W&L to Host Second Annual Glasgow Distinguished Writer-in-Residence Aimee Nezhukumatathil will give a public reading from her work on Jan. 14 at 6 p.m. in Northen Auditorium.

By Erica Turman
January 7, 2019

Washington and Lee University will host Aimee Nezhukumatathil, professor of English in the University of Mississippi’s Master of Fine Arts program, as the university’s second annual Glasgow distinguished writer-in-residence. She’ll give a public reading from her work on Jan. 14 at 6 p.m. in Northen Auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public.

In addition to her talk, she will also teach a one-credit master class to eight advanced poetry students selected through a highly competitive process. The first week of the course will take place during her January visit. She returns for another residency in March, and will host a public reading by those eight students on March 12 at 6 p.m. in Northen Auditorium.

Nezhukumatathil’s newest collection of poems is “Oceanic” (Copper Canyon Press, 2018). She is also the author of the forthcoming book of illustrated nature essays, “World of Wonder” (Milkweed) and three previous poetry collections, “Lucky Fish” (2011), “At the Drive-In Volcano” (2007) and “Miracle Fruit” (2003), all from Tupelo Press. Her most recent chapbook is “Lace & Pyrite,” a collaboration of nature poems with the poet Ross Gay.

“We’re thrilled to be able to offer this workshop opportunity to some of our most talented students, and to bring to campus a writer of such a high caliber, such generosity, and such infectious enthusiasm for the arts,” said Lesley Wheeler, Henry S. Fox Professor of English. “Her latest collection, ‘Oceanic,’ is a gorgeous reverie about connections among human beings, and also among humans and the more than human world—the scallops, frilled sharks, penguins, wasps, hummingbirds and other creatures populating Nezhukumatathil’s joyous poems.”

Nezhukumatathil is the poetry editor of Orion magazine, and her poems have appeared in the Best American Poetry 2015 and 2018 series, American Poetry Review, New England Review, Poetry, Ploughshares and Tin House. Honors include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pushcart Prize.