One Last Visit by John Balaban

Sat 26 May 2018, 5 – 6.30 pm
Tadioto
24B Tong Dan, Hanoi

From the organizer:

John Balaban suspects this visit will be his last to Viet Nam.

He is well known as the translator of 18th-century Vietnamese poet Hồ Xuân Hương. But his extraordinary involvement with Viet Nam includes his time as a conscientious objector of the Viet Nam War, teaching at university, and being wounded. He later worked to save burned and injured children from the war.

Balaban also recorded the sung folk poetry in rural areas, which later formed his collection of translation Ca Dao Viet Nam.

Balaban has authored 12 books of prose and poetry, including the fascinating memoir, “Remembering Heaven’s Face”, and his collection of verse, “After Our War” (1974). His anthology “Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems” won the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award. In 2000, he released “Spring Essence”, a collection of poems by Hồ Xuân Hương. The book included English translations and versions in both the current Vietnamese alphabet and the historical Nôm writing system. Balaban was a founder and director of the Nôm Preservation Foundation.

Together with Nguyen Qui Duc, Balaban edited “Viet Nam, A Traveler’s Literary Companion” (1996) – an anthology that included diverse Vietnamese writers such as Bao Ninh, Nguyen Huy Thiep, Pham Thi Hoai, and Andrew Lam.

Join them for a conversation looking back at Balaban’s momentous literary career and fascinating journey through Vietnamese history.

Conversation in English, free admission.

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