Home Articles posted by Ilya Kaminsky

Ilya Kaminsky

Ilya Kaminsky
Ilya Kaminsky is the author of the acclaimed poetry collection Deaf Republic, which was called a work of “profound imagination” by The New Yorker and was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry. He is also the author of Dancing In Odessa and Musica Humana. His poems have been translated into numerous languages and his books have been published in Turkey, Holland, Russia, France, Mexico, Macedonia, Romania, Spain, and China. Kaminsky lost most of his hearing at age four after a misdiagnosis of mumps as a cold. In the late 1990s, Kaminsky co-founded Poets For Peace, an organization that sponsors poetry readings in the US and abroad. He currently holds the Bourne Chair in Poetry and is Director of Poetry@Tech at Georgia Tech.


Ilya Kaminsky on Discovering Poetry as a Deaf Child in Ukraine

“The language of poetry speaks to all our senses... It can speak, privately, to all of us. It is visceral.”
August 20, 2025  By Ilya Kaminsky
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Ilya Kaminsky on Ukrainian, Russian, and the Language of War

“How can one speak about, write about, war?”
February 28, 2022  By Ilya Kaminsky
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‘We Lived Happily During the War’ A Poem by Ilya Kaminsky

From his Collection Deaf Republic
March 5, 2019  By Ilya Kaminsky
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