Kenjeev was born in
Shymkent,
Kazakh SSR on 2 August 1950. In 1953 his parents moved to Moscow. He graduated from
Lomonosov Moscow State University with the equivalent of an M.S. degree in chemistry. In 1975, he was a founding member of the "Moscow Time" group of poets, with
Alexei Tsvetkov, Alexander Soprovsky, and
Sergey Gandlevsky. In 1982, Kenjeev immigrated to Canada; his first book of poetry was published by
Ardis Publishing in 1984. After
Perestroika, Kenjeev frequently visited Russia, Ukraine, and other post-Soviet countries; he was a regular guest at numerous poetry festivals, including the Moscow Bienale, Kievskie Lavry, Leningradskie Mosty, Blue Metropolis Montreal festival, and the international poetry festival in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and published several volumes of poetry. Many of his poems were translated into English, French, Kazakh, German, Swedish, and other languages. Kenjeev lived in New York and Montreal. He died after a short illness on 26 June 2024, at the age of 73. He was buried at
Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. ==Selected awards==