Submitted by: Village Books
Friday, September 6, 7pm
John Keeble
The Appointment: The Tale of Adaline Carson
The action of this novel takes place in the West, but it is not a “Western;” and though its central focus is the life of Adaline Carson, daughter of the famed frontiersman Kit Carson, it is also not a biography. Set in the time of the California gold rush, it is a detailed and graphic elegy for America’s wide open plains, rivers, and mountains, and the people who lived in and passed through them, both for good and ill.
John Keeble is the author of seven previous books, including the novels Yellowfish and Broken Ground, both recent University of Washington Press reprints, and UW Press original The Shadows of Owls. He was awarded an O’Henry Prize for a story that appeared in Harper’s in 2019; and his short fiction collection, Nocturnal America, won the Prairie Schooner Prize for short fiction and was published by the University of Nebraska Press. He is also author of Out of the Channel, the definitive study of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Keeble taught at Eastern Washington University for more than thirty years, and has taught also at Grinnell College and the University of Alabama and served as Distinguished Visiting Writer at Boise State University. With his wife Claire, he lives in a house of his own construction, on a wooded hillside west of Spokane, Washington.
Saturday, September 7, 4pm in Lynden
Adria Libolt
Food: An Appetite for Life
We want to eat in healthy and just ways. Is there a right way to eat, or is eating a product of our beliefs? Is food a language? If so, what does it say? Food invites interaction. Adria Libolt’s new book suggests that our hunger for food is a longing for goodness. Food: An Appetite for Life is a collection of humorous experiences and reflective essays illustrating how hunger for food is part of a longing for abundance and goodness of life.
“Who I am and how I approach the subject of food is deeply rooted in the far corner of northwest Washington State in a land of dairy farms and berry fields, where for the month of August one could live off the profusion of wild black berries. I grew up on a small dairy farm with a mother who often milked the cows, made pies for Sunday and a dad who made fishing a high priority when he wasn’t working. Out of such abundance grew my love for food and a hunger for life.” ~Adria Libolt
Saturday, September 7, 7pm
Steve Toutonghi
Side Life
What if every possibility of every life were within your reach?
Vin, a down-on-his-luck young tech entrepreneur forced out of the
software company he started, takes a job house-sitting an ultramodern Seattle
mansion whose owner has gone missing. There he discovers a secret basement lab
with an array of computers and three large, smooth caskets. Inside one he finds
a woman in a state of suspended animation. There is also a dog-eared notebook
filled with circuit diagrams, beautiful and intricate drawings of body parts,
and pages of code.
When Vin decides to enter one of the caskets himself, his reality begins to
unravel, and he finds himself on a terrifying journey that raises fundamental
questions about reality, free will, and the meaning of a human life.
A native of Seattle, Steve Toutonghi studied fiction and poetry while completing a BA in Anthropology at Stanford. After various professional forays, he began a career in technology that led him from Silicon Valley back to Seattle. He is the author of a previous novel, Join.
Sunday, September 8 at 4pm
Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor
Dancing Between Bamboo Poles
Filipino-American Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor—whose Filipino parents did not teach to speak or understand their native Tagalog language—uses redaction and disclosure to explore what has been hidden, even within herself, as she navigates a world where skin color, heritage, and language exert powerful and often divergent claims on identity.
Rebecca will be joined by local musicians Swil Kanim and Peter Ali so this is an event you do not want to miss!
Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor’s non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction have appeared in print and online in several journals and anthologies including Kuwento: Small Things, and Beyond Lumpia, Pansit, and Seven Manangs Wild: An Anthology. Her poetry chapbook Pause Mid-Flight was released in 2010. Dancing Between Bamboo Poles is her first collection.
Wednesday, September 11, 7pm
Excellence NW Workshop with Pete Johnson
Topic: Authenticity: Being Unapologetically You
The principles of Excellence have always held that the greatest gift we have to offer is the gift of ourselves. Authenticity goes hand in hand with congruence, knowing and accepting our self, and ferreting out our unique purpose.
Pete Johnson is a trained facilitator with Excellence Northwest. He has an extensive background in personal growth seminars and is strongly rooted in a lifetime of meditation modalities. He has a passion for personal connection and practices that honesty and acceptance of the self and others is the key to emotional growth.
Thursday, September 12, 7pm
Cheryl McCarthy
Many Hands Make Light Work: A Memoir
Many Hands Make Light Work: A Memoir is the rollicking true story of a family of nine children growing up in the college town of Ames, Iowa in the ’60s and ’70s. Inspiring, full of surprises, and laugh-out-loud funny, this real-life family champions diversity and inclusion long before such concepts become cultural flashpoints. Cheryl and her siblings are the offspring of an eccentric professor father and unflappable mother. Mindful of their ever-expanding family’s need for cash, her parents begin acquiring tumbledown houses in campus-town, to renovate and rent. Dad, who changes out of his suit and tie into a carpenter’s battered white overalls, like Clark Kent into Superman, is supremely confident his offspring can do anything, whether he’s there or not. Mom, an organizational genius disguised as a housewife, manages nine children so deftly that she finds the time—and heart—to take in student boarders from across the country and around the world, who stir their own offbeat personalities into this unconventional household. The kids, meanwhile, pour concrete, paint houses, and, at odd moments, break into song, because instead of complaining, they sing as they work, like a von Trapp family in painters caps.
Free-wheeling and contagiously cheerful, Many Hands Make Light Work is a winsome memoir of a Heartland childhood unlike any other.
Cheryl McCarthy is a freelance journalist for the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune. Her work has been distributed around the country, including to the Seattle Times, the Baltimore Sun, and the Orlando Sentinel. McCarthy holds and MBA from City University in London and a bachelor’s in journalism from Iowa State University. Previously from Ohio, she now lives with her husband in Bellingham.
Friday, September 13, 7pm
Diana Dodds
Secrets: Family, Friends, and Mental Illness
Join us in the readings gallery as Diana Dodds presents her memoir written to demonstrate how and why families keep secrets related to mental illness. Dodds uses her life’s story and the story of her father’s extended family to shed light on this common dilemma, and express hope in exposing it to light.
Diana Dodds was born and raised in Northwest Kansas, and met and married her husband in Wichita. She attended college and nursing school and became an RN who worked in hospital-based care for thirty-five years. During their married life, they moved to Western Washington, where she completed her BSN. She and her husband raised two children. Diana has been diagnosed as bipolar type 1 for 40 years.
Saturday, September 14, 4pm
Sara Donati
Where the Light Enters
From the international bestselling author of The Gilded Hour comes Sara Donati’s enthralling epic about two trailblazing female doctors in nineteenth-century New York.
Obstetrician Dr. Sophie Savard returns home to the achingly familiar rhythms of Manhattan in the early spring of 1884 to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. With the help of Dr. Anna Savard, her dearest friend, cousin, and fellow physician she plans to continue her work aiding the disadvantaged women society would rather forget.
As Sophie sets out to construct a new life for herself, Anna’s husband, Detective-Sergeant Jack Mezzanotte calls on them both to consult on two new cases: the wife of a prominent banker has disappeared into thin air, and the corpse of a young woman is found with baffling wounds that suggest a killer is on the loose. In New York it seems that the advancement of women has brought out the worst in some men. Unable to ignore the plight of New York’s less fortunate, these intrepid cousins draw on all resources to protect their patients.
Sara Donati is the international bestselling author of the Wilderness series, which includes Into the Wilderness, Dawn on a Distant Shore, Lake in the Clouds, Fire Along the Sky, Queen of Swords, and The Endless Forest.
Saturday, September 14 at 7pm
Fred Brown
The City is More Than Human: An Animal History of Seattle
Cities like Seattle would not exist without animals. Although usually absent from history books, creatures such as cows, horses, chickens, dogs, and salmon have played crucial roles in struggles over property and power in the changing city. They have accompanied humans on their urban journey as property, as symbols, and as friends.
Frederick L. Brown holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington and
works on as an independent historian and book indexer in Seattle. The City is More Than Human won the 2017 Hal K. Rothman book prize from the Western History Association or best new book in Western environmental history.
Village Books and Evolve Chocolate + Cafe are pleased to announce this special event celebrating the long-awaited memoir from Bellingham favorite, Clyde Ford. Join us for a presentation by the author and music provided by Skip Williams & Soul Shadows, and Swil Kanim! And the first 75 people to pre-purchase a copy of Think Black will be invited to the pre-event reception in Evolve Chocolate + Cafe where there will be music and food inspired by the book, created by Chef Christy. Space is limited so order your copy today and get on the list!
In this thought-provoking and heartbreaking memoir, award-winning Bellingham author, Clyde W. Ford, tells the story of his father, John Stanley Ford, the first Black software engineer in America. Think Black reveals how racism at IBM insidiously affected his father’s view of himself and their relationship.
Clyde W. Ford is an award-winning author of 12 works of fiction and non-fiction. He’s also a psychotherapist, mythologist, and sought-after public speaker. Clyde’s the recipient of the 2006 Zora Neale Hurston-Richard Wright Award in African American Literature. He’s been a featured guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, National Public Radio, and numerous television and radio programs. Clyde lives in Bellingham, Washington.
For questions about the pre-event party and how to get on that list, please call (360)671-2626 or email events@villagebooks.com.
Sunday, September 15, 4pm
Clyde Ford
Think Black Launch Party!
Village Books and Evolve Chocolate + Cafe are pleased to announce this special event celebrating the long-awaited memoir from Bellingham favorite, Clyde Ford. Join us for a presentation by the author and music provided by Skip Williams & Soul Shadows, and Swil Kanim! And the first 75 people to pre-purchase a copy of Think Black will be invited to the pre-event reception at 3pm in Evolve Chocolate + Cafe where there will be music and food inspired by the book, created by Chef Christy. Space is limited so order your copy today and get on the list!
In this thought-provoking and heartbreaking memoir, award-winning Bellingham author, Clyde W. Ford, tells the story of his father, John Stanley Ford, the first Black software engineer in America. Think Black reveals how racism at IBM insidiously affected his father’s view of himself and their relationship.
Clyde W. Ford is an award-winning author of 12 works of fiction and non-fiction. He’s also a psychotherapist, mythologist, and sought-after public speaker. Clyde’s the recipient of the 2006 Zora Neale Hurston-Richard Wright Award in African American Literature. He’s been a featured guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, National Public Radio, and numerous television and radio programs. Clyde lives in Bellingham, Washington.
For questions about the pre-event party and how to get on that list, please call (360)671-2626 or email events@villagebooks.com.
Monday, September 16, 9:30am – Wednesday, September 18, 3pm
Schooner Zodiac Books A’Sail Cruise!
All hands on deck! Book your cabin and join Village Books own Paul Hanson and Kelly Evert, and special guest author and librarian extraordinaire Nancy Pearl on a seabound book-club adventure of a lifetime with the Schooner Zodiac Books A’Sail Cruise setting sail September 16th – 18th, 2019!
We’ll sail during the day, then drop the hook and bring out our books. On the reading list are: George & Lizzie by Nancy Pearl (our guest), Passage to Juneau by Jonathan Raban, and Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian. We’ll take advantage of the late-summer days to get in three full days of sailing and book discussion amid the gorgeous San Juan Islands, accompanied by a variety of marine life from bald eagles to porpoises and maybe even whales! In between we’ll dip into all that the Schooner Zodiac has to offer, from kayaking to hiking to top-notch meals to cocktails on deck at sunset. Then the anchor drops and the books come out!
It’s hard to imagine a better setting or better book group leader than the one and only Nancy Pearl! This is going to be amazing. Space is limited so book today!
Wednesday, September 18, 7pm
Shepherd Seigel
Disruptive Play: The Trickster in Politics and Culture
Disruptive Play: The Trickster in Politics and Culture journeys from ancient folkloric appearances of Tricksters such as Raven and È?ù-Elegba, to their confined role in Western civilization, and then on to Trickster’s 20th century jailbreak as led by dada and the hippies. Disruptive Play bears witness to how this spirit informs social progress today, whether by Anonymous, Banksy, Bugs Bunny, or unrevealed mischief-makers and culture jammers. Such play is revolutionary and lights the path to a transformed society.
Dr. Shepherd Siegel is a writer, a rock and jazz musician, and educator, earning degrees at UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State University, and his doctorate at UC Berkeley. He has over thirty publications, including Career Ladders, and has won numerous awards. He led Career and Technical Education for Seattle Public Schools for sixteen years. He returned to his countercultural roots to write Disruptive Play and spread its message of playfulness and progressive change.
Thursday, September 19 at 7pm
Joy Wiggins
From Sabotage to Support: A New Vision for Feminist Solidarity in the Workplace
From Sabotage to Support offers vital strategies for not only working women, but also for business leaders who want to understand patriarchy’s toll and learn how to create an inclusive, diverse and better working environment for everyone. Along with research, interviews, actions and tools, chapters feature candid conversations between the authors on the ways race, privilege and power play out in their own lives, work and friendship.
Joy L. Wiggins, Ph.D., received her doctorate from The Ohio State University in multicultural education and social justice. She is the founder and CEO of Joy Wiggins, PhD: Equity and Inclusion Consulting which provides speaking, facilitation and mentorship opportunities on the topics of power, privilege, racial and gender justice and liberation. She has spent the last 20 years working on understanding our cultural identities and perceptions of how we navigate the world through our cultural identities. Her consulting centers around understanding biases and women supporting women in the workplace. She teaches multicultural children’s literature, literacy and English language learning in the Elementary Education department at Western Washington University. Based on her 2017 TEDxWWU talk, she and Dr. Kami J. Anderson wrote, “From Sabotage to Support: A New Vision for Feminist Solidarity in the Workplace” and is available now.
Friday, September 20, 10:30am
Purple Friday Mindfulness Workshop for Kids!
We’re all learning the importance of mindfulness – learning to quiet the mind and focus on the present moment. This is just as vital for kids as it is for adults and we are going to spend an hour doing activities that do just that. We’ll read stories, learn some breathing exercises, practice some yoga, and create a glitter jar!
Ages 6-11
*author does NOT attend
Friday, September 20, 7pm
Heather Hansman
Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West
In Downriver, Heather Hansman chronicles the history and contemporary problem of water usage along the Green River, the major tributary of the Colorado River. Hansman tells this story from the river itself as she paddles the Green from source to confluence interviewing farmers, government officials, and activists along the way. Through these encounters, Hansman tells a complex story of the history, beauty, and significance of the Green.
Heather Hansman is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Outside, California Sunday, Smithsonian, and many other outlets. After a decade of raft guiding across the United States, she lives in Seattle.
This event is part of the Nature of Writing Series run in partnership with the North Cascades Institute.
Saturday, September 21, 7pm
Matt Pentz
The Sound and the Glory: How the Seattle Sounders Showed Major League Soccer How to Win Over America
To reach the ambitious goals the club set for itself, the Seattle Sounders needed the jolt of a championship. To get there would require tumult previously unknown to a club built on stability, a clash of egos, and a title run so unlikely it could have hardly been scripted.
Matt Pentz is a Seattle-based writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, and ESPN, among other publications. As an award-winning beat reporter at the Seattle Times, he covered the Sounders’ historic run to their first MLS Cup championship. This is his first book.
Sunday, September 22, 4pm
Betsy Bell
Open Borders: A Personal Story of Love, Loss, & Anti-War Activism
It is 1983, and the anti-war movement Target Seattle is preparing for a trip to Tashkent, Seattle’s Sister City in Uzbekistan. Travelling with three thousand copies of a peace petition, as well as her husband, seventeen-year-old daughter and thirty others, Betsy sees first-hand the risks of travelling as an American to the USSR. She also sees the heart-warming stories of people-to-people connections across political boundaries. After returning to the US, Betsy pushes to find her own voice in a world where a wife’s goals are subservient to her husband’s. As tensions between the US and USSR are only increasing, Betsy speaks to elected officials and the United Nations in favor of open borders, even as conflicting aspirations and careers become a point of contention in her marriage. With honesty and poise, Betsy chronicles a history of a time when ordinary citizens were transformed into agents of peace. Open Borders includes essays from Dr. Roscius N. Doan¸ Craig Justice, Anne Stadler, and Richard Carter about the reach and influence of Target Seattle during the tumultuous 1980s.
Betsy Bell, mother, grandmother, business woman, is a longtime justice activist. Publications include poems in various chap books and magazines; a personal essay in The Oklahoma Review, a non-fiction piece, Sex, Death and Line Dancing, in Stratus, and an opinion piece on senior living in the Seattle Times. Born in New York City in 1937, she has witnessed firsthand the social upheaval created by WWII and the persistent fear of communist power from the USSR and its allies. Reaching across boundaries that separate us from The Other has been a constant thread in Betsy’s life. Twice widowed, Betsy has lived and worked in Seattle since 1969.
Tuesday, September 24, 7pm (doors 6:30pm)
Chuckanut Radio Hour at WCC’s Heiner Theater featuring KARL MARLANTES
Deep River
Karl Marlantes made his name with the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, the “powerful and moving” (James Fallows, Atlantic) Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War. Now with his new novel, Deep River, Marlantes applies the epic narrative sweep of Matterhorn to a family saga about Finnish immigrants to the Pacific Northwest. Marlantes draws glancing inspiration from his own family history to tell a story against the backdrop of a logging industry clashing with the radical burgeoning labor movement, World War I, and the upheavals of early twentieth century America.
Layered with fascinating historical detail, and vivid evocations of the pristine beauty of the primeval forest, Deep River is an ambitious and timely exploration of the place of the individual, and of the immigrant, in an America still in the process of defining its own identity.
Karl Marlantes is the author two New York Times bestsellers: Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War and his nonfiction book What It Is Like to Go to War. He is married and has five adult children and three grandchildren. He grew-up in a small logging town on the Oregon coast and fished commercially with his grandfather as a teenager.
Tickets $5: available at Village Books and Eventbrite.com. Receive a free ticket with the pre-purchase of Deep River.
Wednesday, September 25, 7pm
John Lovchik
Racism: Reality Built on a Myth
This book is a concise history of racism, written by a white man who spent a lifetime trying to understand racism before he found that history held the key. This book shows that racism is not a natural response to human differences. It was man-made deliberately implemented and carefully nurtured. It is an illness that has been passed down for generations; and continues to infect every one of us and all of our institutions.
John Lovchik has been an anti-racism activist for more than twenty years as a member of a number of white collectives and people of color led organizations. He is a member of the Seattle Race Conference Planning Committee and has been a trainer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.
Thursday, September 26, 7pm
David Guterson
Turn Around Time: A Walking Poem for the Pacific Northwest
At long last, David Guterson is coming back to Village Books to present his book of poetry and we’re thrilled.
Most outdoor enthusiasts understand the phrase “turn around time” as that point in an adventure when you must cease heading out in order to have enough time to safely return to camp or home—regardless of whether you have reached your destination. For award-winning novelist David Guterson, it is also a metaphor for where we find ourselves in the middle of our lives, and his new narrative poem explores this idea through a lyrical journey along a trail, much like those in Washington’s mountain ranges which he hiked while growing up.
With a fast-moving, propulsive quality, David’s writing offers lush language, vivid imagery, and pacing that resonates as a journey on foot. Outdoor-lovers will relate to the physicality of hiking represented here, from endless trail switchbacks to foot and ankle painsas well as observant descriptions of the mountain landscape. David’swords are brought further to life by the delicate yet mythical illustrations by award-winning artist Justin Gibbens.
David Guterson is the author of Snow Falling on Cedars, which won the PEN/Faulkner and the American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award. It has sold more than four million copies and was adapted as a major motion picture. He is the author of several other novels: East of the Mountains; Our Lady of the Forest, a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer Best Book of the Year; The Other; and Ed King. He is also the author of two story collections, The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind and Problems with People; a poetry collection, Songs for a Summons; and two works of nonfiction, Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense and Descent: A Memoir of Madness. David’s book-length poem, Turn Around Time: A Walking Poem for the Pacific Northwest will be published by Mountaineers Books in September 2019. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives on Bainbridge Island near Seattle with his wife Robin. They have five children.
This event is part of the Nature of Writing Series run in partnership with the North Cascades Institute.
Friday, September 26, 5-8pm
Fairhaven Fourth Friday Art Walk
A tradition of community and art in Fairhaven – come by Village Books & Paper Dreams and check out this month’s featured artist. With the sponsorship of the Historic Fairhaven Association, a group of local artists have come together to create the Fourth Friday Art Walk. With the exception of December, each month a new group of artists is featured; each art walk celebrates the unique character of Fairhaven, with local art, appetizers, drinks, and in some cases, live entertainment.
Friday, September 27, 7pm
Caroline Van Hemert
The Sun is a Compass: A 4,000-Mile Journey Into the Alaskan Wilds
The Sun is a Compass is an adventure tale from a wildlife biologist who left the lab for a 4,000-mile journey to the Arctic’s edge—traveling across remote and rugged terrain solely by human power—to rediscover birds, the natural world, and her own love of science.
Caroline Van Hemert is an Alaskan biologist, adventurer, and author whose travels have taken her from the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean to the swamps of the Okavango Delta. The Sun is a Compass tells the story of her human-powered trip—by rowboat, ski, foot, raft, and canoe—from Bellingham, Washington to Kotzebue, Alaska. Her research and expeditions have been featured by the New York Times, MSNBC, National Geographic, and more.
This event is part of the Nature of Writing Series run in partnership with the North Cascades Institute.
Saturday, September 28, 4pm
J. A. Jance
Sins of the Fathers: A J. P. Beaumont Novel
New York Times best-selling author, JA Jance is back with another thrilling instalment of the J.P. Beaumont series. Former Seattle homicide cop, J. P. Beaumont, is learning to enjoy the new realities of retirement doing morning crossword puzzles by a roaring fireplace; playing frisbee with his new dog; having quiet lunches with his still working wife.But then his past comes calling. When a long ago acquaintance, Alan Dale, shows up on Beau’s doorstep with a newborn infant in hand and asking for help locating his missing daughter, Beau finds himself faced with an investigation that will turn his own life upside down by dragging his none-too-stellar past onto a roller-coaster ride that may well derail his serene present. It turns out that, even in retirement. murder is still the name of J. P. Beaumonts game.
With more than 20 million copies of her books in print, J.A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ali Reynolds series, the J.P. Beaumont series, and the Joanna Brady series, as well as five interrelated Southwestern thrillers featuring the Walker family. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona.
Saturday, September 28, 7pm
Monika Wieland Shields
Endangered Orcas: The Story of the Southern Residents
The Southern Resident killer whales are icons of the Pacific Northwest, a beloved population of orcas that are considered the most-watched whales in the world. Despite decades of research and focused conservation efforts, they are on the brink of extinction. From the capture era and the beginning of killer whale research to the whale-watching boom and endangered listing, the whole story of the Southern Residents is told here. Our relationship to these whales, complicated by both the positive attachments and negative politics we have created around them, has changed dramatically over the last 50 years.
With more challenges on the horizon, one question looms: can we still create a sustainable future for humans and orcas in the Salish Sea?
Monika Wieland Shields is the cofounder and president of the non-profit Orca Behavior Institute, which conducts non-invasive behavioral and acoustic research on the orcas of the Salish Sea. She has been studying, photographing, and sharing stories about the Southern Resident killer whales since 2000. She lives on San Juan Island, Washington.
This event is part of the Nature of Writing Series run in partnership with the North Cascades Institute.
Sunday, September 29, 4pm
John Balaban
Empires
Empires is about tremors in history as imperial eras come to their ends….those interludes when the understood order of things has changed. The poems move through time, around the world, and across the U.S.A. …Ancient Ionia. Viking traders on the Volga. Spanish herders abandoned to the southwest’s Llano Estacado. Christmas Eve by the Delaware, 1776. Anna Akhmatova waiting outside Lefortovo Prison. A Romanian Jew waiting for the Nazis to come for him in Paris. Our 9/11. Riding a train through Dixie after Obama’s election. The tasks of poetry to maintain what endures.
John Balaban is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, including four volumes which together have won The Academy of American Poets Lamont prize, a National Poetry Series Selection, and two nominations for the National Book Award. His Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems won the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. In 2003, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2005, he was a judge for the National Book Awards. He has read widely in the U.S. and abroad, most recently at University College, Dublin, and at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
Balaban served as a conscientious objector during the war in Vietnam. In addition to writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, he is a translator of Vietnamese poetry, and a past president of the American Literary Translators Association. In 1999, with two Vietnamese friends, he founded the Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation (http://nomfoundation.org). In 2008, he was awarded a medal from the Ministry of Culture of Vietnam for his translations of poetry and his leadership in the restoration of the ancient text collection at the National Library. In 2016, he received the George Garrett Award from the Associated Writing Programs.
