About Megan Barnard

John Balaban being honored by the Ministry of Culture of Vietnam, 2008. John Balaban Papers. Harry Ransom Center.

The Ransom Center has acquired the papers of poet, author, and translator John Balaban (b. 1943). Balaban is the author of 13 books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. His poetry collections After Our War (1974) and Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New & Selected Poems (1997) were both finalists for the National Book Award. He has received The Academy of American Poets’ James Laughlin Award, a William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, a National Poetry Series selection, and a Guggenheim fellowship, among other honors.

Poet Maxine Kumin noted, “Balaban seems to me to be our moral spokesperson, our lyricist, polemicist, exhorter, and consoler: in short, the poet we need.”

Balaban’s papers include manuscripts of his poetry, fiction, translations, and literary non-fiction; correspondence with fellow writers such as John Barth, Philip Caputo, Gloria Emerson, Seamus Heaney, Maxine Kumin, Denise Levertov, William Meredith, W. S. Merwin, James Michener, and John Updike; photographs; and other materials that document his literary career.

[Read more…] about Archive of poet John Balaban acquired by the Ransom Center