Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Aimee Nezhukumatathil was born in Chicago to parents who emigrated from the Philippines and India. She received her MFA from The Ohio State University. Nezhukumatathil is the author of Oceanic (Copper Canyon, 2018), winner of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award.

Other books include Lucky Fish (Tupelo, 2011), At the Drive-in Volcano (Tupelo, 2007), and Miracle Fruit (Tupelo, 2003). With Ross Gay, she co-authored Lace & Pyrite (Organic Weapon Arts, 2014). Her debut work of nonfiction is a collection of illustrated nature essays, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments (Milkweed Editions, August 2020).

Other awards for her writing include the Pushcart Prize and honors from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the National Endowment for the Arts, Mississippi Arts Council, and MacDowell. Her writing appears in Poetry, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Tin House, and Best American Poetry.

Nezhukumatathil serves as poetry editor of Orion magazine and has taught for the Writing Workshops in Greece and Kundiman. She is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program and lives in Oxford with her husband, the writer Dustin Parsons, and their two young sons.

Photo Credit: Ted Ely