Leo Yankevich (30 October 1961 – 11 December 2018) was an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wr ...

and the editor of ''

The New Formalist ''The New Formalist'' was a United States-based literary periodical published (since 2001) monthly in electronic form and once a year in print form. Distributed by ''The New Formalist Press'' and edited by Leo Yankevich, it published many of the ...

''.

Early life and education

Leo Yankevich grew up and attended high school in

Farrell, Pennsylvania Farrell is a city in western Mercer County, Pennsylvania, along the Shenango River. The population was 4,258 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area. History Once dubbed "The Magic City," Farrell sprang up pr ...

, a small steel town in western

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

. He studied History and

Polish Studies Polish studies, or Polonistics ( pl, filologia polska, or ''polonistyka'') is the field of humanities that researches, documents and disseminates the Polish language and Polish literature in both historic and present-day forms. In the United State ...

Alliance College Alliance College was an independent, liberal arts college located in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, offering a special program in Polish and Slavic languages (cf Slavistics). It was originally an academy at the high school level. In the 192 ...

Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania Cambridge Springs is a borough with home rule status in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,511 at the 2020 census, down from 2,595 at the 2010 census. History The village of Cambridge was settled in 1822 and wa ...

, receiving a BA in 1984. Later that year he traveled to Poland on a fellowship from the

Kosciuszko Foundation The 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 The Polish American Scholarship Committee w ...

to attend Kraków's Jagiellonian University. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, he decided to settle permanently in Poland. Thereafter, he lived in

Gliwice Gliwice (; german: Gleiwitz) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional cap ...

, an industrial city in

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( pl, Górny Śląsk; szl, Gůrny Ślůnsk, Gōrny Ślōnsk; cs, Horní Slezsko; german: Oberschlesien; Silesian German: ; la, Silesia Superior) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, locate ...

Writing activities

Yankevich wrote poems in both traditional metre and in syllabics, and only occasionally in free verse. He was a prolific translator, having rendered into English poems by

Mikhail Lermontov Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (; russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjurʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲɛrməntəf; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucasu ...

Georg Trakl Georg Trakl (3 February 1887 – 3 November 1914) was an Austrian poet and the brother of the pianist Grete Trakl. He is considered one of the most important Austrian Expressionists. He is perhaps best known for his poem "Grodek", which he wr ...

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recog ...

, Stanisław Grochowiak,

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, ...

Alexander Blok Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...

Leopold Staff Leopold Henryk Staff (November 14, 1878 – May 31, 1957) was a Polish poet; an artist of European modernism twice granted the Degree of Doctor honoris causa by universities in Warsaw and in Kraków. He was also nominated for the Nobel Prize ...

, Nikolay Gumilev,

Bolesław Leśmian Bolesław Leśmian (born Bolesław Lesman; January 22, 1877The exact date of his birth is disputed: the act of birth mentions 1877, Leśmian himself used 1878, while the date mentioned on his tombstone is 1879. – November 5, 1937) was a Pol ...

, and many others. He has a large internet presence with work published in scores of online publications, ranging from the ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...

'' to ''Poets Against War''.Poets Against The War Poem of the Month
poetsagainstthewar.org; accessed October 21, 2014.

Personal life

Yankevich was married and had three sons.

Published works

Chapbooks

*''The Language of Birds''; Pygmy Forest Press, 1994 *''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 *''The Golem of Gleiwitz''; The Mandrake Press, 1998
"Metaphysics" by Leo Yankevich, 2002

Books

*''The Unfinished Crusade''; The Mandrake Press, 2000 *''The Last Silesian''; The Mandrake Press, 2005 *''Tikkun Olam''; Counter-Currents Publishing, 2012 *''Journey Late at Night: Poems & Translations'';

Counter-Currents Publishing Gregory Johnson (born 1971) is an American white nationalist and advocate for a white ethnostate. He is known for his role as editor-in-chief of the white nationalist imprint Counter-Currents Publishing, which he founded in 2010 with Michael P ...

, 2013 *''The Hypocrisies of Heaven: Poems New & Old: ''; Counter-Currents Publishing, 2016

References

Internet Archive's copies

Internet Archive's copy of the Official Leo Yankevich WebsiteInternet Archive's copy of Leo Yankevich Poems at Poemhunter.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yankevich, Leo 1961 births 2018 deaths People from Sharon, Pennsylvania American people of Polish descent Poets from Pennsylvania Formalist poets Jagiellonian University alumni American online publication editors Polish–English translators Translators from Polish 21st-century American poets 20th-century translators