Mary Jo Bang is an American poet born in Waynesville, MO Bang received degrees from Northwestern University, the Polytechnic of Central London, and Columbia University. Bang has published eight collections of poetry, including Apology for Want (1997), Louise in Love (2001), The Eye like a Strange Balloon (2004), Elegy (2007), The Bride of E (2015), and A Doll for Throwing (2017). Her translation of Dante’s Inferno, illustrated by Henrik Drescher, was published in 2012. Her work has been featured in publications such as New American Writing, Paris Review, The New Yorker, and Harvard Review. Additionally, Bang has received widespread recognition and numerous awards for her work, including a “Discovery”/The Nation Poetry Award (1995), a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University (1999-2000), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2004), the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay di Castagnola Award (2005), the National Book Critic’s Circle Award (2007), and a Berlin Prize Fellowship from the American Academy in Berlin (2015). She currently teaches creative writing at Washington University in St. Louis.
Portrait by Matt Valentine
