Leo Yankevich - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Leo Yankevich is an American poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

and the editor of The New Formalist

The New Formalist

The New Formalist is a U.S.-based literary periodical published twice a year in electronic form and once a year in print form. Distributed by and edited by Leo Yankevich, it has published many of the leading formal poets writing in English today, among them Jared Carter, Alfred Dorn, T.S....

.

Born into a Roman Catholic family of Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

-Polish

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

descent, he grew up and attended high school in Farrell, Pennsylvania

Farrell, Pennsylvania

Farrell is a city in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 6,050 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Youngstown–Warren–Boardman, OH-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...

, a small steel town in western Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. He then studied History and Polish Studies

Polish studies

Polish studies is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates Polish language and literature in both its historic and present-day forms...

at Alliance College

Alliance College

Alliance College was an independent, liberal arts college located in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, offering a special program in Polish and Slavic languages . From 1948 until its closing in 1987, the college was an accredited four-year co-educational liberal arts institution...

, Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania

Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania

Cambridge Springs is a borough in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,363 at the 2000 census.- History :The village of Cambridge was settled in 1822 and was named for the town of Cambridge, Massachusetts...

, receiving a BA

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

in 1984. Later that year he travelled to Poland on a fellowship from the Kosciuszko Foundation

Kosciuszko Foundation

Kosciuszko Foundation is a charitable foundation based in New York City. It was created by Stephen Mizwa to fund programs that promote Polish-American intellectual and artistic exchange.-History:...

to attend Kraków's Jagiellonian University

Jagiellonian University

The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....

. After the fall of the Iron Curtain

Iron Curtain

The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...

in 1989, he decided to settle permanently in Poland. Since that time he has lived in Gliwice

Gliwice

Gliwice is a city in Upper Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Gliwice is the west district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population of 2 million...

, an industrial city in Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia

Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...

Writing activities

Yankevich writes poems in both traditional metre and in syllabics, and only occasionally in free verse. He is a prolific translator, having rendered into English poems by Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Lermontov

Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov , a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasus", became the most important Russian poet after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837. Lermontov is considered the supreme poet of Russian literature alongside Pushkin and the greatest...

, Georg Trakl

Georg Trakl

Georg Trakl was an Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists.- Life and work :Trakl was born and lived the first 18 years of his life in Salzburg, Austria...

, Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke , better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language...

, Stanisław Grochowiak, Czesław Miłosz, Alexander Blok

Alexander Blok

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was a Russian lyrical poet.-Life and career:Blok was born in Saint Petersburg, into a sophisticated and intellectual family. Some of his relatives were literary men, his father being a law professor in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather the rector of Saint Petersburg...

, Leopold Staff

Leopold Staff

Leopold Staff was a Polish poet and one of the greatest artists of European modernism honored two times by honorary degrees . He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature...

, Nikolay Gumilev, Boleslaw Lesmian

Boleslaw Lesmian

Bolesław Leśmian was a Polish poet, artist and member of the Polish Academy of Literature. He was one of the most influential poets of the early 20th century in Poland, one of the best poets of 20th century and cousin of another notable poet of the epoch - Jan Brzechwa and a nephew of famous poet...

, and many others. He has a large Internet presence with work published in scores of online publications, ranging from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to Poets Against War.

Quotes

Nothing remains after philosophy but physical reality, be it dew on a lovely girl's maidenhood, or twisted wreckage after a tank battle.

Chapbooks

The Language of Birds; Pygmy Forest Press, 1994 ISBN 0-9445503-9-8
Grief's Herbs (translations after the Polish of Stanisław Grochowiak); The Mandrake Press, 1995
The Gnosis of Gnomes; The Mandrake Press, 1995
Epistle from The Dark; The Mandrake Press, 1996 ISBN 83-904541-1-4
The Golem of Gleiwitz; The Mandrake Press, 1998 ISBN 83-904541-6-5
"Metaphysics" by Leo Yankevich, 2002
"You Who Live And Hear" by Leo Yankevich, 2004

Books

The Unfinished Crusade; The Mandrake Press, 2000 ISBN 839045419X
The Last Silesian; The Mandrake Press, 2005 ISBN 0970821921
Tikkun Olam; The New Formalist Press, 2008

Writing activities

Quotes

Chapbooks

Books

Further reading