John Balaban, poet-in-residence and professor of English in the Creative Writing Program at NC State, has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for 2003-2004. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awards the fellowships on the basis of distinguished achievement and exceptional promise for future accomplishment.

The 2003 Fellowship winners include 184 artists, scholars, and scientists selected from more than 3,200 applicants from around the world. Balaban is the only North Carolinian to win the 2003 Fellowship. During the Fellowship period, Balaban will continue to work on his own poetry as well as begin a new English translation of Nguyen Du's classic, “The Tale of Kieu,” the early 19th century novel-in-verse that is the hallmark of Vietnamese poetry.

Balaban is the author of 12 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. 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.

Posted April 24, 2003

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