William Baer

• Name — William Baer • Born — December 29, 1948 • Birthplace — Geneva, New York • Occupation — Writer, Translator, Editor, Professor • Movement — New Formalism • Education — Rutgers University (B.A.) New York University (M.A.) University of South Carolina (Ph.D) Johns Hopkins University (M.A.) University of Southern California (M.A.) • Website — www.williambaer.net

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 the USC School of Cinematic Arts with an M.A. in Cinema, receiving the Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award.

Baer is the author of seven books of poetry, including Formal Salutations: New & Selected Poems; The Unfortunates, recipient of the T. S. Eliot Prize from Truman State University; "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 three collections of poet interviews. 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 also served as the poetry editor and film critic for Crisis Magazine, the founding director of the St. Robert Southwell Institute, the director of the University of Evansville Press, 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.

William Baer’s fiction has been awarded a Creative Writing Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the author of fifteen novels in widely divergent genres, including literary, mystery, love-themed, and Catholic-themed. He is also the author of two collections of short stories, Times Square and Other Stories and One-and-Twenty Tales, and his short fiction has been published in numerous literary journals, including The Iowa Review, Arkansas Review, The Chariton Review, and The Dalhousie Review.

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. His full-length drama, Three Generations of Imbeciles, received the New Works of Merit Playwriting Award and was chosen for the regionals of the 2013 American College Theatre Festival. His play Lighthouse, the recipient of the AACT NewPlayFest Award, premiered at the Windsor Playhouse in Windsor, Colorado.

William Baer is a graduate of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (M.A.), where he received the Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award. He also taught screenwriting at U.S.C. for three years, was represented by Stuart Robinson of Robinson, Weintraub, and Gross, optioned a screenplay, and directed an MTV music video. He subsequently taught cinema history and screenwriting at the University of Evansville in southwest Indiana. His two related books are Classic American Films: Conversations with the Screenwriters and Elia Kazin: Interviews.