Ilya Kaminsky





Ilya Kaminsky

Author profile


born
April 18, 1977 in Odessa, Ukraine

gender
male

genre


About this author

Ilya Kaminsky is the Poetry Editor of Words Without Borders. His awards include a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry magazine and first place in the National Russian Essay Contest. He is the author of Dancing In Odessa which won the Dorset Prize.


Average rating: 3.80 · 1,343 ratings · 253 reviews · 14 distinct works
Dancing in Odessa
4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 356 ratings — published 2004 — 2 editions
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The Ecco Anthology of Inter...
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4.27 of 5 stars 4.27 avg rating — 41 ratings — published 2009
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Musica Humana
4.75 of 5 stars 4.75 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2002
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Poetry International (15/16)
4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2010
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Homage to Celan
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On Danse À Odessa
0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2010
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My Mother She Killed Me, My...
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3.59 of 5 stars 3.59 avg rating — 896 ratings — published 2010 — 4 editions
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From the Fishouse: An Antho...
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4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 2009
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This Lamentable City
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4.33 of 5 stars 4.33 avg rating — 12 ratings
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If I Were Born in Prague: P...
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0.0 of 5 stars 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2011
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“Author's Prayer

If I speak for the dead, I must
leave this animal of my body,

I must write the same poem over and over
for the empty page is a white flag of their surrender.

If I speak of them, I must walk
on the edge of myself, I must live as a blind man

who runs through the rooms without
touching the furniture.

Yes, I live. I can cross the streets asking "What year
is it?"
I can dance in my sleep and laugh

in front of the mirror.
Even sleep is a prayer, Lord,

I will praise your madness, and
in a language not mine, speak

of music that wakes us, music
in which we move. For whatever I say

is a kind of petition and the darkest days
must I praise.”
Ilya Kaminsky, Dancing in Odessa

“But in the secret history of anger--one man's silence / lives in the bodies of others.”
Ilya Kaminsky, Dancing in Odessa

“One would think of a boy laying
syllables with his tongue

onto a woman’s skin: those are lines
sewn entirely of silence.”
Ilya Kaminsky, Dancing in Odessa

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
Around the World ...: Ukraine 2 18 Sep 01, 2011 11:26am  
On the Southern L...: Pseudo-Southern Literature 19 42 May 02, 2012 11:13am  


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