Balcones Poetry Prize Winner Visits ACC
Aimee Nezhukumatahil, ACC’s 2007 Balcones Poetry Prize–winning poet for her work At the Drive–In Volcano
by Gail Folkins, PhD
Aimee Nezhukumatahil, ACC's 2007 Balcones Poetry Prize-winning poet for her work At the Drive-In Volcano (Tupelo Press), read at ACC on October 2nd. Adjunct Professor John Herndon coordinated this successful event, which included a guest lecture in Dean Lyman Grant’s poetry class and a reading later that night. Even with competition from the vice–presidential candidates’ debate, an audience of about 30–40 attended Nezhukumatahil’s reading at our South Austin Campus. After the event, the visiting poet sold out of the books she'd brought. The Balcones Poetry Prize recognizes an outstanding book of poetry in English published during a given year. The prize has been awarded to eleven poets since its inception.
Nezhukumatahil, an Associate Professor of English at State University of New York–Fredonia, earned B.A, and M.F.A. degrees at the Ohio State University. Her first book, Miracle Fruit, was chosen for the Tupelo First Book Prize and the ForeWord Magazine Poetry Book of the Year Award. The Balcones Poetry Prize judges praised her “tight, economical poems that contain just the right amount of darkness and elegance,” poems that are “extravagant and accessible,” “fresh and funny, congenial and sharp,” and said that she has “heeded Pound’s call to make it new.”
For more information on Aimee Nezhukumatahil please visit her website at http://aimeenez.net/.
