James Nolan

Poet, Fiction Writer, Creative Nonfiction Writer

New Orleans, LA
Louisiana US

Author's Bio

James Nolan has taught writing and literature at universities in Florida, San Francsico, Barcelona, Madrid, and Beijing. His Ph.D. in comparative literature is from the University of California (Berkeley and Santa Cruz),and recently he has been writer-in-residence at Tulane and Loyola universities in his native New Orleans, where for twelve years he directed the Loyola Writing Institute at Loyola University. He has translated books by Pablo Neruda (Stones of the Sky, Copper Canyon Press) and Jaime Gil de Biedma (Longing: Selected Poems, City Lights Books), and his translations of other Spanish-language poets appear in various anthologies. In turn, his own poetry and personal essays have been widely translated and published in Spanish, and he often performs his work in collaboration with musicians. He is also the author of Poet-Chief: The Native American Poetics of Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda (University of New Mexico Press), and a collection of his creative nonfiction, Fumadores en manos de un dios enfurecido, was published in Madrid by Enigma Editores.  

Publications & Prizes

Creative Nonfiction

Anthologies:
Best Food Writing 2016 (Da Capo, 2016)
,
New Orleans: What Can't Be Lost--88 Stories and Traditions from the Sacred City (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2010)
,
The Gastronomica Reader (University of California Press, 2010)
,
Thus Spake the Corpse: An Exquisite Corpse Reader (Black Sparrow Press, 1999)
,
Religion for a New Generation (Macmillan, 1973)
Books:
Bdetween Dying and Not Dying, I Chose the Guitar: The Pandemic Years in New Orleans (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2024)
,
Flight Risk: Memoirs of a New Orleans Bad Boy (University Press of Mississippi, 2017)
Journals:
Ars Medica
,
Boulevard
,
Exquisite Corpse
,
Gastronomica
,
New Laurel Review
, , ,
Poetry Flash
,
Ramparts
, ,
Utne Reader
,
Xavier Review

Fiction

Anthologies:
Die Laughing: An Anthology of Humorous Mysteries (Weekly Mystery Magazine, 2021)
,
Something in the Water: Twenty Lousiana Stories (Portals Press, 2011)
,
Saints and Sinners: New Fiction from the Festival (Rebel Satori Press, 2010)
,
New Orleans Noir (Akashic Books, 2007)
,
Tartts Three: Incisive Fiction from Emerging Writers (Swallow's Tale Press, 2007)
Books:
You Don't Know Me: New and Selected Stories (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2014)
,
Higher Ground (novel) (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2011)
,
Perpetual Care: Stories (Jefferson Press, 2008)
Journals:
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
,
Arabesques Review
, ,
Boulevard
,
Callaloo
,
Chattahoochee Review
,
Crab Orchard Review
, , ,
New Laurel Review
,
Resonance
,
Shenandoah
,

Poetry

Anthologies:
Teeth of the Billow Tree: A Surrealist Anthology (Willow Springs Books, 2022)
,
40th Anniversary of the Maple Leaf Poetry Readings New Orleans (Portals Press, 2019)
,
Maple Leaf Rag V (Portals Press, 2014)
,
Reckless Writing 2013 (Chatter House Press, 2013)
,
Improbable Worlds: An Anthology of Texas and Louisana Poets (Mutabilis Press, 2011)
,
The Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol. IV: Louisiana (Texas Review Press, 2011)
,
Maple Leaf Rag IV: An Anthology of Poems (Portals Press, 2010)
,
Persistent Voices: An Anthology of Poets Lost to AIDS (translations) (Alyson Books, 2009)
,
Island of My Hunger: Cuban Poetry Today (translations) (City Lights Publishers, 2007)
,
Maple Leaf Rag III (Portals Press, 2006)
,
My New Orleans: Ballads to the Big Easy by Her Sons, Daughters, and Lovers (Simon & Schuster, 2006)
,
Chance of a Ghost: An Anthology of Contemporary Ghost Poems (Helicon Nine Editions, 2005)
,
The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales (Story Line Press, 2003)
,
From a Bend in the River: 100 New Orleans Poets (Runagate Press, 1998)
,
The Gift of Tongues: Twenty-Five Years of Poetry from Copper Canyon Press (Copper Canyon Press, 1996)
,
The Name of Love (St. Martin's Press, 1995)
,
Wherever Home Begins: 100 Contemporary Poems (Orchard Books, 1995)
,
Looking for Your Name: A Collection of Contemporary Poems (Orchard Books, 1993)
,
The Jazz Poetry Anthology (Indiana University Press, 1991)
,
Practicing Angels: A Contemporary Anthology of San Francisco Bay Area Poetry (Seismograph Publications, 1986)
,
Strings: A Gathering of Family Poems (Macmillan, 1984)
,
India: An Anthology of Contemporary Writing (Ohio University Press, 1983)
,
Writers Forum 5: New American Literature from the West (University of Colorado Press, 1978)
,
New American Review 13 (Simon & Schuster, 1971)
Books:
Nasty Water: Collected New Orleans Poems (University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, 2018)
,
Drunk on Salt (Willow Springs Editions, 2014)
,
Pablo Neruda, Stones of the Sky (translation) (Copper Canyon Press, 2002)
,
Longing: Selected Poems of Jaime Gil de Biedma (translation) (City Lights, 1993)
,
What Moves is Not the Wind (Wesleyan University Press, 1980)
,
Why I Live in the Forest (Wesleyan University Press, 1974)
Journals: ,
Big Bridge
,
Chiaroscuro
,
City Lights Review
,
Confrontation
,
Delos
,
Florida Quarterly
, ,
Green River Review
,
Last Stanza Poetry Journal
,
Mesechabe
, ,
Mississippi Review
,
New Laurel Review
, , , , ,
Quarry West
,
Stringtown
,
The World
, ,
Xavier Review
,
Yawp
Prizes won: 

2018 Next-Generation Indie Book Award for Best Memoir; 2015 Independent Publishers' (IPPY) Gold Medal in Southern Fiction; 2015 Forward's Book of the Year Award (Indiefab) Honorable Mention; 2012 Independent Publishers' (IPPY) Gold Medal in Southern Fiction; 2008 William Faulkner-Wisdom Gold Medal (for a novel manuscript); 2009 Next-Generation Indie Book Award for Best Short Story Collection); 2007 Jefferson Press Prize (for a short story collection); National Endowment for the Arts Grant (in poetry); two Fulbright Fellowships to Spain

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
Franco American
Fluent in: 
French, Spanish
Born in: 
New Orleans, LA
Louisiana
Raised in: 
New Orleans, LA
Louisiana
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Jun 11, 2024