Searching for a Lost Odessa — and a Deaf Childhood

Posted August 9, 2018

External Article: New York Times

Ilya Kaminsky, Margaret T. and Henry C. Bourne Jr. Chair in Poetry and professor at the School of Literature, Media and Communication at Georgia Institute of Technology, wrote the New York Times, August 9, article, “Searching for a Lost Odessa — and a Deaf Childhood.” The School of Literature, Media, and Communication is part of the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Excerpt:

I had no hearing aids until I came to America. The Odessa I know is a silent city, where the language is invisibly linked to my father’s lips moving as I watch his mouth repeat stories again and again. He turns away. The story stops. He looks at me again, but the story has already moved on.

Decades later, when I come back to this city, I don’t feel I have quite returned until I turn my hearing aids off.

 For the full article, visit the New York Times website.