After graduating from Brandeis, I got a Fulbright to study in France and in a sense never returned. I actually did after ten years--with my French wife Nicole (who is now usually my collaborator), and, my French Doctorate helping, taught French and Comparative Literature at Smith--but returned to France at least once a year, sometimes for years at a time. I usually translate works I love: I want to tell everybody about them, and "everybody" in this country speaks English. After concentrating on poetry for many years, I've been working mostly on novels for the past five years. Translating noir stories has been fun, too. I wish American publishers would translate far more than they do: there's so much great stuff out there that American readers don't see. And making them really see it is the task of the translator.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Principal Translations:
-- Abdourahman A. Waberi, Passage of Tears, translated by David and Nicole Ball,Seagull Books, Calcutta / London, 2011.
-- Alfred Jarry, Ubu the King, Translation of Ubu roi in World Drama, WW Norton, 2009.
-- Abdourahman A. Waberi, In the United States of Africa, translated by David and Nicole Ball, Foreword by Percival Everett. University of Nebraska Press, 2009.
-- Stories in Haiti Noir, ed. Edwige Danticat, Akashic Books, 2011 and Paris Noir(Didier Daeninckx, Dominique Mainard, Salim Bachi, etc.) ed. Aurélien Masson, Akashic Books, 2008.
-- Pierre Loti, Constantinople: The Way It Was / and The Green Mosque at Bursa, Translated and annotated by David Ball, Amphora Eğitim Yayincilik, Istanbul, 2006.
J-M. Geneste, T. Hordé, C.Tanet, preface by Ph. Dagen, Lascaux: A Work of Memory, translated by David and Nicole Ball, Éditions Fanlac, Périgueux, 2004.
-- Darkness Moves: An Henri Michaux Anthology 1927-1984, Selected, translated and presented by David Ball, The University of California Press, Berkeley, 1994.
(Awarded MLA’s Scaglione Prize for Outstanding Translation of a Literary Work, 1996.)
-- Pierre Louÿs, Lêda, Translation and introduction by David Ball, original engravings by Alan James Robinson, Cheloniidae Press, Easthampton, Massachusetts, 1985.
Poetry_Chapbooks:
New Lulu. Sand Project Press, Northampton, MA, 2012.
In Cities. Potato Clock Editions, Boulder, Colorado, 2001.
The Garbage Poems. Burning Deck, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976.
Praise of Crazy. Diana’s BiMonthly, Providence, R.I., 1976.
The Mutant Daughter. Buffalo Press, New York NY, 1975.
