Fifteen years ago, Ilya Kaminsky‘s utterly brilliant Dancing in Odessa won our first Dorset Prize (selected by Eleanor Wilner). In celebration of this milestone year for the Dorset Prize, Ilya has agreed to be our judge, and moreover, he has asked to read 60 manuscripts.
Nobody knows better than Ilya the power of this prestigious book prize to bring international attention to an essential poet, and an indispensable book. Since releasing Dancing in Odessa (named the year’s best poetry book by ForeWord Magazine), Ilya Kaminksy has won the Whiting Writer’s Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Metcalf Award, a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship, the Ruth Lilly Fellowship, and he was short-listed for the Neusdadt International Literature Prize.
Submissions are open now, so send us your work today!