Ilya Kaminsky
Ilya Kaminsky (born April 18, 1977) is a hard-of-hearing, USSR-born, Ukrainian-Russian-Jewish-American poet, critic, translator and professor. He is best-known for his poetry collections Dancing in Odessa and Deaf Republic, which have earned him several awards.
Ilya Kaminsky | |
---|---|
Born | Odessa | April 18, 1977
Language | English and Russian |
Citizenship | American |
Alma mater | |
Genre | Poetry |
Spouse | Katie Farris |
Life
Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union (now Ukraine), on April 18, 1977 to a Jewish family.[1] He became hard of hearing at the age of four due to mumps.[1] He began to write poetry as a teenager in Odessa, publishing a chapbook in Russian entitled The Blessed City.[2] His family was granted political asylum to live in the United States in 1993 due to anti-semitism in Ukraine.[3] He started to write poems in English in 1994.[4]
His first book in English, Dancing in Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004), received several literary awards.[5]
Kaminsky has a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He has worked as a professor at the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts since 2018.[6]
Honors and awards
- 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
- 2019 Academy of American Poets fellowship[7]
- 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship[8]
- 2008 Lannan Literary Fellowship
- 2005 Whiting Award
- 2005 American Academy of Arts and Letters Metcalf Award
- 2004 ForeWord (magazine) Book of the Year Award in Poetry
- 2002 The Dorset Prize
- 2001 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship[9]
Published works
Poetry Collections
- Dancing in Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004) ISBN 978-1-932195-12-5
- Музыка народов ветра (Ailuros Publishing, 2012; translated into Russian by Anastassiya Afanassieva) ISBN 978-0-9838762-8-1
- Deaf Republic (Graywolf, 2019)
Chapbooks
- Musica Humana (Chapiteau Press, 2002) ISBN 978-1-931498-32-6
- Бродячие музыканты / Travelling Musicians (Moscow, Yunost, 2007; bilingual edition with Polina Barskova's Russian translation) ISBN 5-88653-086-X
Editor
- "Ecco Anthology of International Poetry" (Harper Collins, 2010)
References
- Armitstead, Claire (2019-07-19). "'I will never hear my father's voice': Ilya Kaminsky on deafness and escaping the Soviet Union". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
- The Centrum Writers Exchange- August 1, 2008 - The Sunlight of Odessa: Poet Ilya Kaminsky by Jordan Hartt Archived May 1, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- Kaminsky, Ilya (2019-02-11). ""Deaf Republic"". ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
- Foundation, Poetry (2019-11-16). "Ilya Kaminsky". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
- "ForeWord Magazine - Book Of The Year Awards - 2004 Finalists Print Out". Foreword Reviews. 19 May 2006. Archived from the original on 19 May 2006. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
- "Georgia Tech Poet Ilya Kaminsky Named Finalist for National Book Award". www.news.gatech.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
- Poets, Academy of American. "Academy of American Poets Fellowship | Academy of American Poets". poets.org. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
- "Ilya Kaminsky". gf.org.
- Poetry Foundation > Previous Ruth Lily Poetry Fellowship Recipients Archived 2011-01-07 at the Wayback Machine