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 |
John B. Balaban (born December 2, 1943) [1] is an American poet and translator, an authority on Vietnamese literature. [2]
Balaban 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.
Poetry
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In Anthology
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