Aimee Nezhukumatathil



Aimee Nezhukumatathil (born in 1974 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Asian-American poet, best known for her jovial and accessible reading style and lush descriptions of exotic foods and landscapes.

Life
Nezhukumatathil draws upon her Filipina and Malayali Indian background to give a unique perspective on love and loss, and the land.

Nezhukumatathil received her M.F.A. from Ohio State University, and is an associate professor of English at the State University of New York - Fredonia. She has also taught at the Kundiman retreat for Asian-American writers. In 2009, she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in poetry.

She is author of three poetry collections, most recently, Lucky Fish (Tupelo Press 2011). Her poems and essays have appeared in New Voices: Contemporary Poetry from the United States, American Poetry Review, FIELD, Prairie Schooner, Black Warrior Review, Mid-American Review, and Tin House.

Recognition
At the Drive-In Volcano (Tupelo Press, 2007), won the 2007 Balcones Poetry Prize. Her first collection, Miracle Fruit (Tupelo Press, 2003), was the winner of the 2003 Tupelo Press Prize, and was named the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year in Poetry, won the Global Filipino Literary Award in Poetry, and was a finalist for the Asian American Literary Award and the Glasgow Prize. She was awarded a 2009 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in poetry, and her poem Love in the Orangery won a 2009 Pushcart Prize.