Aimee Nezhukumatathil to read new poems

Award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil, associate professor of English at SUNY Fredonia, will read from her eagerly anticipated second collection, At the Drive-In Volcano, on Wednesday, May 2, at noon in room G-144 of the Williams Center. The event, part of the Brown Bag Lecture Series at SUNY Fredonia, is free and open to the public.

Tupelo Press has announced its forthcoming release of At the Drive-In Volcano, Ms. Nezhukumatathil’s new and imaginative follow-up to her award-winning poetry collection, Miracle Fruit (Tupelo Press, 2003).

The publisher noted that, in the new work, “Ms. Nezhukumatathil examines the full circle journey of desire, loss, and ultimately, an exuberant love--traveling around a world brimming with wild and delicious offerings such as iced waterfalls, jackfruit, and pistol shrimp, the publisher said. Her trademark charm, verve and wit remain elemental and a delight to behold, even in the face of a crumbling relationship. From the tropical landscapes of the Caribbean, India, and the Philippines to the deep winters of western New York and mild autumns of Ohio, the natural world Nezhukumatathil describes is dark but also lovely-so full of enchantment and magic. Here, worms glow in the dark, lizards speak, the most delicious soup in the world turns out to be deadly, and a woman eats soil as if it were candy. The poems confront delicate subjects of love and loss with an exacting exuberance and elegance hardly ever seen in a writer so young.”

Since joining the English Department at Fredonia, Professor Nezhukumatathil has received many honors, including the Hagan Young Scholar Award and the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Scholarly and Creative Activities. She has also been a faculty member at the Kundiman retreat for Asian-American writers and has given readings and workshops from Amsterdam to San Francisco. She earned her M.F.A. from Ohio State University.

The Brown Bag Lecture Series, sponsored by the SUNY Fredonia College of Arts and Humanities, offers monthly informal talks featuring new creative and scholarly work by SUNY Fredonia faculty. Each 30-minute talk and/or presentation is followed by a brief discussion.

For more information on the lecture series, please contact David Kinkela, committee assistant director by email or telephone 716-673-3876.