William O’Daly has translated eight books of the late-career and posthumous poetry of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda. He most recently translated Neruda’s first volume, “Book of Twilight,” a finalist for the 2018 Northern California Book Award in Translation.
O’Daly’s chapbooks of poems include ”The Whale in the Web,” “The Road to Isla Negra,” “Water Ways” (a collaboration with JS Graustein), and “Yarrow and Smoke.”
His first full length volume of poems, “The New Gods,” was published by Beltway Editions in September 2022. In March 2023, the Los Angeles Master Chorale included three poems from “The New Gods” and one poem from “Waterways,” in the world premiere of Reena Esmail’s “Malhaar: A Requiem for Water,” at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, O’Daly was a finalist for the 2006 Quill Award in Poetry and in September 2021 received the American Literary Award from the bilingual Korean American journal Miju Poetry and Poetics. A four-time Pushcart Prize nominee and co-founder of prestigious Copper Canyon Press, his poems, translations, essays, and reviews have been published in numerous journals and as part of multimedia exhibits and performances.
O’Daly has worked as a university professor and literary journal editor-in-chief. He has also worked as a software instructional designer, an independent writing and editing consultant, and an environmental technical editor.
He has received national and regional honors for literary editing and instructional design and served on the national board of Poets Against War. Currently, he is Lead Writer for the California Water Plan, the state’s strategic plan for sustainably and equitably managing water resources.
Visit William O’Daly’s website at : https://williamodaly.com
