[APPLAUSE]
It's a real pleasure of Tucson to get
to stand up and look at this many people here for poetry.
So thanks for being here.
It's an honor to welcome Ilya Kaminsky back to Tucson.
We're so glad you're here.
He was last here in April of 2013.
And a fun fact, if you've seen the author photo
on the back of Deaf Republic, that
was taken here at the Poetry Center by Cybele Knowles,
and it's a fabulous picture.
So Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odesa, Ukraine in 1977.
And he arrived in the United States
in 1993, when his family was granted asylum
by the American government.
The foundations and concerns of Kaminsky's work
are reflected in that background.
The richness of multiple languages and literatures,
the experiences of loss and refuge, both of which
hold home and exile, and a lifelong commitment
to human rights and the work of witnessing.
Kaminsky is the author of Dancing in Odessa and Deaf
Republic.
Both award-winning books of poetry
that have earned a lasting place in American literature
for Kaminsky's exquisite craft and deeply human vision.
Dancing in Odessa, published in 2004,
speaks to the roots of Kaminsky's life in Ukraine.
While Deaf Republic, published in 2019,
rises out of his years in the United States.
In Deaf Republic, we encounter the heart of Kaminsky's vision,
an understanding of people as deeply flawed
and absurdly beautiful.
We find the depths of loss alongside the astonishing joy
of intimacy.
These poems take the form of a fable.
Death Republic is a story in poems.
It's the script for a play.
It's a mirror that recognizes all
that we have to offer as humans, both good and evil.
In Kaminsky's poems, we recognize
humans as capable of brave speech and action
on other's behalf.
And we also see ourselves as capable of turning against one
another, of turning away unspeaking
from violence and oppression.
It's a book that questions us by asking us to question ourselves.
In Deaf Republic and in Kaminsky's writing broadly,
we are asked what we will do with what we witness.
Of Ilya Kaminsky, Katie Farris writes this haiku.
His left eye closes for the night.
His stubborn right, reading.
That stubborn, committed reading is
evident in Kaminsky's work as a translator, editor, essayist,
and champion of world literature.
He's the co-editor and co-translator of many books,
most recently, In the Hour of War: Poems from Ukraine.
Translating and highlighting the work of poets from Ukraine
has been a major part of Kaminsky's recent work, much
of it with Katie Farris.
In June 2025, look for their translation,
Letters of the Alphabet Go to War,
which is an account by Ukrainian poet Lesyk
Panasiuk of her harrowing experience of living
in Bucha, Ukraine during Russia's brutal occupation.
Kaminsky has also created the Odesa poetry studio,
which supports Ukrainian children by giving them
a space in Odesa to gather, write poetry and share
their work with one another.
There's much more remarkable work
that I could tell you about, but I hope that what you're hearing,
and what I'm saying, is that Kaminsky's work across the board
speaks to us and our present moment.
Tonight, we'll hear and sit with Kaminsky's Deaf Republic, which
is a fable for our times, for us, for here, for now.
Please help me enjoy.
Please help me welcome Ilya Kaminsky.
[APPLAUSE]