Ilya Kaminsky

Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union, in 1977, and arrived to the United States in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American government. Ilya is the author of Deaf Republic (Graywolf Press, 2019) and Dancing In Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004), which won the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, the Dorset Prize, and the Ruth Lilly Fellowship given annually by Poetry magazine. Dancing In Odessa was also named Best Poetry Book of the Year 2005 by ForeWord Magazine. Poems from his new manuscript, Deaf Republic, were awarded Poetry magazine’s Levinson Prize and the Pushcart Prize. He edited an anthology of 20th century poetry in translation, Ecco Anthology of International Poetry (Harper Collins, 2010); edited and co-translated the poems of Polina Barskova, This Lamentable City (Tupelo Press, 2010); and with Katherine Towler edited A God in the House: Poets Talk About Faith (Tupelo Press, 2012). Ilya was a 2008 Lannan Foundation Literary Fellow; has served as a Writer In Residence at Phillips Exeter Academy; and worked as a Law Clerk at Bay Area Legal Aid, and National Immigration Law Center. He lives in San Diego, California, where he teaches at San Diego State University.