0006 - The Weight - Aimee Nezhukumatathil - Finding Beauty In The Chaos

There’s only so much weight we can carry before we need to lighten our load. This is a conversation about beauty, poetry, humanity, memory, love.

We’re talking to the renowned poet, Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Aimee was born in Chicago, IL to a Filipina mother and a father from South India. She is the author of multiple volumes of poetry from Miracle Fruit (2003) to Oceanic (2018). Her work has appeared in Poetry magazine, Ploughshares, FIELD, and American Poetry Review. Honors include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pushcart Prize. The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters has honored “Oceanic,” a collection of poems by Aimee Nezhukumatathil of Oxford, with its 2019 award for poetry. Her colleague, Beth Ann Fennelly, wrote, “Commonly recognized as one of the finest poets of her generation, Nezhukumatathil is an important observer of the natural world and its human and nonhuman animals. Her metaphorical gifts are astonishing, as well as her nuanced feel for the details that make poems visceral and alive.”

We spoke with her before the world was consumed with news about the global pandemic. And we think you will find her to be a breath of fresh air.

To learn more about Aimee, visit her website: http://aimeenez.net

You can find her at:
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Aimee-Nezhukumatathil-official-181587295228446/
• Twitter @aimeenez
• Amazonhttps://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AAimee+Nezhukumatathil&s=relevancerank&ref=ntt_at_ep_srch

We can’t wait to read her next book, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other AstonishmentsYou can pre-order it here: https://www.amazon.com/World-Wonders-Praise-Fireflies-Astonishments/dp/1571313656/ref=sr_1_2?qid=1585784010&refinements=p_27%3AAimee+Nezhukumatathil&s=books&sr=1-2