Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Born	1974 (age 49–50) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Poet

Aimee Nezhukumatathil (born 1974 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American poet, best known for her jovial and accessible reading style and lush descriptions of exotic foods and landscapes. Nezhukumatathil draws upon her Filipina and Malayali Indian background to give a unique perspective on love and loss, and the land.

Biography

Nezhukumatathil received her B.A. and M.F.A. from Ohio State University. In 2016-17 she was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi's MFA program. She has also taught at the Kundiman retreat for Asian-American writers. She is professor of English in the University of Mississippi's MFA program.

She is author of four poetry collections. Her first collection, Miracle Fruit, won the 2003 Tupelo Press Prize and the Global Filipino Literary Award in Poetry, was named the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year in Poetry, and was a finalist for the Asian American Literary Award and the Glasgow Prize. Her second, At the Drive-In Volcano, won the 2007 Balcones Poetry Prize. Her most recent collection is Lucky Fish (2011), which won the 2011 Eric Hoffer Award for Books grand prize. With Ross Gay, she co-cauthored the epistolary nature chapbook, Lace & Pyrite. Oceanic, her latest, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon in 2018.

Among Nezhukumatathil's awards are inclusion in the Best American Poetry series, a 2009 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in poetry, and a Pushcart Prize for the poem "Love in the Orangery." Her poems and essays have appeared in New Voices: Contemporary Poetry from the United States, American Poetry Review, FIELD, Prairie Schooner, Poetry, New England Review, and Tin House. Nezhukumatathil serves as poetry editor for Orion magazine.

Her most recent book of poetry, Oceanic, was published in 2018 by Copper Canyon Press.

Her collection of nature essays, World of Wonder, is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions in 2018.

She is married to the writer Dustin Parsons. They live in Oxford, Mississippi with their two sons.

Works

• Fishbone, Snail's Pace Press, 2000 (chapbook)
• One Bite, Ohio State University, 2000 (MFA thesis)
• Miracle fruit: poems, Tupelo Press, 2003, ISBN 9780971031081
• At the Drive-in Volcano: Poems, Tupelo Press, 2007, ISBN 9781932195453
• Lucky Fish, Tupelo Press, 2011, ISBN 9781932195583
• Lace & Pyrite, (w/ Ross Gay) Ow Arts Press, 2014 ISBN 9780982710678
• Oceanic, Copper Canyon Press, 2018 ISBN 9781556595264

Anthologies

• Melissa Tuckey, ed. (2018). Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0820353159.
• "What I learned from the Incredible Hulk". Seriously Funny: Poems About Love, Death, Religion, Art, Politics, Sex, and Everything Else. University of Georgia Press. 2010. p. 19. ISBN 9780820330877. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• "Overwinter". Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama's First 100 Days. University of Iowa Press. 2010. p. 5. ISBN 9781587298714. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• John McNally, ed. (2007). "A History of Hair". When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School. Simon and Schuster,. pp. 96–108. ISBN 9781416539377.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

External links

• A udio: Aimee Nezhukumatathil reads "Letter to the Northern Lights" for Academy of American Poets
• Audio: Aimee Nezhukumatathil Reading for 'From the Fishouse
• Audio: Slate > Aimee Nezhukumatathil Reading Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia > Jan. 20, 2004
• Review: Third Coast > Review by Review by J. Gabriel Scala of Miracle Fruit
• Review: New Pages Book Reviews
• Review: South Asian Women's Network
• Review: Our Own Voice > October 2004 > Review by Carlene Sobrino Bonnivier of Miracle Fruit
• Review: Luna: A Journal of Poetry and Translation > May 19, 2007 > Review by Rigoberto González of At the Drive-in Volcano