Ilya Kaminsky[a] (born April 18, 1977) is a 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".[1]
Life
Kaminsky was born in Odesa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) on April 18, 1977, to a Jewish family.[2] He became hard of hearing at the age of four due to mumps.[2] He began to write poetry as a teenager in Odesa.[3] His family was granted asylum to live in the United States in 1993 due to antisemitism in Ukraine, and settled in Rochester, New York.[4] He started to write poems in English in 1994.[5]
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.[6]
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,[7] and Poetry International,[8] he has also edited several anthologies of poetry from around the world, including Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (HarperCollins),[9] which is widely used in classrooms all over the country. He has also founded and edited Poets in the World, a book series[10] which is dedicated to publishing compilations of poetry from around the globe, including places such as Iraq, China, Eastern Europe, South America, and elsewhere.[citation needed] 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.[11] Currently, he is a professor at Princeton and lives in New Jersey.[citation needed]
Critical reception
Writing for The New Yorker, Kevin Young calls Deaf Republic "a contemporary epic. Evident throughout is a profound imagination, matched only by the poet's ability to create a republic of conscience that is ultimately ours, too"[12]
In The New York Times, Parul Sehgal says: "I was stunned by Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic, lyric poems presented as a play in two acts, set in a country in crisis, inspired both by Odesa, where Kaminsky grew up, and America, where he now lives. It's a book about censorship, political apathy, torture — "the nakedness / of the whole nation" — but also about tomato sandwiches, the birth of a daughter and the sudden, almost shocking joys of longtime married life."[13]
In The Guardian, Fiona Benson says: "I fell hard for Ilya Kaminsky's Deaf Republic. Part folklore, fable, war story and love poem, it imagines an occupied town falling deaf in response to the shooting of a child. Often devastating, always humane, this is a book of the century, let alone this year."[14]
Washington Examiner calls Deaf Republic "a contemporary masterpiece. This book is proof that in 2019 great poetry can enjoy tremendous popularity."[15]
About Kaminsky's first book, Dancing in Odesa, Robert Pinsky writes: "Passionate, daring to laugh and weep, direct yet unexpected, Ilya Kaminsky's poetry has a glorious tilt and scope."[16]
2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, given to works that make important contributions to understanding racism and appreciation of rich diversity of human culture.[23]
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.
I See a Silence (a place-based poetry and installation at the former nuclear testing site,[60] Artangel, UK National Trust, Suffolk, United Kingdom, 2021)[61]
In translation
Sagir Cumhuriyet, translated into Turkish (Harfa, Turkey, 2020)[62]
"Gossip and Metaphysics: Russian Modernist Poems and Prose" (Tupelo Press, 2014)[88]
"In Shape of a Human Body I am Visiting This Earth: Poems from Far and Wide" (McSweeneys, 2017)[89]
"In the Hour of War: Poetry from Ukraine" (Arrowsmith Press, 2023) [90]
Book series edited
Poets in the World, a Book Series Edited by Ilya Kaminsky[10]
Pinholes in the Night: Essential Poems from Latin America, editors Raul Zúrita and Forrest Gander (Copper Canyon Press)
Seven New Generation African Poets, editors Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani (Slapering Hol Press)
Fifteen Iraqi Poets, editor Dunya Mikhail (New Directions)
Another English: Anglophone Poems from Around the World, editors Catherine Barnett and Tiphanie Yanique (Tupelo Press)
Elsewhere, editor Eliot Weinberger (Open Letter Books)
Bones Will Crow: An Anthology of Burmese Poetry, editor Ko Ko Thett and James Byrne (Northern Illinois University Press)
Landays: Poetry of Afgan Women, editor Eliza Griswold, Special Issue of Poetry magazine[91]
New Cathay: Contemporary Chinese Poetry, editor Ming Di (Tupelo Press)
Something Indecent: Poems Recommended by Eastern European Poets, editor Valzhyna Mort (Red Hen Press)
The Star by My Head: Poets from Sweden, editors Malena Mörling and Jonas Ellerström (Milkweed Editions)
Open the Door: How to Excite Young People about Poetry, editors Dorothea Lasky, Dominic Luxford and Jesse Nathan
The Strangest of Theatres: Poets Writing Across Borders, editors Jared Hawkley, Brian Turner and Susan Rich (McSweeneys)
Non-fiction
In 2018, Kaminsky published in The New York Times Magazine a widely discussed lyric essay about deafness and his return to Odesa, Ukraine, after many years away.[92]
He also writes essays on various subjects such as borders, creative life in the age of surveillance, and poetics of Paul Celan, for publications such as The Guardian, The New York Times, and Poetry.[93][94][95]
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