Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil visits HSU for reading

(ABILENE, Texas)–On Friday, April 5, nationally recognized poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil was the feature of the Lawrence Clayton Poets & Writers Speaker Series that takes place annually at Hardin-Simmons. There was a question and answer session at 3:30 PM, poetry reading at 7:30 PM and book signing at 8:30 PM.

Nezhukumatathil is a professor of English for the MFA program at the University of Mississippi. She has authored four poetry collections: Miracle Fruit (2003), At The Drive-In Volcano (2007), Lucky Fish (2011), and Oceanic (2018). She also co-authored a collection with poet Ross Gay, entitled Lace and Pyrite. Her poetry has been published in the Best American Poetry series (2015 and 2018), American Poetry Review, Poetry, Tin House, Ploughshares, and New England Review. Nezhukumatathil is the poetry editor of Orion, a magazine centered around nature, the environment, and culture.

Nezhukumatathil has received many awards for her poetry, including the Charles Angoff Award, James Boatwright III Prize, Balcones Poetry Prize, Global Filipino Award, and the Tupelo Press Prize.

Much of Nezhukumatathil’s poetry depicts nature and wildlife, something very important to her. She encourages her students to get out and pay attention to the beauty of the world and take the focus off of technology for a while. “Poetry is one of the few arts that you don’t need electronics for…you need a notebook and pen and that’s it,” said Nezhukumatathil. “I don’t want their art to stop because the electricity goes out.”

Nezhukumatathil wishes that through her poems, readers will learn something new about the planet and even themselves. “I want people to travel without leaving their chair,” said Nezhukumatathil. “The goal is to convey how connected we all are…emphasize our connected humanity and empathy toward one another.” Despite the division in the world, her poetry comes from a place of understanding and tenderness, which she hopes her audience will adopt after reading.