Micah Ballard



Micah Ballard (born September 23, 1975) is an American poet and small press publisher.

Life
Ballard was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Since 1999 he has lived in San Francisco with his wife, poet Sunnylyn Thibodeaux. Under the imprints Auguste Press and Lew Gallery Editions they have printed over 30 books by various poets and artists.

Ballard attended the Poetics Program at New College of California in San Francisco’s mission district where he worked with David Meltzer, Joanne Kyger, and Tom Clark. From 2000-07 he directed the Humanities Program there.

In 2007 Ballard started the short-lived Lew Gallery with Portland artist Jeff Butler and curated such notable shows as “Artworks” by David Meltzer and “Some of the Worlds Diamonds: Pieces from Living Rooms,” a collaboration with painters and poets from San Francisco to New York.

Ballard has given poetry readings at a variety of venues, including the San Francisco State Poetry Center, City Lights Bookstore, SOMArts, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church. His poems have appeared in 6x6, Blue Book, Boog City, Damn the Caesars, The Drunken Boat, Le Palais de Nuit, LIT, Mirage #4 Period(ical), The Recluse, Try!, and Vanitas, among other journals.

Currently, he is on the editorial board for the Contemporary Poetry Series at University of New Orleans Press. Ballard co-directs the Masters of Fine Arts in Writing Program at the University of San Francisco.

Recognition
Ballard's second full-length collection of poetry, Waifs and Strays, was a finalist for the ''California Book Award. in Poetry.

Poetry

 * Parish Krewes. Bootstrap Productions, 2009. ISBN 978-0-9821600-1-5
 * Waifs and Strays. City Lights Books, 2011. ISBN 978-0-87286-544-0

Chapbooks

 * Darrell. Blue Press, 2007.
 * New Poems. Blue Press, 2006.
 * Evangeline Downs. Ugly Duckling Presse, 2006.
 * Scenes from the Saragossa Manuscript. Snag Press, 2004.
 * Emblematic (Old Gold, 2004)
 * In the Kindness of Night (Blue Press, 2003)
 * Bettina Coffin (Red Ant, 2003)
 * Absinthian Journal (Old Gold, 2002)
 * Chandeliers from the Metairie Cemetery (Blue Press, 2001)

Non-fiction

 * Negative Capability in the Verse of John Wieners'' (Auguste Press, 2001)

Collaborated

 * Poems from the New Winter Palace with Michael Carr (arrow as aarow, 2010)
 * Easy Eden with Patrick James Dunagan (Push, 2009)
 * Death Race V.S.O.P. with Will Yackulic & Cedar Sigo (Red Ant, 2005)
 * Wrought Iron & Burgundy with Sunnylyn Thibodeaux (Auguste Press, 2004)
 * A Plywood Press Primer with Cedar Sigo (Plywood Press, 2000)

Anthologized

 * Bay Poetics (Faux Press, 2005)
 * Evidence of the Paranormal (Owl Press, 2003)