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 Dancing In Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004) which won the Whiting Writer's Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Metcalf Award, the Dorset Prize, the Ruth Lilly Fellowship given annually by Poetry magazine. Dancing In Odessa was also named Best Poetry Book of the Year 2004 by ForeWord Magazine.

I asked him what he's been reading. His reply:

At the moment, in the middle of the semester, I am reading what I am teaching at SDSU's MFA program -

Bible, Gilgamesh, Shakespeare's Tempest, Sappho, Ancient Japanese poetry.

Also: Paul Celan, Italo Calvino, Emily Dickinson, Coleridge's Ancient Mariner.

--Marshal Zeringue