John Balaban (poet)

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John Balaban
John Balaban.jpg
Balaban in 2017
Born (1943-12-02) December 2, 1943 (age 81)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Alma mater Pennsylvania State University,
Harvard University
GenrePoetry
Notable awardsWilliam 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]

Contents

Biography

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]

Balaban receiving the Medal for the Cause of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Viet Nam from the Vietnam Ministry of Culture on December 12, 2008 Poet John Balaban Vietnam Ministry of Culture Award 2008.jpg
Balaban receiving the Medal for the Cause of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of Viet Nam from the Vietnam Ministry of Culture on December 12, 2008

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

Poetry

Translations

Nonfiction

Fiction

In anthology

Awards and honors

References

  1. 1 2 3 Baughman, Ronald. Excerpt from Dictionary of Literary Biography, accessed July 9, 2010.
  2. ↑ The Poetry Center at Smith College: John Balaban Archived 2012-02-12 at the Wayback Machine , accessed September 19, 2007.
  3. ↑ Saha, Ankur (2009). "John Balaban Interview". KAURAB Online. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Balaban, John B. 1943–". Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series. Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  5. ↑ "John Balaban". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Committee of Responsibility Records, 1966–1978". Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Swarthmore College. Retrieved 2019-02-25.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ Purdy, Gilbert Wesley (August 2003). "We Redeem What We May". Jacket (23). Retrieved September 19, 2007.
  9. ↑ Balaban, John (9 November 2013). "Nôm Foundation on Talk Vietnam". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
  10. ↑ Interview and information from Barns & Noble, accessed September 19, 2007.
  11. ↑ "National Poetry Series 1990". The National Poetry Series. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  12. ↑ 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.
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