William Baer (born December 29, 1948) is an American writer, editor, translator, and academic. He has been the recipient of a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

, a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

(Portugal), and a Creative Writing Fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Early life and education

William Baer was born in

Geneva, New York Geneva is a City (New York), city in Ontario County, New York, Ontario and Seneca County, New York, Seneca counties in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is at the northern end of Seneca Lake (New York), Seneca Lake; all land port ...

, in 1948. He was raised in

The Bronx, New York City The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York ...

, and

Wayne, New Jersey Wayne is a Township (New Jersey), township in Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. Home to William Paterson University and located less than from Midtown Manhattan, the township is a bedroom suburb of New York ...

. After graduating from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

with a B.A. in English, he received an M.A. in English from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. He completed his doctoral dissertation in English at the University of South Carolina under the direction of

James Dickey James Lafayette Dickey (February 2, 1923 January 19, 1997) was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth United States Poet Laureate in 1966. He also received the Order of the South award. Dickey is best known for his no ...

, before attending the

Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars Founded in 1947, the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars is an academic program offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in writing in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts & Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. It is the second-oldest creative writing ...

where he earned an M.A. in Creative Writing, working under

David St. John David St. John (born July 24, 1949) is an American poet. Biography Born in Fresno, California, he was educated at California State University, Fresno, where he studied with poet Philip Levine, and at the University of Iowa, receiving an M.F.A. ...

and

John Barth John Simmons Barth (; born May 27, 1930) is an American writer who is best known for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. His most highly regarded and influential works were published in the 1960s, and include ''The Sot-Weed Factor'', a ...

. He also graduated from

USC School of Cinematic Arts The University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) houses seven academic divisions: Film & Television Production; Cinema & Media Studies; John C. Hench Division of Animation + Digital Arts; John Wells Division of Writing for Sc ...

with an M.A. in Cinema, receiving the Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award.

Literary activities

Baer is the author of six books of poetry, including ''The Unfortunates'', recipient of the T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize; ''"Borges" and Other Sonnets''; and ''"Bocage" and Other Sonnets'', recipient of the X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize. His other books include translations from the Portuguese, ''Luís de Camões: Selected Sonnets''; the textbook, ''Writing Metrical Poetry''; and five collections of interviews, including ''Classic American Films: Conversations with the Screenwriters''. In 1989, William Baer was the Founding Editor of ''

The Formalist ''The Formalist: A Journal of Metrical Poetry'' was a literary periodical, founded and edited by William Baer, which was published twice a year from 1990 to the fall/winter issue of 2004. The headquarters of the magazine was in Evansville, Indi ...

'' (1990–2004), a small poetry journal which played a significant role in the Formalist poetry revival (

New Formalism New Formalism is a late 20th- and early 21st-century movement in American poetry that has promoted a return to metrical, rhymed verse and narrative poetry on the grounds that all three are necessary if American poetry is to compete with novels an ...

). He is also the former poetry editor and film critic for ''Crisis Magazine''. Currently, he serves as the founding director of the St. Robert Southwell Institute, and previously he served as the director of the University of Evansville Press, the contributing editor at ''

Measure Measure may refer to: * Measurement, the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event Law * Ballot measure, proposed legislation in the United States * Church of England Measure, legislation of the Church of England * Mea ...

'', the faculty director of ''

The Evansville Review ''The Evansville Review'' is a literary journal published annually by the University of Evansville. Content includes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays, and interviews by the students. It was founded in 1989. Notable past contributors include Joyce ...

'', and the founding director of the Richard Wilbur Poetry Series, the

Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award The Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award was established in 1994 by '' The Formalist.'' The award, honoring the poet Howard Nemerov (1920–1991), was an open competition for sonnets in English that drew about 3000 entries annually. Essay by three-time Neme ...

, and the

Willis Barnstone Translation Prize The Willis Barnstone Translation Prize is an annual award given to an exceptional translation of a poem from any language into English. The prize was inaugurated in 2002 by the University of Evansville, and has been presented annually since 2003. T ...

. In 1995, William Baer received an N.E.A. Creative Writing Grant in fiction, and his short stories have been widely published in such journals as ''The Iowa Review'', ''Kansas Quarterly'', ''The Chariton Review'', and ''The Dalhousie Review''. In 2015, two collections of his short fiction were published: ''Times Square and Other Stories'' and ''One-and-Twenty Tales.'' More recently, he published two novels: ''Companion'' and ''New Jersey Noir.'' William Baer's various plays have been produced at more than thirty American theaters, including the 13th Street Theatre in New York City, Chicago Dramatists, and the Metropolitan Playhouse of New York. A recent full-length drama, ''Three Generations of Imbeciles'', received the New Works of Merit Playwriting Award and was chosen for the regionals of the 2013 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Awards

* AACT NewPlayFest Award, 2015 * New Works of Merit Playwriting Award, 2011 * Guggenheim Fellowship, 2007 * X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize, 2007 * Melvin M. Peterson Chair in Literature, 2006 * James H. Wilson Playwriting Award, 1999 * T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize, 1997 * N.E.A. Creative Writing Fellowship in Fiction, 1995 * Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award, 1986 * Fulbright Lectureship in American Literature, Portugal, 1981

Selected books

* ''New Jersey Noir'', Able Muse Press, 2018 * ''Companion'', James Ward Kirk Publishing, 2017 * ''Thirteen on Form: Conversations with Poets'', Measure Press, 2016 * ''Love Sonnets'', Kelsay Books, 2016 * ''Times Square and Other Stories'', Able Muse Press, 2015 * ''One-and-Twenty Tales'', Mockingbird Lane Press, 2015 * ''Psalter'', Truman State University Press, 2011 * ''"Bocage" and Other Sonnets'', Texas Review Press, 2008 * ''Classic American Films: Conversations with the Screenwriters'', Praeger, 2007 * ''Rhyming Poems: A Contemporary Anthology'', University of Evansville Press, 2007 * ''The Ballad Rode into Town'', Turning Point, 2007 * ''Writing Metrical Poetry'', Writer's Digest Books, 2006, Measure Press, 2015 * ''The Conservative Poets'', University of Evansville Press, 2006 * ''Luís de Camões: Selected Sonnets'', University of Chicago Press, 2005 * ''Sonnets: 150 Sonnets'', University of Evansville Press, 2005 * ''Fourteen on Form: Conversations with Poets'', University Press of Mississippi, 2004 * ''"Borges" and Other Sonnets'', Truman State University Press, 2003 * ''Elia Kazan: Interviews'', University Press of Mississippi, 2000 * ''The Amistad Case'', Eldridge Publishing, 1998 * ''The Unfortunates'', Truman State University Press, 1997 * ''Conversations with Derek Walcott'', University Press of Mississippi, 1996

Early life and education

Literary activities

Awards

Selected books

References

External links