The writings of English Professor Aimee Nezhukumatathil have recently been anthologized in two different collections: “365 Poems for Every Occasion,” selected by The Academy of American Poets, and “Creating Nonfiction: Twenty Essays and Interviews with Writers,” to be published by SUNY Press this month.
“365 Poems for Every Occasion” is inspired by Poem-a-Day, the original and only daily digital poetry series featuring over 200 new, previously unpublished poems by today’s talented poets each year with classic poems on the weekend. The new book also includes poems by John Ashbery, Rita Dove, U.S. poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera and many more.
“Poetry is a means of transport, taking us back in time, carrying us forward, lifting us up…,” writes poet Edward Hirsch in the introduction to 365 Poems for Every Occasion. “Read one poem per day over the course of a year and you will find yourself befriended by poetry.”
“Creating Nonfiction” is a collection of essays and interviews that aims to open readers’ and writers’ eyes to the formal possibilities of creative nonfiction. Included are memoirs, personal essays, literary journalism, graphic essays, and lyric essays, and the content is equally diverse, with topics ranging from childbirth to child labor, from dandelions to domestic violence. Besides Nezhukumatathil, other essayists include best-selling author Cheryl Strayed, Steven Church and Kristen Radtke. Although they offer an eclectic mix of voices and styles, what these essays all have in common is that ultimately, as contributor Faith Adiele observes, “truth becomes art.”
Nezhukumatathil also published an essay in the January edition of Guernica: A Magazine of Art & Politics. Guernica is an award-winning online magazine of ideas, art, poetry, and fiction published twice monthly. Its contributors come from dozens of countries and write in nearly as many languages.
According to Brian Turner, series curator, this new series invites “a wide variety of writers and thinkers to share their thoughts on a specific kiss: an unexpected kiss, an unforgettable kiss, a kiss to circle back to. Our attempt in this series will be to focus on kisses that — at least in some sense — attempt to bridge the gulf, to connect us to one another on a deeply human level, and, as closely as possible, to remind us of words like tenderness, passion, and, if we’re lucky, perhaps, love.” To read Nezhukumatathil’s essay, visit https://www.guernicamag.com/daily/aimee-nezhukumatathil-notes-on-the-invisible-kiss/.
On Jan. 21, Nezhukumatathil’s poem “Celebrate the Silence” appeared as part of Grand Valley State University’s Great Lakes Image and Word Art Show which runs through April 2016 at the GVSU Performing Arts Center Art Gallery. The exhibit features 16 poets and visual artists, each with a connection to the Great Lakes, in artistic pairings designed to result in new collaborative works with a Great Lakes theme. For more information, visit http://www.gvsu.edu/artgallery/great-lakes-image-word-111.htm.
