Jesse Ball

(Montpellier, 2005)

Jesse Ball (born June 7 1978) is an American poet. He has published volumes of poetry, short prose, and drawings. His first novel was published in 2007.

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.

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.

Career

Ball's poetry has appeared in many national journals, among them The New Republic, Circumference, Oberon, Agenda (UK), The Paris Review, The Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Fence, and Conduit. His writing is distinguished by an oblique address that is at once absurd and deeply serious, mordant and playful. In 2006, his poem "Speech in a Chamber" was chosen for the anthology The Best American Poetry 2006.

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."

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. Vera & Linus has been greeted enthusiastically by the press on both sides of the Atlantic. The book was written in collaboration with his wife, the Icelandic poet, Thordis Bjornsdottir.

As well, the two 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 will be 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.

Publications

2007

• Books
  • Samedi the Deafness (New York, NY: Vintage, 2007)
  • World's Fair 7 June 1978 (New York, NY: Vintage 2008)

• Anthologies
  • Poetry Daily Anthology "I Followed a Ribbon"

• Stories
  • Denver Quarterly, "A Project"

• Poems
  • Conduit, no. 17, "Autoptic 7" "Auturgy Refrain"

2006

• Books
  • Vera & Linus. With Thórdís Björnsdóttir. (Reykjavík: Nyhil, 2006)
  • Og svo kom nóttin, Drawings. With Thórdís Björnsdóttir. (Reykjavík: Nyhil, 2006)

• Anthologies
  • Best American Poetry 2006 (Scribner 2006): "Speech in a Chamber"

• Stories
  • Purple Fiction. Spring 2006: "Samedi the Deafness Serialized Aserialized" (excerpt)
  • Conduit. no. 17, 2006: "Method for Waylayers Devised By L. For Practical Use"
  • Reykjavik Grapevine. Sept. 2006: 2.19.1 from Vera & Linus.

• Poems
  • Denver Quarterly. 2006: "Missive in an Icelandic Room, 3"

2005

• Anthologies
  • Af Ljodum, "Inside the Stove" (Nyhil 2005)
  • The Light of City and Sea, "Cares" "Cedar Hill" (Street Press 2005)

• Poems
  • Denver Quarterly. 2005: "Asking Advice of the Scissors in its Small Drawer" "Balloon Diary, Week of the Pastoral Revolt" "The Distressing Effect of Rumors"
  • Paris Review. Issue 174, Summer 2005: "Speech in a Chamber" "Speech by a Window" "Autoptic 4" I followed A Ribbon" "Autoptic 8" "Parades"
  • Oberon. Vol. 3, 2005: "That Century" "A Calico Ascription" "Report from Our Lands" "A Turn"
  • Conduit. no. 16, 2005: "Morceau" "And if They Should Tell You"
  • Fence. 2005: "Missive in an Icelandic Room, 2"

2004

• Books
  • March Book. Verse. (New York, NY: Grove Press, 2004)

• Poems
  • Boston Review. 2004: "A Set Piece"

2003

• Poems
  • New Republic. 21, 28 April 2003: "After a Death"
  • Agenda (UK). 2003: "Manuman Notebook: no.1"

2002

• Poems
  • Oberon. Louis Simpson, Judge, Issue no. 1. 2002: "Study no. 39"

Awards

• The Plimpton Prize: Paris Review, 2008

References

• Publisher's Weekly: Review of Vera & Linus. October 2006.

• Reykjavik Grapevine, "A Deep Strong Hope in Its Core" Profiled with Thordis Bjornsdottir following publication of Vera & Linus. Issue 15, 22 September -- 5 October 2006.

• Frettabladid, "Natturulega skaldleg saelstilling" Interview with Thordis Bjornsdottir following publication of Vera & Linus, 9 September 2006.

• Reykjavik Mag "Elegantly Brutal" Profil with Thordis Bjornsdottir following publication of Vera & Linus, July 2006.

• POETRY DAILY: 3 July 2006, "Missive in an Icelandic Room 3" (From Denver Quarterly)

• POETRY DAILY: 10 November 2005, "Parades," "I Followed A Ribbon" (From Paris Review)

• Fréttabladid: Interview about poetry and about the life of a poet, 27 July 2005.

• Icelandic Radio FM 90.9: Reykjavík, Iceland. Interview by Gunnar Peturrson for upcoming NYHIL festival, July 2005.

• Boston Review: Boston, MA. Review of March Book by Desales Harrison. February/March 2005.

• Book/ Mark: Long Island, NY. Review of March Book by Claire Nicholas-White. 2004.

• The Times, Smithtown, NY; Port Times Record, Port Jefferson, NY. Profile following the publication of March Book. March 2004.

External links

• jesseball.com (Ball´s website)
• Grapevine (interview)
• Reykjavik Mag profile
• An interview (everydayyeah.com)