The Translators
Robert Bagg
Robert Bagg’s books include: Madonna of the Cello (1961); Hippolytos (1973); The Scrawny Sonnets (1973); The Bakkhai (1978); Oedipus the King (1982); The Worst Kiss (1985); Body Blows (1988); The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles (notes and introductions coauthored with Mary Bagg, 2004); Niké and Other Poems (2006), The Tandem Ride and Other Excursions: Selected Poems 1955-2010 (2011).
Bagg graduated from Millburn High School, Millburn, NJ; Amherst College B.A. 1957; Harvard College, 1960; University of Connecticut, M.A. 1961; Ph.D. 1965.
He has taught at the University of Washington (Seattle), 1963-65; the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1965-96; Smith College, 1967; and the University of Texas, 1971.
His awards include a Prix de Rome, 1958–59, from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; a National Defense Fellowship: 1961–64; an Ingram Merrill Fellowship, 1973; a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1975; a Guggenheim Fellowship, 1980–81; Visiting Artist, American Academy in Rome, 1980–81; 1996; 2004; a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency, 1999; and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for a biography of Richard Wilbur, 2007.
Robert Bagg was born 21 September 1935 in Orange, NJ. He lives in Worthington, Massachusetts with his wife Mary, a free-lance writer and editor. He has five children from a previous marriage to Sally Bagg: Ted, Chris, Jonathon, Melissa, and Hazzard.
James Scully
James Scully is the author of 10 books of poetry, including Donatello’s Version (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2007), four book-length translations, the seminal essay collection Line Break: Poetry as Social Practice (Curbstone Press/ Northwestern University Press, 1988/2005), and Vagabond Flags: Serbia & Kosovo: Journal, Scrapbook & Notes (Azul Editions, 2009). The founding editor of Art on the Line series (Curbstone Press, 1981-1986), he has been a key figure in the movement to radicalize the theory and practice of American poetry—in how it is lived as well as in how it is written.
Born in 1937 in New Haven, CT, Scully lives in Vermont with his wife, Arlene. They’ve been married since 1960 and have a son, John, and a daughter, Deirdre. His awards include a National Defense Fellowship 1959-1962; an Ingram Merrill Foundation Fellowship (Rome, Italy 1962-63); the Lamont Poetry Award 1967 for The Marches; the Jenny Taine Memorial Award 1971 for translation; a Guggenheim Fellowship (Santiago, Chile 1973-74); National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships 1976-77 and 1990; the Islands & Continents Translation Award 1980; and the Bookbuilders of Boston Award 1983 for book cover design.