Ilya Kaminsky was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union in 1977. In 1993, his family received asylum from the American government and came to the United States. Ilya received his BA from Georgetown University and subsequently became the youngest person ever to serve as George Bennet Fellow Writer in Residence at Phillips Exeter Academy. He has won the Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry magazine, and has received numerous other awards and prizes. Dancing in Odessa is his first full length book. In 2004, he will graduate from law school.

About Dancing in Odessa:

"...a remarkable debut, one that affords a rare and exhilarating pleasure: the sense of being at the start of something marvelous."
—Boston Review

"A superb and vigorous imagination, a poetic talent of rare and beautiful proportions, whose work is surely destined to be widely and enthusiastically noticed and applauded. This is the start of a brilliant career."
—Anthony Hecht

"Kaminsky is more than a promising young poet; he is a poet of promise fulfilled. I am in awe of his gifts."
—Carolyn Forche

"Passionate, daring to laugh and weep, direct yet unexpected, Ilya Kaminsky's poetry has a glorious tilt and scope."
—Robert Pinsky