Born in Port Jefferson, New York on June 7th, 1978.
"Growing up in Long Island with a father in social service and a librarian mother, Jesse Ball was a hyperactive kid. He was held back in kindergarten as a result—yet, because he showed signs of budding intelligence, he was also enrolled with the gifted students in advanced classes. At one point, he would bounce between special education and elevated study at the same time, one class right after the other. He also liked to draw, vivid doodles of grotesque demons, with such frequency he was sent to see a psychoanalyst. When he was 5, he mailed some drawings to the Queen of England. In response, her Lady in Waiting wrote, “The Queen has asked me to write to tell you she liked your drawing very much…” -Tom Lynch, New City
"As a child, Ball spent a significant amount of time in intensive care units with his older brother, Abram, who was born with Down syndrome and suffered from complications related to it. Books became a refuge. 'Sometimes I’d read. There was the humming of machines, his ventilator. He couldn’t really communicate very much, but he could smile, demonstrate emotion.'"
"His father died when Ball was 18; his brother, three years later. Ball doesn’t say much about those early losses, but they clearly imbue his writing with an emotional gravity few writers his age carry." -Joe Meno, Chicago Magazine
"He has been married twice, first to Thordis Bjornsdottir, and then to Giselle Garcia." -The Guggenheim Foundation
Education
"He continued to write for himself at Vassar College and eventually headed to Columbia University for an MFA. There he met poet Richard Howard, who helped him publish his first book of poems, March Book, when he was 24." -Joe Meno, Chicago Magazine
Prolific Career
Jesse Ball is currently a Professor of Writing at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).
SAIC claims to be "one of the most historically significant accredited independent schools of art and design in the nation located in one of the greatest American cities. Our accolades are many, including recognition by Columbia University’s National Arts Journalism survey as 'the most influential art college in the United States' and our consistent ranking among the top three graduate fine arts programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report."
"The author, poet and artist—yes, he still draws—has already published an exceptional amount of work, not to mention the amount of work he’s completed that’s still awaiting publication. In 2004, Grove Press published his poetry collection “March Book,” to launch an already impressive, multi-faceted career, which includes other poetry collections, several published pieces in a variety of journals and magazines, an inclusion in the 2006 edition of the “Best American Poetry” series, illustrations to accompany a book of verse penned by his wife, a story titled “The Early Deaths of Lubeck, Brennan, Harp, and Carr,” which won him the Plimpton Prize last year, and two novels, 2007’s well-regarded debut, Samedi the Deafness, and his new novel, this month’s The Way Through Doors, out on Vintage Books."
"Ball writes very quickly—he finished both of his published novels in separate three-week periods—and does very little revision at the end. Considering the subject matter and the highly stylized nature of his characters, it’s a wonder even he can keep it all straight, let alone write from beginning to end with rapid speed and have the pieces come together as they do."
“Mainly it’s just the first draft,” he says...“I can’t emphasize enough, or any more, how I think that if someone goes over something over and over, then there are just so many different intersecting lines and crossing lines of thought from all the times they’ve done things with different intentions. If you go through it once with the same intention, it’s easier for the reader to follow though.”
“What I want is to [write] the whole thing properly the first time through; that’s the way it’s gonna be clearest for someone else,” he says. “The path that I flow through it, imagining it, when it’s done, it’s unbroken, so when the person comes who’s gonna read it, they can follow the same way through. So I like to write from beginning to end basically without stopping.”
Since The Way Through Doors (2009), Ball has also published The Village on Horseback (2011), an omnibus, and several novels such as The Curfew (2011), Silence Once Begun (2014), A Cure for Suicide (2015), The Lesson (2015), How to Set a Fire and Why (2016) and is currently working on a novel set to be published sometime this year, Diver's Game. During this time he also wrote and published the monograph, Notes on My Dunce Cap (2016). Ball also drew for, with Dan Ivec, a sort of illustrated short story called "War of Nine Counts & A Countess" (2015).
For a full breakdown of his works, published, and as of yet unpublished, check out Ball's "Statement," his single page website devoted solely to a timeline of his works.