Ned Balbo
Ned Balbo (born November 19, 1959, Mineola, New York)[3] is an American poet, translator, and essayist.
Ned Balbo | |
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Ned Balbo attending the West Chester University Poetry Conference | |
Born | November 19, 1959 |
Occupation | poet, translator, and essayist |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Brentwood High School '77 Vassar College '81, A.B. |
Genre | poetry, essay |
Notable awards | New Criterion Poetry Prize, 2019
Richard Wilbur Award, 2018 National Endowment for the Arts Literature in Translation Fellowship, 2017 Willis Barnstone Translation Prize co-winner, 2013 Poets' Prize, 2012 Donald Justice Poetry Prize, 2010 ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Gold Medal, 2005[1] Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry, 2005 Robert Frost Foundation Poetry Award, 2003 John Guyon Prize in Literary Nonfiction, 2002 Towson University Prize for Literature[2] co-winner, 1998 |
Spouse | Jane Satterfield |
Life
Ned Balbo grew up on Long Island, New York.[4] He was raised by Betty and Carmine Balbo, his birth mother's half-sister and her husband.[5] At thirteen Balbo learned he was adopted and was informed of his birth parents' identity.[6][7] This background informs his creative work.[8]
Balbo graduated from Brentwood High School in 1977.[9] He earned his Bachelor of Arts at Vassar College in 1981, his Master of Arts at Johns Hopkins University in 1986, and his Master of Fine Arts at the Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1989.[4][10]
Balbo taught poetry and prose at Loyola University Maryland from 1990 to 2014.[11] He was also a visiting faculty member in the MFA program in Creative Writing and Environment at Iowa State University.[12] He is married to poet-essayist Jane Satterfield.[4]
Poetry and style
According to Lisa Vihos in Verse Wisconsin, "Balbo...gives shape and heft to the formless, fleeting past — both historical and personal — through his rich language."[13] In reviewing The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems for JMWW, Patricia Valdata observes that Balbo's work "raises difficult questions about home, about the relationship of parent to child, about a society's responsibility to its poor."[14] Writing in Studio, Lucas Jacob notes that in The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems, "Balbo...reminds us of the grace we find in our time with each other on this 'island' of life on Earth."[15] Lesley Wheeler, writing on-line in Kenyon Review, asserts that "Balbo’s complicated sense of place and his poetic resourcefulness make [Upcycling Paumanok] worth your time, but what impresses me most are the extended narrative lyrics, the first of which appears several pages in. Balbo’s deftness at balancing story and music is often breathtaking."[16]
Balbo has written in a variety of forms, including blank verse, sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, and nonce forms, as well as free verse.[4] His poetic influences include Ai, Elizabeth Bishop, Louise Bogan, Robert Frost, Randall Jarrell, Denis Johnson, Weldon Kees, and others.[17]
Awards
In addition to book awards, Balbo received a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Literature in Translation Fellowship.[18] He is the recipient of three Maryland Arts Council Individual Artist Awards in poetry and the Robert Frost Foundation Poetry Award.[4]
He received the John Guyon Literary Nonfiction Prize for the essay "Walt Whitman's Finches: on discretion and disclosure in autobiography and adoption," published in the literary journal Crab Orchard Review in 2002.[19] "My Father's Music," an essay on adoption, ethnicity, and popular culture, and a finalist for the Pirate's Alley William Faulkner Society's Gold Medal in the Essay,[20] appears in Our Roots Are Deep with Passion: Creative Nonfiction Collects New Essays by Italian American Writers (Other Press, 2006).[21] An Italian version of this essay (Carla Antonucci, translator) appeared as “La Musica di mio padre” in Padri: Tre memoir italo americani, edited by Anna Maria Crispino (Iacobelli: Rome, 2009).[22]
Balbo has also been a Walter E. Dakin fellow at the Sewanee Writers' Conference and several times a fellow in poetry at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts .[23]
Bibliography
Books
- 2019 — The Cylburn Touch-Me-Nots (Criterion Books; winner of the 2019 New Criterion Poetry Prize)[24]
- 2019 — 3 Nights of the Perseids (University of Evansville Press; winner of the 2018 Richard Wilbur Award)[25]
- 2016 — Upcycling Paumanok (Measure Press)[26]
- 2010 — The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems (Story Line Press; winner of Donald Justice Poetry Prize[4] and 2012 Poets' Prize)[27]
- 2005 — Lives of the Sleepers (University of Notre Dame Press; winner of Ernest Sandeen Prize and ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Award, Gold Medal in Poetry)[4][28]
- 1998 — Galileo’s Banquet (Washington Writers' Publishing House; shared Towson University Prize for Literature with God's Long Summer[29] by Charles Marsh)[4]
Chapbook
- 2009 — Something Must Happen (Finishing Line Press)[4]
Essays
- 2006 — “My Father’s Music.” Our Roots Are Deep with Passion: Creative Nonfiction collects new essays by Italian-American writers. Eds. Lee Gutkind and Joanna Clapps Herman. New York: Other Press, 2006: 87-103.[30]
- 2003 — “Paul Is Dead, and We’re All Listening: Rumor and Revelation, 1969.” Spec. nonfiction issue of JMWW (2011).[31] [Originally appeared in Die Cast Garden 2 (2003).]
- 2002 — “Walt Whitman’s Finches: of discretion and disclosure in autobiography and adoption.” Crab Orchard Review 8.1 (2002): 180-95.[19]
References
- "2005 Foreword INDIES Winners in Poetry (Adult Nonfiction)". Foreword Reviews.
- "Montgomery College to Host Four Readings by Award-Winning Authors: “Books and Ideas” Series Features Pietrzyk, Morris and Poets Satterfield, Balbo." Montgomery College. August 19, 2005
- "MARC Display." Library of Congress Authorities. The Library of Congress.
- Lori A. May "An interview with Ned Balbo." Poets' Quarterly Issue 3. April 2010.
- "Islands of Joy". islandsofjoy.blogspot.com.
- Eileen (18 March 2011). "Poets on Adoption: Ned Balbo".
- "Encyclopedia.com".
- "Verse Wisconsin 105- Review of Ned Balbo". www.versewisconsin.org.
- "Ned Balbo". www.facebook.com.
- Graduate Programs Archived 2010-06-09 at the Wayback Machine. Loyola College in Maryland
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-01-25. Retrieved 2015-09-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Bio" (PDF). www.wcupa.edu.
- "Verse Wisconsin 103-Balbo Review". www.versewisconsin.org.
- "Free Web Hosting, Free Website Builder, Make a Website". www.jmww.150m.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2010-10-09.
- "Studio – Volume 5 Number 1, 2011 - Review". studiojournal.ca.
- "November Micro-Reviews - The Kenyon Review".
- "Ned Balbo: poet, translator, essayist". www.facebook.com.
- "Fellowship recipients" (PDF). www.arts.gov.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-03-26. Retrieved 2010-10-08.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-01-07. Retrieved 2009-12-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- "Review of Our Roots Are Deep with Passion".
- "Bottega Scriptamanent". www.bottegascriptamanent.it.
- "Ned Balbo's Biography Archived 2010-05-29 at the Wayback Machine." Ned Balbo: Poet and Essayist. Red Room. Accessed: Sept. 26, 2010
- https://www.newcriterion.com/blogs/dispatch/ned-balbo-wins-the-2019-new-criterion-poetry-prize
- https://www.evansville.edu/majors/creativewriting/downloads/wilbur.pdf
- "Measure Press :: Upcycling Paumanok". www.measurepress.com.
- "Ned Balbo: poet, translator, essayist". www.facebook.com.
- http://undpress.nd.edu/book/P01015
- "God's Long Summer". Princeton University Press.
- "Issue 30 - Creative Nonfiction". www.creativenonfiction.org.
- "Free Web Hosting, Free Website Builder, Make a Website". jmww.150m.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-07. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
External links
- "Interview" with Ned Balbo, conducted by Sørina Higgins.
- "Stray Crow" by Ned Balbo - Poetry Daily.
- "Fire Victim" by Ned Balbo - American Life in Poetry, selected by Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate.
- "The Sugar Thief" by Ned Balbo - Poetry Foundation.
- "The Underground Tour" by Ned Balbo - The New Criterion.
- "Holy Wars for Us" by Ned Balbo - Verse Daily.
- "Desire: A Bestiary" by Ned Balbo - Verse Daily.
- "Musicology" by Ned Balbo - Delaware Poetry Review.
- "Four Poems" by Ned Balbo - Studio Journal.
- "Aristaeus Forgiven" by Ned Balbo - Frost Notes, Robert Frost Foundation.
- "Chesterfield" by Ned Balbo - The Writer's Almanac, selected by Garrison Keillor.