Jesse Ball

Jesse Ball (born June 7 1978) is an American poet and novelist. He has published novels, volumes of poetry, short prose, and drawings.

Contents

Biography

Education and Early Interests

After attending public school, Jesse Ball attended Vassar College, where he studied literature, and poetry writing under both Eamon Grennan and Paul Kane. He decided in part to attend Vassar after attending a lecture at Irish House in NYC that Grennan had given on Kavanaugh. At Vassar, he took many courses in religion, and participated in a program visiting Greenhaven Prison. At this time he also won a travel fellowship to do photography in India. [1]

Following Vassar, Ball attended Columbia University, where he earned an MFA and met the eminent poet Richard Howard. Howard was to help the then 24-year-old poet publish his first volume, March Book, with Grove Press. At Columbia he worked with Lucie Brock-Broido, Liam Rector, Glyn Maxwell, Nicholas Christopher, Edward Hirsch, and Timothy Donnelly. [2]

Career

Ball's fiction and poetry have appeared in many national journals, among them The New Republic, Circumference, Oberon, Agenda (UK), The Paris Review, Guernica Magazine, The Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Fence, and Conduit. In 2006, his poem "Speech in a Chamber" was chosen for the anthology The Best American Poetry 2006. [3]

The 2004 volume March Book was hailed by Boston Review critic Desales Harrison as a splendid debut. "Ball displays an otherworldly virtuosity in rendering the uncanny." [4]

That volume was followed by 2006's Vera & Linus, a book of short prose published in Iceland, but available both in Iceland and the US. The book was written in collaboration with his wife, the Icelandic poet, Thordis Bjornsdottir.

The two also collaborated on 2006's Og svo kom nóttin (And then comes night). Ball filled the book with drawings, Bjornsdottir with verse.

2007 saw the arrival of Samedi the Deafness, which was published by the imprint Vintage. The book was written while on the Hawthornden fellowship in Scotland. Samedi the Deafness is to be translated into Italian and published in Italy by Feltrinelli. [5]

In Summer 2008, Ball's collection of short stories, Parables & Lies, was the first volume released by The Cupboard Pamphlet.

February 2009 saw the arrival of The Way Through Doors, which was published by the imprint Vintage.

Publications

2011

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

Awards

References

External links

Notes

  1. ^ The Times, Smithtown, NY; Port Times Record, Port Jefferson, NY. Profile following the publication of March Book. March 2004.
  2. ^ Icelandic Radio FM 90.9: Reykjavík, Iceland. Interview by Gunnar Peturrson for upcoming NYHIL festival, July 2005.
  3. ^ Best American Poetry 2006
  4. ^ Boston Review
  5. ^ Fréttabladid: Interview about poetry and about the life of a poet, 27 July 2005.