Aimee Nezhukumatathil is a professor of English in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program. Her newest collection of poems is Oceanic, winner of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for poetry (Copper Canyon Press, 2018). With Ross Gay, she co-wrote the chapbook, Lace & Pyrite, a collaboration of nature poems. She is also the author of an illustrated book of nature essays, World of Wonders, from Milkweed Editions, 2020. She is the former poetry editor of Orion and her poems have appeared in the Best American Poetry 2015 & 2018 series, American Poetry Review, New England Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, and Tin House. Her honors include a 2020 Guggenheim fellowship, a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pushcart Prize.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
A Taste of Wonder
Dandelions
When the last snowmelt runs down the street and spring peepers have their song, I know the promise of warmth on my skin presses near. Stars! In the grass! Continue reading
A Taste of Wonder
Chocolate
“The plainest things, it seems to me, are filled with wonder.” —Lucille Clifton SOME PEOPLE are perfectly fine without it. My friend Ross jokes that he can go for months Continue reading
Poem
Nursery
In high school, boys hardly ever noticed me, and when they finally did, I could not imagine any of them a father. One called me the n-word when I was seven Continue reading
blog post
Aimee Nezhukumatathil Reflects on Five Years as Poetry Editor
“The land knows you, even when you are lost.” I’ve lost track of the times I’ve thought of this sentence from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass since I first became Orion’s poetry Continue reading
blog post
Five Poems to Celebrate National Poetry Month
When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. John Muir I write this at the end of what seems like Continue reading
blog post
Seven Poems for National Poetry Month
In honor of National Poetry Month (and Earth Day!), I’ve selected a poetry sampler that captures the range and push into the horizon of what I hope to bring to Orion’s Continue reading
audio
Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil Read “Letters from Two Gardens”
Poets Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil read from their poetry correspondence, “Letters from Two Gardens,” tracing the shape of a year as experienced through each of their gardens.
Poetry
The Pepper Kingdom
Never has the world seen so much rumble and sail over such a small berry. Dark meteor, perfect pop of fire—you docked millions of boats to the southern coast of India, Continue reading
Poetry
Kottayam Morning
Chickens disturb the pebbles just outside my bedroom window as they skulk and search for bark crickets. The neighbors still mourn their youngest son, caught under an oily car. Four mornings Continue reading
Review
Sestets
THE POEMS in Wright’s astonishing nineteenth collection of poetry serve as a loyal lighthouse to the reader: a sure and steady beam that pulses, discovers, and searches out — all while Continue reading