About Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee Nezhukumatathil (born in Chicago, Illinois) is an American poet and essayist who draws upon her Filipino and Malaysian origins to convey her perspective of love, loss, and land, and who is also known for her dynamic and joy-filled teaching. Equally at ease in a university or high school classroom, she often serves as a poetry “ambassador,” bringing the delights and joys of reading and writing poetry to classrooms all over the country. She has twice served as a faculty member for the Kundiman Asian American Writers’ Retreat.She studied and acquired her BA and MFA from Ohio State University and was during 2016-17, the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence of the University of Mississippi MFA program.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of World of Wonders, an illustrated essay collection, as well as of four poetry collections, including Oceanic (2018), winner of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award. Her first collection, Miracle Fruit, (which won the 2003 Tupelo Press Prize and the Global Filipino Literary Award in Poetry), was named the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year in Poetry and was a finalist for the Asian American Literary Award and the Glasgow Prize. Her second book, At the Drive-In Volcano, won the 2007 Balcones Poetry Prize.
She is also the New York Times bestselling author of the poetry book, "Night Owl" (Ecco, 2026), and two illustrated collections of essays, "Bite by Bite" and “World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments” (published in 2020 by Milkweed Editions), which was a Barnes & Noble Book of the Year, as well as an NPR 2020 Best Book of the Year. Her poems appears twice in the Best American Poetry Series, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, Georgia Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly, and Tin House.
Nezhukumatathil was also named the 2025 United States Artists fellow, a prestigious award recognizing 50 artists across various disciplines with a $50,000 prize, and was also recognized with the Pepe Marcos-Iga Award for Innovation in Environmental Education for her work blending nature, education, and writing.
She is currently a professor of English in the MFA program at the University of Mississippi. She is married to the writer Dustin Parsons and lives with him and their two sons in Oxford, Mississippi.
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I always say Mother Nature is the best poet. All I'm doing is taking notes.
