Rate My Professor John Balaban

Balaban's scholarly contributions include translating and editing works like Spring Essence: The Poetry of Hồ Xuân Hương (2000), the first book featuring the ancient Nôm script printed from a modern press. In 1999, he founded the Vietnamese Nôm Preservation Foundation, where he has served as president, developing digital tools for Nôm preservation, digitizing thousands of texts, and earning recognition including a medal from the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. His poetry collections have garnered prestigious honors: After Our War (1974) won the Academy of American Poets’ Lamont Prize and was nominated for the National Book Award; Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems (1997) received the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America and another National Book Award nomination; he was also a 2003 Guggenheim Fellow and Phi Kappa Phi National Artist (2001-2004). In 2017, Balaban received the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Additionally, he directed NC State’s MFA Program in Creative Writing and served as past president of the American Literary Translators Association. His efforts have profoundly influenced the revival and global appreciation of Vietnamese literary heritage.