John B. Balaban (born December 2, 1943)[1] is an American poet and translator, an authority on Vietnamese literature.[2]
John Balaban | |
|---|---|
 Balaban in 2017 | |
| Born | December 2, 1943 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Alma mater | Pennsylvania State University, Harvard University |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Notable awards | William Carlos Williams Award, Medal for the Cause of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Viet Nam |
Biography
editBalaban was born in Philadelphia to Romanian immigrant parents, Phillip and Alice Georgies Balaban.[1][3] 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.[1][4][5]
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] 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.[6]
He left Vietnam in 1969, subsequently testifying on civilian casualties before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy.[7]
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[8] 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.[9]
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.[10] His Words for My Daughter was a National Poetry Series Selection.[11] 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.[12]
Balaban is Professor Emeritus at North Carolina State University.
Bibliography
editPoetry
- 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
edit- 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
edit- ^ a b c Baughman, Ronald. Excerpt from Dictionary of Literary Biography, accessed July 9, 2010.
- ^ The Poetry Center at Smith College: John Balaban Archived 2012-02-12 at the Wayback Machine, accessed September 19, 2007.
- ^ Saha, Ankur (2009). "John Balaban Interview". KAURAB Online. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
- ^ "Balaban, John B. 1943–". Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- ^ "John Balaban". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- ^ "Committee of Responsibility Records, 1966–1978". Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Swarthmore College. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
- ^ Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Problems Connected with Refugees and Escapees of the Committee on the Judiciary. United States Senate. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. June 24–25, 1969.
- ^ Purdy, Gilbert Wesley (August 2003). "We Redeem What We May". Jacket (23). Retrieved September 19, 2007.
- ^ Balaban, John. "Nôm Foundation on Talk Vietnam". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
- ^ Interview and information from Barns & Noble, accessed September 19, 2007.
- ^ "National Poetry Series 1990". The National Poetry Series. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- ^ Dunn, Nash. "Rescuing a Script from Extinction". Humanities and Social Sciences News. NC State University. Archived from the original on July 30, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2019.