William Baer (writer)

William Baer (born December 29, 1948) is an American writer, editor, translator, and academic. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright (Portugal), and a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Early life and education
William Baer was born in Geneva, New York, in 1948. He was raised in The Bronx, New York City, and Wayne, New Jersey. After graduating from Rutgers University with a B.A. in English, he received an M.A. in English from New York University. He completed his doctoral dissertation in English at the University of South Carolina under the direction of James Dickey, before attending the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars where he earned an M.A. in Creative Writing, working under David St. John and John Barth. He also graduated from USC School of Cinematic Arts with an M.A. in Cinema, receiving the Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award.

Literary activities
Baer is the author of six books of poetry, including The Unfortunates, recipient of the T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize; "Borges" and Other Sonnets; and "Bocage" and Other Sonnets, recipient of the X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize. His other books include translations from the Portuguese, Luís de Camões: Selected Sonnets; the textbook, Writing Metrical Poetry; and five collections of interviews, including Classic American Films: Conversations with the Screenwriters.

In 1989, William Baer was the Founding Editor of The Formalist (1990–2004), a small poetry journal which played a significant role in the Formalist poetry revival (New Formalism). He is also the former poetry editor and film critic for Crisis Magazine. Currently, he serves as the founding director of the St. Robert Southwell Institute, and previously he served as the director of the University of Evansville Press, the contributing editor at Measure, the faculty director of The Evansville Review, and the founding director of the Richard Wilbur Poetry Series, the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award, and the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize.

In 1995, William Baer received an N.E.A. Creative Writing Grant in fiction, and his short stories have been widely published in such journals as The Iowa Review, Kansas Quarterly, The Chariton Review, and The Dalhousie Review. In 2015, two collections of his short fiction were published: Times Square and Other Stories and One-and-Twenty Tales. More recently, he published two novels: Companion and New Jersey Noir.

William Baer's various plays have been produced at more than thirty American theaters, including the 13th Street Theatre in New York City, Chicago Dramatists, and the Metropolitan Playhouse of New York. A recent full-length drama, Three Generations of Imbeciles, received the New Works of Merit Playwriting Award and was chosen for the regionals of the 2013 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Awards

 * AACT NewPlayFest Award, 2015
 * New Works of Merit Playwriting Award, 2011
 * Guggenheim Fellowship, 2007
 * X.J. Kennedy Poetry Prize, 2007
 * Melvin M. Peterson Chair in Literature, 2006
 * James H. Wilson Playwriting Award, 1999
 * T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize, 1997
 * N.E.A. Creative Writing Fellowship in Fiction, 1995
 * Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award, 1986
 * Fulbright Lectureship in American Literature, Portugal, 1981

Selected books

 * New Jersey Noir, Able Muse Press, 2018
 * Companion, James Ward Kirk Publishing, 2017
 * Thirteen on Form: Conversations with Poets, Measure Press, 2016
 * Love Sonnets, Kelsay Books, 2016
 * Times Square and Other Stories, Able Muse Press, 2015
 * One-and-Twenty Tales, Mockingbird Lane Press, 2015
 * Psalter, Truman State University Press, 2011
 * "Bocage" and Other Sonnets, Texas Review Press, 2008
 * Classic American Films: Conversations with the Screenwriters, Praeger, 2007
 * Rhyming Poems: A Contemporary Anthology, University of Evansville Press, 2007
 * The Ballad Rode into Town, Turning Point, 2007
 * Writing Metrical Poetry, Writer's Digest Books, 2006, Measure Press, 2015
 * The Conservative Poets, University of Evansville Press, 2006
 * Luís de Camões: Selected Sonnets, University of Chicago Press, 2005
 * Sonnets: 150 Sonnets, University of Evansville Press, 2005
 * Fourteen on Form: Conversations with Poets, University Press of Mississippi, 2004
 * "Borges" and Other Sonnets, Truman State University Press, 2003
 * Elia Kazan: Interviews, University Press of Mississippi, 2000
 * The Amistad Case, Eldridge Publishing, 1998
 * The Unfortunates, Truman State University Press, 1997
 * Conversations with Derek Walcott, University Press of Mississippi, 1996