Ilya Kaminsky (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".

Life

Kaminsky was born in Odesa, Ukrainian SSR, 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 antisemitism 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.

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" 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." 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." Washington Examiner calls Deaf Republic "a contemporary masterpiece. This book is proof that in 2019 great poetry can enjoy tremendous popularity." 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."

Honors and awards

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, Literary Hub, Huffington Post, the New York Public Library, and 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

In translation

Translations

Anthologies editor Book series edited Poets in the World, a Book Series Edited by Ilya Kaminsky

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. 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.

Selected poems and essays

Poems Essays