Translators
Balducci, Carolyn
Feb. 13, 1946 –
Place of Birth: Pelham, NY
Place of Principal Residence: Ann Arbor, MI
Biography:
Carolyn Feleppa Balducci was born in Pelham, NY to Ernest and Rosaria Feleppa. She first got her interest in writing through art, being both an avid reader and an artist. During her education at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in Purchase, NY she wavered between focusing on studio art and English. In the end, she chose studio art, but her interest in writing lived on. “As electives, I took a couple of creative writing courses,” Balducci said. “My best marks were in The History of the English Language — go figure!” After graduation Balducci taught Creative Writing at the University of Michigan. She became interested in theater and started translating plays, as well as writing her own for university productions. Years later Balducci felt the need to become more involved in her hometown, Montauk, and took up the job of program director for the Montauk library. Her job included organizing local actors to do dramatic readings, a task that required catering plays to the interest of the community as well as using the talents of acting companies to their best advantage. One of her translated plays, In Times of War by David Alan Moore, was performed by Stage Left in Chicago. Balducci has written books, articles, poems, plays, and screenplays. Currently she focuses her time on writing stage plays and screenplays.
Selected works:
- Margaret Fuller, A Life of Passion and Defiance (1991)
- A Self-Made Woman: the Life of Nobel Prize Winner Grazia Deledda (1975)
- Earwax (1972)
- Giovanni the Fearless (1971)
Awards:
- ALA Notable Book Award
- S.I.A.E. commendation for contributions to Italian theater in America
- Grants from Michigan Council for the Arts and Ohio Program in the Humanities
- American Library Association ‘Guest Editor’
- Mademoiselle Magazine ‘Who’s Who’
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Working at University of Michigan sparked an interest in Balducci to get involved in writing and translating dramatic works, an occupation she continues today.
Eshleman, Clayton
June 1, 1935 -
Place of Birth: Indianapolis, IN
Place of Principle Residence: Ypsilanti, MI
Biography:
Clayton Eshleman was born to Gladys and Clayton Eshleman in 1935 in Indianapolis, IN. He attended Indiana University and received his BA in philosophy in 1958 and M.A.T. in Creative Writing in 1961. He was an instructor in English for a year before moving to Kobe, Japan as an English language and writing instructor for Matsushita Electric Corporation. In 1966 he moved to New York City as an instructor at the American Language Institute and as a publisher and editor for Caterpillar books and Caterpillar magazine. Eshleman became founder and editor of Sulfur magazine in 1981. Starting in the 1970s Eshleman traveled around the country as a visiting professor and poet in residence. In 1986 he moved to Eastern Michigan University as a Professor of English. Eshleman is a known translator, winning the National Book Award in 1979 for his co-translaton of Cesar Vallejo’s Complete Posthumous Poem. In addition to being the main American tranlator of Cesar Vallejo, Eshleman has also translated books by Antonin Arlaudi and Bernard Bador, among others. Eshleman has made frequent trips with his wife, Caryl, to France to study Ice Age Cave Art and finished his research in the 1990s with publishing his findings in his book, Juniper Fuse. He has one son, Matthew, by his first wife Barbara Novak.
Selected Works:
Poetry:
- Cantaloups and Splendour (1968)
- Under World Arrest (1994)
- Archaic Design (2007)
Prose:
- Companion Spider (2002)
Translation:
- The Collected Poetry by Aimé Césaire (1984)
- The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo (2007)
Awards:
- 1968 Poetry Magazine Award for “Five Poems”
- 1977 Carnegie Author’s Fund Award
- 1978 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry for research on Upper Paleolitic Cave Art
- 1989 Distinguished Faculty Research/Creativity Award, Eastern Michigan University
- 1992 Michigan Artists Award, Arts Foundation of Michigan
- 2002 Landon Translation Prize, Academy of American Poets, for “Trilce”
- 2002 Sabio Award for Excellent in Literary Translation, San Diego State University
Critical Reception:
“This [The Complete Poetry, César Vallejo] is a crucially important translation of one of the poetic geniuses of the twentieth century.”
- William Rowe, author of Poets of Contemporary Latin America: History and the Inner Life.
“Sulfur must be the most important literary magazine which has explored and extended the boundaries of poetry. Clayton Eshleman has had a nose for smelling out what was going to happen next in the ceaseless evolution of the art.”
- James Laughlin, New Directions Books.
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Eshleman is a Professor of English at Eastern Michigan University.