PB Poetry Festival Celebrates 2020 Faculty Member Ilya Kaminsky

Susan R. Williamson, Director of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival (PBPF), today celebrated upcoming faculty member Ilya Kaminsky, who recently was named one of five finalists in this year's National Book Awards for Poetry. Kaminsky was nominated for Deaf Republic.

"The 16th annual Palm Beach Poetry is returning to Old School Square for six days of literary workshops and public events next January 20-25, with an amazing line-up of award-winning poets including Ilya Kaminsky," says Williamson.

Also coming to Delray Beach are Special Guest Poet Joy Harjo, who was recently named U.S. Poet Laureate, the first Native American to ever hold this prestigious position, and Poet At Large Patricia Smith, winner of the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the 2018 NAACP Image Award, and a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize.

A Russian-American poet, critic, translator and professor, Ilya Kaminsky began to write poetry seriously as a teenager in Odessa, publishing a chapbook in Russian entitled The Blessed City. His first published poetry collection in English was a chapbook, Musica Humana , followed by Dancing in Odessa, which earned him a 2005 Whiting Writers' Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Metcalf Award, the Ruth Lilly Fellowship, and the Dorset Prize, and was named the 2005 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year in Poetry. In 2008, he was awarded a Lannan Literary Fellowship. His poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including The Kenyon Review, New Republic, Harvard Review, and Poetry. His latest book, Deaf Republic, is one of five finalists for this year's National Book Award in Poetry. The winner will be announced on November 20 at a ritzy ceremony in New York City. The title of Kaminsky's workshop at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival next January is "Craft & Voice".

"As we prepare to welcome participants from over 25 states in the U.S., Canada, and as far away as Israel, we are more than pleased to know the poets who will be teaching and reading at the festival are nominated and achieving some of the most prestigious literary accolades," adds Williamson. "I have personally followed the work of Ilya Kaminsky from an early reading of the manuscript of his first book, Dancing in Odessa, and I'm thrilled to see this recognition of Deaf Republic. Ilya has been the best literary citizen, teacher, and friend in poetry I know. You don't want to miss this."

Each Palm Beach Poetry Festival workshop is limited to 12 qualified participants and three auditors, who must apply for admission and submit three poems that will be reviewed by an independent reader with a graduate degree and editorial experience. The admission process insures that all participants will make meaningful contributions to discussions. In addition, the workshops will help improve editing skills and/or stimulate the writing of new poems.

Application forms are available online at www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org, where detailed workshop descriptions and faculty biographies can be found. The deadline for this quick and convenient application process is November 10, 2019.

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