Ilya Kaminsky (born April 18, 1977) is a USSR-born, Ukrainian-Jewish-American poet, critic, translator and professor. He is best known for his poetry collections Dancing in Odesa and Deaf Republic, which have earned him several awards.
In 2019, the BBC named Kaminsky among "12 Artists who changed the world".
Life
Kaminsky was born in Odesa, former Soviet Union (now Ukraine), on April 18, 1977, to a Jewish family. He became hard of hearing at the age of four due to mumps. He began to write poetry as a teenager in Odesa. His family was granted asylum to live in the United States in 1993 due to anti-semitism in Ukraine, and settled in Rochester, New York. He started to write poems in English in 1994.
Kaminsky is the author of critically acclaimed collections of poetry, Dancing in Odesa (2004) and Deaf Republic (2019). Both books were written in English, Kaminsky's second language.
Over the years, Kaminsky has also become known for his passionate advocacy of translation of international literature in the United States. A long time poetry editor at Words Without Borders, and Poetry International, he has also edited several anthologies of poetry from around the world, including Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (HarperCollins), which is widely used in classrooms all over the country. He has also founded and edited Poets in the World, a book series which is dedicated to publishing compilations of poetry from around the globe, including places such as Iraq, China, Eastern Europe, South America, and elsewhere. He has also edited and translated several collections of poetry from Ukraine.
Kaminsky has worked as a law clerk for San Francisco Legal Aid and the National Immigration Law Center. More recently, he worked pro-bono as the Court Appointed Special Advocate for Orphaned Children in Southern California. Currently, he is a professor at Princeton and lives in New Jersey.
Honors and awards
2023 Kulturhuset Stadsteaterns Internationella Litteraturpris, Sweden, finalist, for "Dansa i Odessa" (translated by Lars Gustaf Andersson) 2022 Prix Alain Bosquet, France, for République sourde (translated by Sabine Huynh) 2022 Premio Laudomia Bonanni, Italy 2020 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Deaf Republic: Poems 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, given to works that make important contributions to understanding racism and appreciation of rich diversity of human culture. 2019 Academy of American Poets fellowship 2019 National Book Award finalist for Deaf Republic 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for Deaf Republic 2019 Named by BBC as one of "12 artists who changed the world in 2019" 2019 The New York Times Notable Book of the Year for Deaf Republic 2019 National Jewish Book Award 2019 TS Eliot Prize finalist 2019 Forward Prize for Poetry, finalist 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship 2013 Neustadt International Prize for Literature finalist 2008 Lannan Literary Fellowship 2005 Whiting Award 2005 American Academy of Arts and Letters Metcalf Award 2001 Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship
Best Book of the Year
Deaf Republic was listed as The New York Times Notable Book and was called Best Book of the Year by numerous publications, including NPR, The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review, Times Literary Supplement, Publishers Weekly, Financial Times, The Guardian, Irish Times, Library Journal, The Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, Slate, Vanity Fair, Lithub, Huffington Post, The New York Public Library, The American Library Association.
Work
Kaminsky is best known for his poetry collections, Dancing in Odesa (2004) and Deaf Republic (2019). He is also known for his work in literary translation, his anthologies of international poetry and his literary essays.
Writings
Musica Humana (poetry, Chapiteau Press, 2002) Dancing in Odesa (poetry, Tupelo Press in USA and Faber in UK, 2004) Sonya's Fairytale (poetry, Bonnefant Press, Holland, 2010) It is the Soul that is Erotic (lyric essay, Orison Press, 2017) A Soul's Noise (lyric essay, Five Hundred Places Press, 2017) Deaf Republic (poetry, Graywolf in USA and Faber in UK, 2019) I See a Silence (a place-based poetry and installation at the former nuclear testing site, Artangel, UK National Trust, Suffolk, United Kingdom, 2021)