Poet and teacher Aimee Nezhukumatathil was born in Chicago to a South Indian father and Filipina mother. She is the author of four full-length poetry collections, most recently Oceanic, published in 2018 by Copper Canyon Press, with three prior from Tupelo Press: Lucky Fish, winner of the 2011 Eric Hoffer Grand Prize; At the Drive-In Volcano, winner of the 2007 Balcones Poetry Prize; and Miracle Fruit, 2003 winner of the 2003 Global Filipino Award and Tupelo Press Prize. She also authored World of Wonder, a book of nature essays forthcoming in 2020 from Milkweed Editions, and co-wrote a nature poetry chapbook, Lace & Pyrite, with Ross Gay. Her poetry often invokes themes of love, myth, nature, beauty, and the lived Asian-American experience.
Nezhukumatathil is poetry editor of Orion, and her work has been published in Poetry, Best American Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies. She lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with her husband and two children, where she teaches environmental literature and poetry writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program.