 2008.jpg
He left Vietnam in 1969, subsequently testifying on civilian casualties before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy.{{cite book|title=Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Problems Connected with Refugees and Escapees of the Committee on the Judiciary |department=United States Senate |issue=First Session, Part 1 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office|location=Washington, D.C.|date=June 24–25, 1969}}
In 1971–72, as the war continued, he returned once again to tape, transcribe, and translate the sung oral poetry known as ca dao, resulting in his Ca Dao Viet Nam: Vietnamese Folk Poetry{{cite journal |last1=Purdy |first1=Gilbert Wesley |title=We Redeem What We May |journal=Jacket |date=August 2003 |issue=23 |url=http://jacketmagazine.com/23/purdy-bal.html |accessdate=September 19, 2007 }} Balaban's first published collection of his own verse, After Our War (1974), was a Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets and nominated for the National Book Award.
In 1999, he became a founder of the Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation, which for twenty years led the digital preservation of ancient texts in Vietnam. In 2000, he released Spring Essence, a collection of poems by Hồ Xuân Hương, an 18th-century poet and the preeminent woman poet of Vietnam. The book included English translations and versions in both the current Vietnamese alphabet and the historical Chữ Nôm writing system.{{cite web |last1=Balaban |first1=John |title=Nôm Foundation on Talk Vietnam |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_1mUBUsAwg |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/A_1mUBUsAwg |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|website=YouTube }}{{cbignore}}
Balaban has written poetry beyond his experiences in Vietnam. His collection Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems won the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award.[http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9781556591488&displayonly=ITV Interview and information from Barns & Noble], accessed September 19, 2007. His Words for My Daughter was a National Poetry Series Selection.{{cite web |title=National Poetry Series 1990 |url=https://nationalpoetryseries.org/books/words-for-my-daughter/ |website=The National Poetry Series |accessdate=February 25, 2019}} In 2006, Path, Crooked Path was named an Editor's Choice by Booklist and Best Book of Poetry by Library Journal.
In 2008, he was awarded a medal of appreciation from the Ministry of Culture of Vietnam for his leadership in the restoration of the ancient text collection at the National Library.{{cite web |last1=Dunn |first1=Nash |title=Rescuing a Script from Extinction |url=https://news.chass.ncsu.edu/2016/05/12/rescuing-a-script-from-extinction/ |website=Humanities and Social Sciences News |publisher=NC State University |accessdate=February 25, 2019 |archive-date=July 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730214554/https://news.chass.ncsu.edu/2016/05/12/rescuing-a-script-from-extinction/ |url-status=dead }}
Balaban is Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University.
Bibliography
Poetry
- After Our War, (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974)
- Blue Mountain, (Unicorn Press, 1982)
- Words for My Daughter, (Copper Canyon Press, 1991)
- Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems, (Copper Canyon Press, 1997, 2003)
- Like Family, (Red Dragonfly Press: Minnesota, 2009)
- Path, Crooked Path, (Copper Canyon Press, 2006)
- Empires, (Copper Canyon Press, forthcoming October 2019)
Translations
- Ca Dao Viet Nam: Vietnamese Folk Poetry, (Unicorn Press, 1980) (Revised edition, Copper Canyon Press, 2003)
- Vietnam: A Traveler's Literary Companion, with Nguyen Qui Duc, (Whereabouts Press, 1996)
- Spring Essence, The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong, (Copper Canyon Press, 2000)
Nonfiction
- With Geoffrey Clifford: Vietnam: The Land We Never Knew, (Chronicle Books, 1989)
- Remembering Heaven's Face: A Story of Rescue in Wartime Vietnam, (New York: Simon & Schuster/Poseidon, 1991. pp. 31–34) (Revised edition University of Georgia Press, 2002)
Fiction
- The Hawk's Tale, (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988)
- Coming Down Again, (Simon & Schuster/Fireside, 1989) & E-Book (https://openroadmedia.com/ebook/coming-down-again/9781480401259)
In anthology
- Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, (University of Georgia Press, 2018)
- Armistice: A Laureate's Choice of Poems of War and Peace, (Faber & Faber, 2018)
- The New Oxford Book of War Poetry, (Oxford University Press, 2014)
- The Pushcart Book of Essays: The best essays from a quarter-century of The Pushcart Prize, (Wainscott, NY: 2002)
- The Best American Poetry:1999, (Scribner)
- Carrying The Darkness: The Poetry of the Vietnam War, (New York: Avon Books, 1985)
- Fifty Years of American Poetry, ed. Robert Penn Warren, (New York: H. N. Abrams, Inc., 1984)
Awards and honors
- The George Garrett Prize for Service to Literature, Associated Writing Programs, 2017.
- Lannan Foundation Literary Residency, Marfa, Texas. 2002 & 2008.
- John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 2003.
- National Artist Award, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, 2001–2004.
- Medal from Ministry of Culture, Vietnam, 2008.
- National Poetry Series Book Selection, 1990
- National Endowment for Arts Fellowship (translation), 1985
- National Endowment for Arts Fellowship (poetry), 1978
- Fulbright Distinguished Visiting Lectureship, Romania, 1979
- The Steaua Prize, Romanian Writers Union, 1978
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.johnbalaban.com John Balaban's website]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090604070959/http://www.lannan.org/lf/rc/event/john-balaban/ Audio Reading and Interview: Lannan Foundation > November 6, 2002 > John Balaban Interviewed by Michael Silverblatt]
- [http://www.pw.org/content/john_balaban_2 Author Info: Poets & Writers Directory of Writers > John Balaban Listing]
- [http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/author.php?auth_id=1215 Audio: The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor > Poems by John Balaban]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balaban, John}}
Category:20th-century American novelists
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American poets
Category:20th-century American translators
Category:21st-century American translators
Category:American male novelists
Category:American people of Romanian descent
Category:Poets from North Carolina
Category:North Carolina State University faculty
Category:American conscientious objectors
Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni