Micah Ballard is a

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

born in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

on September 23, 1975. Since 1999 he has lived in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

with his wife, poet Sunnylyn Thibodeaux. Under the imprints Auguste Press and Lew Gallery Editions they have printed over 30 books by various poets and artists. Ballard attended the Poetics Program at

New College of California New College of California was a college founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President John Leary. It ceased operations in early 2008. New College's main campus was housed in several buildings in the Mission ...

in San Francisco’s

mission district The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...

where he worked with David Meltzer,

Joanne Kyger Joanne Kyger (November 19, 1934 – March 22, 2017) was an American poet. The author of over 30 books of poetry and prose, Kyger was associated with the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, the Beat Generation, Black Mountain, and the New ...

, and Tom Clark. From 2000-07 he directed the Humanities Program there. In 2007 Ballard started the short-lived Lew Gallery with

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

artist Jeff Butler and curated such notable shows as "Artworks" by David Meltzer and "Some of the Worlds Diamonds: Pieces from Living Rooms," a collaboration with painters and poets from San Francisco to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Ballard has given poetry readings at a variety of venues, including the San Francisco State Poetry Center,

City Lights Bookstore City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected tit ...

, SOMArts, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church. His poems have appeared in ''6x6,'' ''Blue Book,'' ''Boog City,'' ''Damn the Caesars,'' ''Drunken Boat,'' ''Joe Brainard's Magazine,'' ''Le Palais de Nuit,'' ''LIT,'' ''Mirage #4 Period(ical),'' ''The Recluse,'' ''Try!,'' ''Vanitas,'' and the anthologies ''Bay Poetics'' and ''Evidence of the Paranormal,'' among others. Currently, he is on the editorial board for the Contemporary Poetry Series at

University of New Orleans The University of New Orleans (UNO) is a public research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is a member of the University of Louisiana System and the Urban 13 association. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High rese ...

Press. Ballard co-directs the

Masters of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

in Writing Program at the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

. Ballard's second full-length collection of poetry, '' Waifs and Strays'', was nominated for a ''

California Book Award The Commonwealth Club of California is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in Northern California. Founded in 1903, it is the oldest and largest public affairs forum in the United States. Membership is open to everyone. Ac ...

.http://www.commonwealthclub.org/about/press-room/press-release/finalists-announced-81st-annual-california-book-awards,

Bibliography

FULL-LENGTH POETRY COLLECTIONS * ''The Michaux Notebook'' (FMSBW, 2019) * ''Afterlives'' ( Bootstrap Productions, 2016) * '' Waifs and Strays'' (

City Lights Books City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected tit ...

, 2011) * ''Parish Krewes'' ( Bootstrap Productions, 2009) CRITICISM *

Negative Capability Negative capability is a phrase first used by Romantic poet John Keats in 1817 to explain the capacity of the greatest writers (particularly Shakespeare) to pursue a vision of artistic beauty even when it leads them into intellectual confusion a ...

in the Verse of John Wieners'' (Auguste Press, 2001) (2nd edition Bootstrap Productions, 2017)

CHAPBOOKS A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch. In early modern Europe a chapbook was a type of printed street literature. Produced cheaply, chapbooks were commonly small, paper-covered booklet ...

* ''Selected Prose (2008-2019)'' (Blue Press, 2020) * ''Daily Vigs'' (Bird & Beckett Books, 2019) * ''Vesper Chimes'' (Gas Meter, 2014) * ''Widows & Orphans'' (Lew Gallery, 2011) * ''Darrell'' (Blue Press, 2007) * ''New Poems'' (Blue Press, 2006) * ''Evangeline Downs'' (

Ugly Duckling Presse Ugly Duckling Presse is an American nonprofit art and publishing collective based in Brooklyn, New York City founded in 1993 by Matvei Yankelevich as a college zine. It publishes poetry, translations, lost works, and artist's books. A micro pr ...

, 2006) * ''Scenes from the Saragossa Manuscript'' (Snag Press, 2004) * ''Emblematic'' (Old Gold, 2004) * ''In the Kindness of Night'' (Blue Press, 2003) * ''Bettina Coffin'' (Red Ant, 2003) * ''Absinthian Journal'' (Old Gold, 2002) * ''Chandeliers from the

Metairie Cemetery Metairie Cemetery is a cemetery in southeastern Louisiana. The name has caused some people to mistakenly presume that the cemetery is located in Metairie, Louisiana, but it is located within the New Orleans city limits, on Metairie Road (and fo ...

'' (Blue Press, 2001) COLLABORATIVE BOOKS * ''Poems from the New Winter Palace'' with Michael Carr (arrow as aarow, 2010) * ''Easy Eden'' with Patrick James Dunagan (Push, 2009) * ''Death Race V.S.O.P.'' with Will Yackulic & Cedar Sigo (Red Ant, 2005) * ''Wrought Iron & Burgundy'' with Sunnylyn Thibodeaux (Auguste Press, 2004) * ''A Plywood Press Primer'' with Cedar Sigo (Plywood Press, 2000) ANTHOLOGY APPEARANCES * ''Bay Poetics'' (Faux Press, 2005) * ''Evidence of the Paranormal'' (Owl Press, 2003)

References

External links

Micah Ballard reads poems
for InDigest's InDefinite Podcast # https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elQVU063Leo # https://www.scribd.com/doc/31848115/selections-from-Micah-Ballard-s-Parish-Krewes # http://reviews.coldfrontmag.com/parish-krewes-by-micha-ballard.html # https://web.archive.org/web/20101214141318/http://welcometoboogcity.com/boogpdfs/bc40.pdf # https://web.archive.org/web/20110708142130/http://www.cherrybleeds.com/bitches1/nov06.html # http://galatearesurrection5.blogspot.com/2007/02/8-publications-by-micah-ballard.html # http://galatearesurrection11.blogspot.com/2008/12/evangeline-downs-by-micah-ballard.html # http://galatearesurrection3.blogspot.com/2006/08/six-chaps-by-ballard-thibodeaux.html # http://galatearesurrection14.blogspot.com/2010/04/easy-eden-by-micah-ballard-james.html # http://www.poetryproject.org/wp-content/uploads/nl_218_final.pdf # http://poetryproject.org/tag/micah-ballard # http://sites.google.com/site/gallagheronpoetry/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Ballard, Micah Living people 1975 births New College of California University of San Francisco faculty Poets from Louisiana Writers from Baton Rouge, Louisiana 21st-century American poets