Ilya Kaminsky, JD

Ilya Kaminsky is a poet. Born in Odessa, in the former Soviet Union, he arrived to the United States in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American government. His recent book, Dancing In Odessa (Tupelo Press, 2004), won the Whiting Writer's Award, from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Kaminsky has served as a Writer In Residence at Phillips Exeter Academy, taught at California College of the Arts and at numerous literary centers and conferences. Educated in English Literature at Georgetown University and the University of Rochester, he also has a graduate degree in Law from University of California, and has worked for several public interest organizations, including Bay Area Legal Aid and National Immigration Law Center. In late 1990s, he co-founded Poets for Peace which sponsored hundreds of poetry readings across the country with the goal of supporting such relief organizations as Doctors Without Borders and Survivors International. He is the poetry editor for Words Without Borders and was a Distinguished Visiting Writer 2006-2007 at Arizona State University--his colleagues? Zadie Smith; Michael Chabon; Ben Bova; and Walter Mosley, among others. You can find more information here: www.ilyakaminsky.com.