{"634488":{"#nid":"634488","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Professor Wins Los Angeles Times Book Award","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBy Michael Pearson\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIlya Kaminsky, professor of poetry at the Georgia Institute of Technology, was named winner Friday, April 17,\u0026nbsp;of the Los Angeles Times 2019 Book Prize in Poetry for \u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;This hybrid work is a testament to the human spirit,\u0026rdquo; the judges said in their award citation. \u0026ldquo;The book\u0026rsquo;s political esprit de corps, its savvy innovation, and visual beauty (rooted in defiant puppetry and hallowing sign language) make \u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic\u003C\/em\u003E feel like a contemporary classic.\u0026quot;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn an acceptance \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/latimesbooks\/status\/1251171945120317440\u0022\u003Evideo\u003C\/a\u003E posted by Los Angeles Times on Twitter, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.lmc.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/ilya-kaminsky\u0022\u003EKaminsky\u003C\/a\u003E said he was \u0026ldquo;humbled and beyond grateful that the world recognizes a book written by someone who came to America at 16 without speaking a single word of English.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;It is written in memory of my parents, who were refugees and gave up everything for me,\u0026rdquo; he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;This award also recognizes, in the middle of global pandemic, somebody who lives with disability, and I hope \u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic\u003C\/em\u003E \u0026mdash; in a small way \u0026mdash; shows that disability can be not just a medical condition, but a political position of advocacy for all of us.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;is inspired by Kaminsky\u0026rsquo;s experience navigating his youth in the Soviet Union as a person living with hearing impairment as well as by life in the United States. The book 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\u003EKaminsky\u0026nbsp;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\u003EPreviously, \u003Cem\u003EDeaf Republic\u003C\/em\u003E won the National Jewish Book Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and was named a finalist for the National Book Award.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe School of Literature, Media, and Communication is a unit of the\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iac.gatech.edu\u0022\u003E Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Ilya Kaminsky previously won the National Jewish Book Award and Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for \u0027Deaf Republic\u0027"}],"uid":"34600","created_gmt":"2020-04-17 18:11:08","changed_gmt":"2020-04-17 18:46:10","author":"mpearson34","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-04-17T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-04-17T00:00:00-04:00","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\/stories\/2019\/11\/llya-kaminsky-world-poets-teaches-georgia-tech\/629165","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\/3\/ilya-kaminsky-wins-anisfield-wolf-book-award-deaf-republic\/633865","title":"Ilya Kaminsky Wins Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for \u2018Deaf Republic\u2019"},{"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"}],"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":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"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":""}}}