Alexei Kondratiev

Who is Alexei Kondratiev?

Alexei Kondratiev was an American author, linguist, and teacher of Celtic languages, folklore and culture. He taught the Irish language and Celtic history at the Irish Arts Center in Manhattan, New York from 1985 until his death on May 28, 2010. Nine editions of his book, The Apple Branch, were published in English and Spanish between 1998 and 2004. At various times, he taught all six of the "Living" Celtic languages.

A long-time member of the Mythopoeic Society, Kondratiev was the Scholar Guest of Honor at the organization's Mythcon 33 convention in 2002, papers coordinator for Mythcon 39 in 2008, and maintained a book review column in its publication, Mythlore. In 2010, the society named a new award after Kondratiev, the Alexei Kondratiev Memorial Student Paper Award, to be presented for the first time at its Mythcon 41 convention in Dallas, July 9–12, 2010.

He contributed significant portions of the text used on the website of the Celtic League's American Branch and book reviews for the organization's magazine, Keltoi.

On the File 770 science fiction fandom blog, Ken Gale reported that Kondratiev "spoke over 60 languages and was fluent in 13 to 20 of them."