Aimee Nezhukumatathil Visits as 2020-2021 Westminster Poet Award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil shared her sense of wonder during her March 30-31 visit as the 2020-2021 Westminster Poet. She gave an all-school reading and visited English classes, all virtually from Oxford, Miss. She had previously served as the Westminster Poet for 2011-2012. A professor of English and creative writing in the University of Mississippi’s M.F.A. program, Nezhukumatathil is the author of The New York Times bestselling illustrated collection of nature essays and Kirkus Prize finalist “World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks and Other Astonishments,” which was published last year and chosen as Barnes and Noble’s Book of the Year for 2020. She has also published four poetry collections: “Oceanic,” “Lucky Fish,” “At the Drive-In Volcano” and “Miracle Fruit.” Her most recent chapbook, “Lace & Pyrite,” is a collaboration of epistolary garden poems with the poet Ross Gay, who was last year’s Westminster Poet. “World of Wonders” was taught in every Westminster English class this year and was an all-school faculty read. Students also studied poems in “Oceanic” and from her other collections. Nezhukumatathil began her reading by saying, “I hope to bring wonder back into your lives today.” She spoke about difficult experiences growing up and shared a favorite video of a frog giving birth. While reading an essay from “World of Wonders,” she asked students to draw a narwhal. She then read four of her poems from “Oceanic” and spoke about their origins.
An image from an online English class with the visiting poet.
During one of her class visits, she asked students to recall moments of learning that brought a smile to their face. “In college, I want you to explore those things you are interested in because you will never feel bored,” she said. When asked what prompted her to start writing poetry, she credited studying living poets for the first time in college and reading poetry by Naomi Shihab Nye, who has twice served as the Westminster Poet. Aimee Nezhukumatathil Nezhukumatathil recounted McCarthy ’23, a student in Lawrence Court’s how the experience prompted her to switch AP English Language and Composition class. from studying honors chemistry to English “I really enjoyed understanding the personal at Ohio State University. “I wanted to be a stories behind her work. She explained to us writer because I had so many how important it is to have a creative outlet questions,” she said. and to pursue careers in what we love, no In response to other matter the job or the probability of success.” questions, she shared that she And Carolyn Cheng ’24, a student in writes with a pencil and paper, Scott Stevens’ The Literature of Becoming and that she tries to evoke class, said: “I loved the recurring theme of a certain mood in a poem interconnectedness with nature in her poems, rather than meaning. “I enjoy and how she brought to life even the smallest writing essays the most, but details to make her poems magical. It’s always my first love is writing poetry,” wonderful to hear the author’s works in their she added. “I love the revision voice, and it was interesting to hear what process. Revising is where the inspired some of her writings.” magic happens.” “It was a joy to have Aimee “If we had to have a Nezhukumatathil join our community and Westminster Poet do a virtual visit, Aimee address our students,” said English teacher Nezhukumatathil was the perfect poet to Arianna Vailas. “She asked them questions have,” said former Westminster English to awaken their dormant sense of wonder: teacher Michael Cervas who directs the She provoked them to remember a time Westminster Poet series. “Both in her allwhen they lost track of time because they school reading and in her visits with English were so enthralled by the natural world. She classes, she was engaging and full of energy. encouraged them to consider whose stories I especially liked her choices of poems to read about the outdoors are being told (and in the various English classes, poems that were whose aren’t) and to write down their own in turn funny and wise and very moving.” childhood experiences in a journal to preserve “I have read a lot of poems on the them for posterity. I hope we remember how ocean throughout my English career and have to wonder and wander and grow together as even attempted writing about it myself, but a community. Her visit was a delightful and Ms. Nezhukumatathil’s writing has a unique purposeful step in that direction.” element that makes her work have depth and deeper meaning behind the fantastical creatures she describes,” said Maggie Spring 2021
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