Willis
Barnstone was born in Lewiston, Maine, and educated at Bowdoin, Columbia,
and Yale. He taught in Greece at the end of the civil war (1949-51), in
Buenos Aires during the Dirty War, and during the Cultural Revolution went
to China, where he was later a Fulbright Professor of American Literature
at Beijing Foreign Studies University (1984-1985). His publications include
Modern European Poetry (Bantam, 1967), The Other Bible (HarperCollins,
1984) The Secret Reader: 501 Sonnets (New England, 1996), a memoir
biography With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires (Illinois,
1993), and To Touch the Sky (New Directions, 1999). His literary
translation of the New Testament The
New Covenant: The Four Gospels and Apocalypse was published by Riverhead
Books in 2002. A Guggenheim Fellow and Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry,
Barnstone is Distinguished Professor at Indiana University.
"Willis Barnstone has been appointed a special angel to bring 'the
other' to our attention, to show how it is done. He illuminates the spirit
for us and he clarifies the unclarifiable . . . I think he does it by
beating his wings."
---Gerald Stern
"Willis Barnstone has a problem: he's too good. Everything he writes,
from his invaluable The Other Bible, a compendium of holy texts no
writer should be without, through his brilliant translations and
beautiful poems, is a breathtaking achievement."
---Carolyn Kizer
Publications
poetry · memoir · translation · criticism · anthology
poetry
Algebra of Night: New & Selected Poems, 1948-1998. Published by Sheep Meadow Press in 1999. amazon.com
The Secret Reader: 501 Sonnets. Published by University Press of New England in 1996. amazon.com
Funny Ways of Staying Alive. Published by University Press of New England in 1993. amazon.com
5 a.m. in Beijing: Poems of China. Published by The Sheep Meadow Press in 1987. amazon.com
A Snow Salmon Reached the Andes Lake. Published by Curbstone Press in 1980.
Overheard. Published by The Raintree Press in 1979.
Stickball on 88th Street: a Child's New York Memorysongs. Published by Colorado Quarterly in 1978.
China Poems. Published by University of Missouri Press in 1976.
New Faces of China. Published by Indiana University Press in 1973.
A Day in the Country. Published by Harper & Row Publishers in 1971.
anti journal. Published by The Sono Nis Press in 1971.
From this White Island. Published by Bookman in 1959.
Poems of Exchange. Published by Institut Francais d'Athenes in 1951.
memoir
Sunday Morning in Fascist Spain: A European Memoir, 1948-1953. Published by Southern Illinois University Press in 1995. amazon.com
With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires. Published by University of Illinois Press in 1993. amazon.com
Borges at Eighty: Conversations. Published by Indiana University Press in 1982. amazon.com
translation
The New Covenant, Commonly Called the New Testament: Four Gospels and Apocalypse. Newly translated from the Greek and informed by semitic sources. Published by Riverhead (Penguin Putnam) in 2002. amazon.com or bn.com
Sappho Poems: A new version. Published by Green Integer in 1999. amazon.com
Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet : Francisco De Quevedo, Sor Juana Ines De LA Cruz, Antonia MacHado, Federico Garcia Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges, Miguel Hernandez. Published by Southern Illinois University Press in 1993. amazon.com
Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Poems of Wang Wei. Published by University Press of New England in 1991. amazon.com
To Touch the Sky: Poems of Mystical, Spiritual & Metaphysical Light. Published by New Directions in 1991. amazon.com
Sappho and the Greek Lyric Poets. Published by Schocken Books in 1988. amazon.com
A Bird of Paper: Poems of Vicente Aleixandre. Published by Ohio University Press in 1982. amazon.com
The Unknown Light: The Poems of Fray Luis de Leon. Published by State University of New York Press in 1979.
My Voice Because of You by Pedro Salinas, Translation and Introduction by Willis Barnstone. Published by State University of New York Press in 1977. amazon.com
The Poems of Mao Tse-tung: A new translation by Willis Barnstone. Published by Bantam Books in 1972.
Eighteen Texts: Writings by Contemporary Greek Authors. Published by Harvard University Press in 1972. amazon.com
The Song of Songs (Shir Hashirim). Published by Kedros in 1970.
The Poems of Saint John of the Cross (a bilingual edition). Published by Indiana University Press in 1968. amazon.com
Greek Lyric Poetry. Published by Indiana University Press in 1967. amazon.com
Sappho: Lyrics in the Original Greek with Translations by Willis Barnstone. Published by Anchor Books in 1965.
Physiologus Theobaldi Episcopi - Bishop Theobald's Bestiary. Published by Spiral Press in 1964.
The Other Alexander: Greek Novel by Margarita Literati. Published by in 1959.
Eighty Poems of Antonio Machado. Published by Las Americas Publishers in 1959.
criticism
The Poetics of Translation: History, Theory, Practice. Published by Yale University Press in 1993. amazon.com
The Poetics of Ecstasy: Varieties of Ekstasis from Sappho to Borges. Published by Holmes & Meier in 1983. amazon.com
anthology
Literatures of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Published by Prentice Hall in 1999. amazon.com
Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet : Francisco De Quevedo, Sor Juana Ines De LA Cruz, Antonia MacHado, Federico Garcia Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges, Miguel Hernandez. Published by Southern Illinois University Press in 1993. amazon.com
A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now. Published by Schocken Books in 1992. amazon.com
The OTHER Bible. Published by HarperCollins in 1984. amazon.com
Modern European Poetry. Published by Bantam Books in 1978.
Spanish Poetry: From its Beginnings through the Nineteenth Century. Published by Oxford University Press in 1970. amazon.com
The New Spoon River by Edgar Lee Masters. Published by Collier Books in 1968.
Rinconete y Cortadillo by Cervantes. Published by Las Americas Publishing Companies in 1960.
Concrete Poetry: A World View. Published by Indiana University Press in 1953. amazon.com
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