NCTE Verse - Ilya Kaminsky

Poetry highlights in honor of National Poetry Month!

Poet of the Day: Ilya Kaminsky

Ilya Kaminsky was born in the former Soviet Union and emigrated to the United States as a boy. He is the author of Dancing in Odessa and Deaf Republic, which was recently announced as a recipient of a 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the only national juried prize for literature that confronts racism and explores diversity. Deaf Republic was also a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award. Kaminksy co-edits The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry. He has received a Whiting Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was also a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for literature. I predict he will win a MacArthur genius grant one day soon.

Kaminsky lost most of his hearing at the age of four when a doctor misdiagnosed mumps as a cold. His family was granted political asylum by the United States in 1993, settling in Rochester, NY.

Imagine, a deaf poet.

This poet belongs in our classrooms . . .

both for his extraordinary gifts as a poet as well as for his generosity of spirit. Kaminsky's Twitter postings are largely made up of lines and links to other poems. Following him @ilya_poet is a course in poetry of itself. His feed also offers a window into the mind of a working poet. Daily I marvel at his wisdom.

If I were in charge of the world I would purchase copies of Deaf Republic, a play in verse , for every AP Literature class in the country. Pairing it with Antigone would surely prompt powerful conversations about the role of the individual in a dysfunctional society.

From Karl Kirshwey’s review of Deaf Republic for The New York Times:

“This extraordinary poetry collection is structured as a two act play in which an occupying army kills a deaf boy and villagers respond by marshaling a wall of silence as a source of resistance...These poems bestow the power of sacred drama on a secular martyrology...a superb and vigorous imagination, a poetic talent of rare and beautiful proportions...A visit to this republic will not leave the reader unchanged.”

Teaching Connections

Here is the first poem in Deaf Republic. Read it aloud to the class and then ask students to read the poem once more to themselves, noting an image or phrase that struck them as intriguing or perplexing. Have students write for 5 minutes about why this line struck them, what made it luminous.

We Lived Happily During the War

And when they bombed other people’s houses, we

protested

but not enough, we opposed them but not

enough. I was

in my bed, around my bed America

was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house.

I took a chair outside and watched the sun.

In the sixth month

of a disastrous reign in the house of money

in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,

our great country of money, we (forgive us)

lived happily during the war.

Put students into small groups and invite them to:

Read the poem aloud once more.
Share the lines they noted and their reasons for choosing these images.
Discuss what they think the poem wants us to know.
Coming back together as a whole class, consider Ilya Kaminsky’s use of repetition. How does it affect our understanding of the poem?

For further reading and insight

Ask students to reflect upon the idea of a deaf poet. Ilya Kaminsky wrote an autobiographical essay that appeared in the New York Times called “Searching for a Lost Odessa and a Deaf Childhood: A poet returns to the city of his birth.”

“I turn off my hearing aids and walk up to walls, touch them with my fingers. This is the act of a fool who touches the skin of time and walks through it.”

Ilya Kaminsky’s website offers a plethora of material for students interested in reading more of his work and learning more about the man.

Add your thoughts on social media with #NCTEverse

Carol Jago taught English in middle and high school for many years and is associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She served as president of the National Council of Teachers of English and as chair of the College Board’s English Academic Advisory committee. She has published books on contemporary multicultural authors with NCTE as well as books with Heinemann, including The Book in Question: Why and How Reading Is in Crisis. In 2020 Carol received a Lifetime Distinguished Service Award from the California Association of Teachers of English. She is incoming president of ILA’s Adolescent Literacy group. Reach her at cjago@caroljago.com or on Twitter @caroljago .