Poet, critic, and translator Ilya Kaminsky has signed on to be the director of the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute (HMPI) for two years beginning on January 1, 2011. He will be succeeding current director/founder Katharine Coles. Coles founded the HMPI in 2008 to establish a forum for poets, scholars, publishers, educators, and others from around the poetry world to address issues of importance to poetry.

Kaminsky, originally from Odessa, in the former USSR, came to the U.S. in 1993. He published Dancing in Odessa, a book of poems, in 2004 and co-edited the Ecco Anthology of International Poetry. He will continue to teach poetry and comparative literature at San Diego State University, where he is also Director of the MFA Program in Poetry.

As the new HMPI director, Kaminsky will commission and oversee research to support issues related to poetry and promote partnerships, programs, and projects that will benefit poetry.

“Ilya is the perfect person to carry this work into its second phase: he’s visionary, energetic, and adaptable. I’m delighted to be handing him the reins,” said Coles who is a former Board Member of AWP.