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Ned Balbo

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Ned Balbo
Ned Balbo attending the West Chester University Poetry Conference
Ned Balbo attending the West Chester University Poetry Conference
Born (1959-11-19) November 19, 1959 (age 65)
Occupationpoet, translator, and essayist
NationalityAmerican
Alma materBrentwood High School '77

Vassar College '81, A.B.
Johns Hopkins University '86, M.A.

University of Iowa '89, M.F.A.
Genrepoetry, essay
Notable awardsNew 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
SpouseJane Satterfield

Ned Balbo (born November 19, 1959, Mineola, New York)[3] is an American poet, translator, and essayist.

Life

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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] His birth parents are Donald R. and Elaine D. Osterloh[6] who were not yet married to each other.[7] The couple had previously conceived Balbo's older sister who was raised by paternal relatives. At thirteen Balbo learned he was adopted and was informed of his birth parents' and sister's identities.[8][6] This background informs his creative work.[9]

Balbo graduated from Brentwood High School in 1977.[10] 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][11]

Balbo taught poetry and prose at Loyola University Maryland from 1990 to 2014.[12] He was also a visiting faculty member in the MFA program in Creative Writing and Environment at Iowa State University.[13] He is married to poet-essayist Jane Satterfield.[4]

Poetry and style

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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."[14] 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."[15] 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."[16] 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."[17]

In his essay "Ned Balbo's Family Narrative," published in his blog and in Birmingham Poetry Review, David Katz writes, "Although Balbo’s prosodic and formal mastery enable him to rise to lyrical heights in individual poems, there’s a complex family narrative — call it a personal mythology — running through the entire body of work, starting with his first book, Galileo's Banquet, that resonates powerfully from poem to poem as well as with the outside world." Katz argues, "Following 3 Nights of the Perseids — a veritable book of forms... — [The Cylburn Touch-Me-Nots] is a breakthrough for Balbo, a blossoming of the poet’s essential content...[H]e emerges with a freshness of tone in the newer book, in which overt formal virtuosity recedes in favor of a more spontaneous musicality and openness of emotion."[18]

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.[19]

Awards

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In addition to book awards, Balbo received a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Literature in Translation Fellowship.[20] 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.[21] "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,[22] appears in Our Roots Are Deep with Passion: Creative Nonfiction Collects New Essays by Italian American Writers (Other Press, 2006).[23] 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).[24]

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 .[25]

Bibliography

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Books

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Chapbook

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  • 2009 — Something Must Happen (Finishing Line Press)[4]

Essays

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  • 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.[32]
  • 2003 — “Paul Is Dead, and We’re All Listening: Rumor and Revelation, 1969.” Spec. nonfiction issue of JMWW (2011).[33] [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.[21]

References

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  1. ^ "2005 Foreword INDIES Winners in Poetry (Adult Nonfiction)". Foreword Reviews.
  2. ^ "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
  3. ^ "MARC Display." Library of Congress Authorities. The Library of Congress.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lori A. May "An interview with Ned Balbo." Poets' Quarterly Issue 3. April 2010.
  5. ^ "Islands of Joy". islandsofjoy.blogspot.com.
  6. ^ a b "Balbo, Ned 1959- (Ned Clark Balbo) | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
  7. ^ "Poets on Adoption: Ned Balbo". March 18, 2011.
  8. ^ Eileen (March 18, 2011). "Poets on Adoption: Ned Balbo".
  9. ^ "Verse Wisconsin 105- Review of Ned Balbo". www.versewisconsin.org.
  10. ^ "Ned Balbo". www.facebook.com.
  11. ^ Graduate Programs Archived 2010-06-09 at the Wayback Machine. Loyola College in Maryland
  12. ^ "The Poet Versus the Party Line: The Dismissal of Ned Balbo » Catholic Higher Education Advocate". Archived from the original on January 25, 2015. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  13. ^ "Bio" (PDF). www.wcupa.edu.
  14. ^ "Verse Wisconsin 103-Balbo Review". www.versewisconsin.org.
  15. ^ "Free Web Hosting, Free Website Builder, Make a Website". www.jmww.150m.com. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
  16. ^ "Studio – Volume 5 Number 1, 2011 - Review". studiojournal.ca.
  17. ^ "November Micro-Reviews - The Kenyon Review".
  18. ^ "Ned Balbo's Family Narrative - The David M. Katz Poetry Blog". June 2, 2021.
  19. ^ "Ned Balbo: poet, translator, essayist". www.facebook.com.
  20. ^ "Fellowship recipients" (PDF). www.arts.gov.
  21. ^ a b "Crab Orchard Review's Annual Literary Contests". Archived from the original on March 26, 2010. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
  22. ^ "Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society: 2005 Faulkner Wisdom Competition Winners". Archived from the original on January 7, 2010. Retrieved December 1, 2009.
  23. ^ "Review of Our Roots Are Deep with Passion". August 18, 2009.
  24. ^ "Bottega Scriptamanent". www.bottegascriptamanent.it.
  25. ^ "Ned Balbo's Biography Archived 2010-05-29 at the Wayback Machine." Ned Balbo: Poet and Essayist. Red Room. Accessed: Sept. 26, 2010
  26. ^ "Ned Balbo wins the 2019 New Criterion Poetry Prize". newcriterion.com.
  27. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 14, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  28. ^ "Measure Press :: Upcycling Paumanok". www.measurepress.com.
  29. ^ "Ned Balbo: poet, translator, essayist". www.facebook.com.
  30. ^ "Lives of the Sleepers // Books // University of Notre Dame Press". Archived from the original on July 26, 2010. Retrieved September 27, 2010.
  31. ^ Marsh, Charles (March 2, 2008). God's Long Summer. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691130675.
  32. ^ "Issue 30 - Creative Nonfiction". www.creativenonfiction.org.
  33. ^ "Free Web Hosting, Free Website Builder, Make a Website". jmww.150m.com. Archived from the original on November 7, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
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