{"633865":{"#nid":"633865","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Ilya Kaminsky Wins Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for \u2018Deaf Republic\u2019","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBy Michael Pearson\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology poetry Professor Ilya Kaminsky has won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Poetry for his latest book, \u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;We are exceptionally honored to connect \u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic\u003C\/em\u003E to our 85-year history, and a canon that includes five writers who went on to win Nobel Prizes: Gunnar Myrdal, Nadine Gordimer, Martin Luther King Jr., Wole Soyinka and Toni Morrison, plus one \u0026mdash; Derek Walcott \u0026mdash; who won our Lifetime Achievement prize after his Nobel,\u0026rdquo; said Karen R. Long, manager of the award for The Cleveland Foundation.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Anisfield-Wolf Awards \u0026ldquo;recognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and human diversity,\u0026quot; according to the organization\u0026rsquo;s website.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;It feels strange to be celebrating at such bewildering, sad time,\u0026rdquo; Kaminsky said. \u0026ldquo;But I am beyond grateful and am stunned to receive this year\u0026#39;s Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Poetry. I have always so admired the work of the judges, so it is very humbling to know that they have read my book. The mission and history of Anisfield-Wolf is especially important for me, so it a huge honor to be associated with it.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/kaminsky\u0022\u003EKaminsky\u003C\/a\u003E is the Margaret T. and Henry C. Bourne Jr. Chair in Poetry in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lmc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Literature, Media and Communication\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and is director of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/poetry.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EPoetry@Tech\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;program, which engages Georgia Tech students and the public, and presents the South\u0026rsquo;s premier poetry reading series.\u0026nbsp;He joined Georgia Tech in 2018, 25 years after coming to the United States with his family as political aslyees from Russia.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic\u003C\/em\u003E is inspired by his experience navigating his youth in the Soviet Union as a person living with hearing impairment. It follows the lives of ordinary citizens living in an occupied country who go deaf the moment a boy with a hearing impairment is shot and killed by soldiers. It is at once a fairy tale, an exploration of language in a time of crisis, and an intensely political text that questions indifference to oppression and violence.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Ilya Kaminsky\u0026rsquo;s \u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic \u003C\/em\u003Econtinues to haunt me,\u0026rdquo; said poet Rita Dove, one of the jurors for the award. \u0026ldquo;It\u0026rsquo;s a parable that comes to life and refuses to die.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe jury also included author, filmmaker, critic and Harvard University professor Henry Louis \u0026ldquo;Skip\u0026rdquo; Gates; author Joyce Carol Oates; psychologist and author Steven Pinker; and Columbia University historian Simon Schama.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis is not the first award for \u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic\u003C\/em\u003E. The book received the 2019 National Jewish Book Award and also was a finalist for the Forward Prize, the T.S. Eliot Prize and the National Book Award in 2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EKaminsky was the first non U.S.-born refugee poet to be named finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry, according to the National Book Foundation.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe School of Literature, Media, and Communication is a unit of the \u003Ca href=\u0022\/\/\/D:\/Downloads\/iac.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology poetry Professor Ilya Kaminsky has won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Poetry for his latest book, \u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The awards \u201crecognize books that have made important contributions to our understanding of racism and human diversity.\u0022"}],"uid":"34600","created_gmt":"2020-03-27 20:37:50","changed_gmt":"2020-03-30 20:39:23","author":"mpearson34","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-03-27T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-03-27T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"633864":{"id":"633864","type":"image","title":"Ilya Kaminsky","body":null,"created":"1585341422","gmt_created":"2020-03-27 20:37:02","changed":"1586263591","gmt_changed":"2020-04-07 12:46:31","alt":"Professor Ilya Kaminsky","file":{"fid":"241188","name":"RS520_20C10302_P36_123-lpr.JPG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/RS520_20C10302_P36_123-lpr.JPG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/RS520_20C10302_P36_123-lpr.JPG","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":766841,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/RS520_20C10302_P36_123-lpr.JPG?itok=XnuB4vjA"}}},"media_ids":["633864"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/news-events\/features\/Georgia-Tech-Poet-Ilya-Kaminsky","title":"llya Kaminsky is One of the World\u0027s Top Poets, and He Teaches at Georgia Tech"},{"url":"https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/news-events\/stories\/2020\/1\/georgia-tech-poet-ilya-kaminsky-wins-national-jewish-book-award\/631267","title":"Georgia Tech Poet Ilya Kaminsky Wins National Jewish Book Award"},{"url":"https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/news-events\/stories\/2019\/10\/georgia-tech-poet-ilya-kaminsky-named-finalist-national-book-award\/627285","title":"Georgia Tech Poet Ilya Kaminsky Named Finalist for National Book Award"}],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1283","name":"School of Literature, Media, and Communication"}],"categories":[{"id":"151","name":"Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts"}],"keywords":[{"id":"3956","name":"poetry"},{"id":"276","name":"Awards"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMichael Pearson\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nmichael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}