Tickets for this event will be sold at the door. The box office will open at 6:00PM at the Nesholm Family Recital Hall. The doors to the hall will open at 6:30 PM and the event will start at 7:30PM.
Born to a Filipino mother and Malayali Indian father, Aimee Nezhukumatathil is known for poems that braid three cultures – Filipino, Indian, and American – and that are bright, accessible, and lush. This reading will be followed by a Q&A moderated by poet Jane Wong
Poet Naomi Shiab Nye writes, “Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s poems are as ripe, funny and fresh as a precious friendship. They’re the fullness of days, deliciously woven of heart and verve, rich with sources and elements—animals, insects, sugar, cardamom, legends, countries, relatives, soaps, fruits—taste and touch. I love the nubby layerings of lines, luscious textures and constructions. Aimee writes with a deep resonance of spirit and sight. She’s scared of nothing. She knows that many worlds may live in one house. Poems like these revive our souls.”
Nezhukumatathil’s newest collection of poems, OCEANIC, is forthcoming with Copper Canyon Press in early 2018. She is also the author of the forthcoming book of illustrated nature essays, World of Wonder. She has written three previous poetry collections: Lucky Fish, winner of the 2011 Eric Hoffer Grand Prize; At the Drive-In Volcano, winner of the Balcones Poetry Prize; and Miracle Fruit, winner of the Global Filipino Award and the Tupelo Press Prize, selected by Gregory Orr. Her most recent chapbook is Lace & Pyrite, a collaboration of nature poems with the poet Ross Gay, released in 2014.
The poetry editor of Orion magazine, Nezhukumatathil’s poems have appeared in the Best American Poetry series, American Poetry Review, New England Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, and Tin House. Her honors include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Pushcart Prize.
Aimee lives in Oxford, MS with her husband, the writer Dustin Parsons, and their two young sons. She is professor of English at the University of Mississippi where she teaches creative writing and environmental literature.
Selected Works:
Miracle Fruit (2003)
At the Drive-in Volcano (2007)
Lucky Fish (2011)
Lace & Pyrite (with Ross Gay, 2014)
OCEANIC (forthcoming 2018)
Jane Wong’s poems can be found in Best American Poetry 2015, American Poetry Review, Third Coast, jubilat, Black Warrior Review, and others. A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the U.S. Fulbright Program, the Fine Arts Work Center, Hedgebrook, and Bread Loaf. She is the author of the book Overpour (Action Books, 2016) and is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. In 2017, she received the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist award for Washington artists.
