Dr. Probstein has developed several Canvas programs for Touro in literature, poetry, and other writing-related courses. He has also won the Teaching Recognition Award from Touro in 2016 and 2020, as well as Best Teacher of the Year from Lander Institute Moscow in 2011 for his video conferencing and online courses.
Outside of Touro, Dr. Probstein is a bilingual Russian-American poet, scholar, and translator of poetry. He has published two books of literary criticism, twelve books of poetry in Russian and one in English, translated more than a dozen poetry volumes, and has compiled and edited more than 30 books and anthologies of poetry as well as about 500 publications. His essays and poems have been published in numerous publications, including the Atlanta Review, the McNeese Review, and the International Literary Quarterly. Several of his translations were runners up for awards, including his translation of T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which was shortlisted for the Russian Poetry Prize in 2020, and his translation of Charles Bernstein’s book Sign Under Test, which was shortlisted for the Russian Translator’s Guild Master Award in 2020.
Professor Probstein is also a speaker at numerous national and international conferences, and has been featured on the podcast New Books in Jewish Studies with Ari Barbalat.
Education
- BA, Minsk Linguistic University (Belarus)
- MA, Minsk Linguistic University (Belarus)
- MA, Graduate Center, CUNY
- PhD, Moscow State University for the Humanities (Russia)
Honors and Awards
- Translation of Charles Bernstein’s book Sign Under Test (Moscow, Russian Gulliver, 2020) was short-listed for the Russian Translator’s Guild Master Award.
- Translation of T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” was short-listed for the Russian Poetry Prize 2020.
- Complete annotated edition of T. S. Eliot’s Poetry and Plays (1120 pp. St. Petersburg: Azbuka–antiqua, 2019; 4000 copies) long-listed for the Russian Guild of Translators Master Award, 2019.
- Translation of John Ashbery’s “Ut Pictura Poesis” and other poems was shortlisted for the Russian Poetry Prize 2018/2019.
- Translations of Osip Mandelstam into English were chosen as a runner-up to The Gabo Prize for Literature in
- Translation & Multi-Lingual Texts (2016)
- Best translation book in RF and second-best poetry book of the year 2003.
- Teaching Recognition Award for 2020 and 2016, Touro College, NYC.
- Best teacher of the year 2011, Lander Institute Moscow, Touro College, for video conferencing and online courses.
Publications
- Probstein, I. E. (2024). A Selection of Poems in Russian: “God of Enormous Things,” “Why for Everyone’s Mischief,” “Nothing Can Be Done,” “Where Did You Take What You’ve Taken,” “Wandering Strangely,” “A Swamp and a Bog Around,” “Reading Aygi”. New Review (315). Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/nyscas_pubs/523
- Probstein, I. E. (2024). Translation From Russian of Roald Mandelstam’s Poems: “There Was Hellas on Earth,” “Lemon Seller,” “Dialogue,” “A Scarlet Streetcar,” “Legionaries’ Song”. East-West Literary Forum, 26. Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/nyscas_pubs/445
- Probstein, I. E. (2023). On Formalism and the Forms of Innovation in the Poems and Prose of the Prominent Russian Poet Genrikh Sapgir (1928-1999). Russian State University for the Humanities. Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/nyscas_pubs/469
- Rothenberg, J., & Probstein, I. E. (2023). Translation Into Russian: Cruel Nirvana, Selected Poems. Cheboksary, Russian Federation: Free Poetry. Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/nyscas_pubs/373
- Probstein, I. E., & Zukofsky, L. (2023). Translation Into Russian of Poems “I Sent Thee Late,” “It’s Hard to See but Think of a Sea,” “The Lines of This New Song Are Nothing,” “I Walk in the Old Street,” “The Green Leaf That Will Outlast the Winter,” “To My Wash–Stand,” “To Friends, for Good Health,” “The Guests,” “A-1,” “A–4". Flagi Digest. Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/nyscas_pubs/387
- Probstein, I. E. (2023). A Selection of Poems in Russian: “So Few There Were Years and Summers,” “Everything Passes, This Will Pass as Well,” “We Are Haunted by a Man with a Gun,” “What Is Left From the Main Songs About Old Days?,” “It Is All Mixed with Grief and Laughter,” “Time Like a Small Coin I Change for the Everyday Routine,” “Like a Sand Glass, the World Was Overturned,” “Time Doesn't Flow From the Past Into Future,” “Somewhere a Wall Clock and Walkers in the Fog Walk,” “They All Were Fed for Slaughter”. The Time Joint, 365-368. Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/nyscas_pubs/455
- Probstein, I. E. (2023). A Selection of Poems: "A Humanoid Goes Along the Country," “Sufficient Into the Day Is the Evil Thereof,” “With a Confident, Vigorous Gait,” “You Come Back Home Into a Dogs’ Paradise,” “We Lost Guidelines…,” “Ellipses”. Interpoezia [Inter poetry]. Retrieved from https://touroscholar.touro.edu/nyscas_pubs/458
Memberships and Affiliations
- T.S. Eliot Society, MLA
Hobbies
Music, opera, art
