Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Profile

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of four volumes of poetry: Oceanic (Copper Canyon Press, 2018); Lucky Fish (Tupelo Press, 2011), winner of the 2011 Eric Hoffer Grand Prize; At the Drive-In Volcano (Tupelo Press, 2007), winner of the Balcones Poetry Prize; and Miracle Fruit (Tupelo Press, 2003), winner of the ForeWord Magazine Poetry Book of the Year, the Global Filipino Literary Award, and the Tupelo Press Prize, selected by Gregory Orr. With Ross Gay she co-wrote the chapbook of epistolary nature poems, Lace and Pyrite (2014).

Born in Chicago to a Filipina mother and South Indian father, Nezhukumatathil is known for writing poems that sit at the intersection of three cultures: Filipino, Indian, and American. Her newest book is a collection of illustrated nature essays, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments (Milkweed Editions, 2020), recently named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize in non-fiction. Her honors include a 2020 Guggenheim fellowship, a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pushcart Prize. She serves as poetry editor of Orion. Her work has appeared in Poetry magazine, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and Tin House, among many others, and twice in Best American Poetry (2018 and 2015.) She earned her MFA in poetry and creative nonfiction from Ohio State University and is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program. aimeenez.net