Passing through a Gate
Poems, Essays, and Translations
An essential collection of poetry and prose from an award-winning poet who faced some of the greatest dramas of his time in American history.
John Balaban is an extraordinary writer and storyteller whose prize-winning poetry and prose are informed by a love of languages, deep scholarship, hard travel, and a willingness to confront the violence and sufferings of the world. In this essential collection of his work, the best of his prize-winning poems since 1970 are collected in one place, threaded through with essays that link poetry to Balaban’s extensive travels, whether hitchhiking throughout the United States or wandering the countryside of Vietnam—during wartime—to record and translate folk poetry.
The result is a remarkable story about a life in poetry. Empathetic, truth-telling, and fiercely perceptive, Passing through a Gate. As Maxine Kumin reminds us, “Balaban seems to me our moral spokesperson, our lyricist, our polemicist, exhorter, and consoler: in short, the poet we need.”
John Balaban (he/him) is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, including four volumes which together have won The Academy of American Poets’ James Laughlin Award, a National Poetry Series selection, and two nominations for the National Book Award. His collection Words for My Daughter was a National Poetry Series Selection in 1990, and his bookLocusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems won the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. In 2006, his Path, Crooked Pathwas an Editor’s Choice at Booklist, and listed in Best of Poetry by Library Journal. In addition to his poetry, he is the author of a celebrated memoir, a children's novel, essays, and translations from Vietnamese, Bulgarian, and Romanian.
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