Mary Jo Bang
Encyclopedia
Life
She grew up in Ferguson, MissouriFerguson, Missouri
Ferguson is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 21,203 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Ferguson is located at ....
. She graduated from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, in Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, from the Polytechnic of Central London
University of Westminster
The University of Westminster is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its origins go back to the foundation of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in 1838, and it was awarded university status in 1992.The university's headquarters and original campus are based on Regent...
, and from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, with an M.F.A. She teaches at Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
.
Her work has appeared in New American Writing, Paris Review, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Denver Quarterly, Harvard Review.
Bang was the poetry co-editor of the Boston Review from 1995 to 2005. She was a judge for the 2004 James Laughlin Award.
She lives in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
.
Awards & recognitions
- Publishers Weekly; “2007 Best Books of the Year” St. Louis Post-Dispatch; “Most Recommended” National Book
- Critics Circle, December 2007
- National Book Critics Circle Award, 2007
- Washington University Faculty Research Grant, Summer 2007
- Bellagio Foundation Fellowship 2007
- Finalist, Anna Akhmatova Award 2006
- Poetry Society of American’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award 2005 (Fannie Howe, Judge) & 2002 (Brenda Hillman, Judge)
- Bogliosco Foundation Fellowship 2005
- Guggenheim Fellowship 2004
- Pushcart PrizePushcart PrizeThe Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are invited to nominate up to 6 works they have featured....
2003 - Louise in Love listed in: “Notable Books in 2001” National Book Critics Circle; “Best Books of 2001” St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- University of Georgia’s Contemporary Poets Series Competition 2000 (Mark Strand, Judge)
- Hodder Fellowship, Princeton University 1999-2000
- Chateau Lavigny Fellowship 1999
- Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writer's Award 1998
- YaddoYaddoYaddo is an artists' community located on a 400 acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment."...
Fellowship 1998 - Apology for Want listed in “Notable Books in 1997” by the National Book Critics Circle
- Bread Loaf Writers' ConferenceBread Loaf Writers' ConferenceThe Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is a writers' conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont...
Fellowship, 1997 - Katharine Bakeless Nason Publication Prize 1996 (Edward Hirsh, Judge)
- MacDowell ColonyMacDowell ColonyThe MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
Fellowship, 1996 - "Discovery" The Nation Poetry Award 1995
- Honorable Mention, The Academy of American Poets Poetry Competition, 1995 (Robert Pinsky, Judge)
- Columbia University School of the Arts Dean's Award, 1994
Published works
- "The Diary of a Lost Girl"; "The Penguin Chiaroscuro"; "The Medicinal Cotton Clouds Come Down to Cover Them"; "Dark Smudged the Path Untrammeled"; "A Hurricranium, He Said"; "Speech is Designed to Persuade", Jacket 12
- The Bride of E
- Selected Poems
- Her Head in a Rabbit Hole
Reviews
Wayne KoestenbaumWayne Koestenbaum
Wayne Koestenbaum is an American poet and cultural critic. He received a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. from Princeton University...
writes:
Mary Jo Bang's remarkable elegies recall the late work of Ingeborg BachmannIngeborg BachmannIngeborg Bachmann was an Austrian poet and author.-Biography:Bachmann was born in Klagenfurt, in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the daughter of a headmaster. She studied philosophy, psychology, German philology, and law at the universities of Innsbruck, Graz, and Vienna...
—a febrile, recursive lyricism. Like Nietzsche or PlathPlathPlath is a surname and may refer to:* Aurelia Plath , mother of Sylvia Plath* John Plath, Australian rugby league footballer* Sylvia Plath , American poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist...
, Bang flouts naysayers; luridly alive, she drives deep into aporia, her new, sad country. Her stanzas, sometimes spilling, sometimes severe, perform an uncanny death-song, recklessly extended—nearly to the breaking point.
David Orr
David Orr (journalist)
David Orr is an American journalist, attorney, and poet who is noted for his reviews and essays on poetry.Orr grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Princeton University in 1996, and subsequently a law degree from Yale University. While still...
writes:
This is perhaps why Mary Jo Bang largely succeeds in her new book of elegies for her son, called, simply enough, “Elegy.” Bang’s previous four collections are polished and frequently interesting, but they also contain more than their share of overwrought and overthought poetry about poetry....That can’t be said of “Elegy.” This is a tightly focused, completely forthright collection written almost entirely in the bleakest key imaginable. The poems aren’t all great, some of them aren’t even good, but collectively they are overwhelming — which is both a compliment to Bang’s talent and to the toughness of mind that allowed her to attempt this difficult project in the first place.