James Nolan (author)
Encyclopedia
James Nolan is a poet
, fiction
writer, essayist, and translator. A regular contributor to Boulevard, his work has appeared in New Orleans Noir (Akashic Books), Utne Reader, The Washington Post, and Andrei Codrescu
's Exquisite Corpse among other magazines, anthologies, and newspapers. He has translated the work of Spanish-language poets Pablo Neruda
and Jaime Gil de Biedma
. Nolan is a fifth-generation native of New Orleans and lives in the French Quarter
.
and has gone on to teach Literature and Creative Writing at universities in Florida
, San Francisco, Barcelona
, Madrid
, and Beijing
. Until recently, he was the Writer-in-Residence at New Orleans' Tulane
and Loyola
Universities, where he directed the Loyola Writing Institute. Nolan currently teaches creative writing for the Arts Council of New Orleans.
He has been the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts grant and two Fulbright Fellowships. His collection of short stories, Perpetual Care, won the 2007 Jefferson Press Prize. Nolan was awarded the 2008 Faulkner–Wisdom gold medal in the novel category for the manuscript of his first novel Higher Ground. Published by University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Press on October 25, 2011, Nolan’s post–Katrina
novel was described as a "lumpy, campy, intermittently funny and totally unlikely book" by Times-Picayune writer Diana Pinckley.
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
writer, essayist, and translator. A regular contributor to Boulevard, his work has appeared in New Orleans Noir (Akashic Books), Utne Reader, The Washington Post, and Andrei Codrescu
Andrei Codrescu
Andrei Codrescu is a Romanian-born American poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and commentator for National Public Radio. He was Mac Curdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University from 1984 until his retirement in 2009....
's Exquisite Corpse among other magazines, anthologies, and newspapers. He has translated the work of Spanish-language poets Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
and Jaime Gil de Biedma
Jaime Gil de Biedma
Jaime Gil de Biedma y Alba was a Spanish post-Civil War poet.He was born in Nava de la Asunción on November 13, 1929. He stopped writing poetry some ten years before his death...
. Nolan is a fifth-generation native of New Orleans and lives in the French Quarter
French Quarter
The French Quarter, also known as Vieux Carré, is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. When New Orleans was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city was originally centered on the French Quarter, or the Vieux Carré as it was known then...
.
Career
Nolan received his PhD from the University of California, Santa CruzUniversity of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
and has gone on to teach Literature and Creative Writing at universities in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, San Francisco, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, and Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. Until recently, he was the Writer-in-Residence at New Orleans' Tulane
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
and Loyola
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a private, co-educational and Jesuit university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit patron, Saint Ignatius of Loyola...
Universities, where he directed the Loyola Writing Institute. Nolan currently teaches creative writing for the Arts Council of New Orleans.
He has been the recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts grant and two Fulbright Fellowships. His collection of short stories, Perpetual Care, won the 2007 Jefferson Press Prize. Nolan was awarded the 2008 Faulkner–Wisdom gold medal in the novel category for the manuscript of his first novel Higher Ground. Published by University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette, or UL Lafayette, is a coeducational, public research university located in Lafayette, Louisiana, in the heart of Acadiana...
Press on October 25, 2011, Nolan’s post–Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
novel was described as a "lumpy, campy, intermittently funny and totally unlikely book" by Times-Picayune writer Diana Pinckley.
Poetry
- Why I Live In The Forest, Wesleyan University Press, 1974 (ISBN 0-8195-1074-2)
- What Moves Is Not The Wind, Wesleyan University Press, 1980 (ISBN 0-8195-1099-8)
Poetry in Translation
- Pablo Neruda, Stones Of The Sky, Copper Canyon Press, 1987, (ISBN 1-5565-9006-7)
- Jaime Gil de Biedma, Longing: Selected Poems, City Lights Books, 1993 (ISBN 0-8728-6277-1)
Fiction
- Perpetual Care: Stories, Jefferson Press, 2008 (ISBN 0-9800-1641-X)
- Higher Ground: A Novel, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press (ISBN 978-1-891053-52-8)
Essays and Criticism
- Poet-Chief: The Native American Poetics of Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda, University of New Mexico Press, 1994, (ISBN 0-8263-1484-8)
- Fumadores en manos de un dios enfurecido: Ensayos a caballo entre varios mundos, Madrid: Enigma Editores