WASHINGTON, July 18 (RIA Novosti) – Odessa-born poet Ilya Kaminsky has made the shortlist of nominees for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, making him the first Ukrainian to be nominated for one of the most prestigious literary honors in the US, the official website has announced.
Kaminsky was born in Odessa in 1977 and immigrated to the US with his parents in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the US government according to his website.
“Dancing in Odessa,” his debut collection of poems written in English received much acclaim upon its release in 2004, with Kaminsky being compared to the legendary Russian poet Joseph Brodsky in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Neustadt International Prize is awarded biennially and has been in existence for 44 years. Previous laureates include Czesław Miłosz, Octavio Paz and Gabriel García Márquez, all of whom subsequently won the Nobel Prize for Literature. This year’s Neustadt prize money is $50,000 and the winner will be announced Nov. 1.
