Poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil Branches Out New York Times best-selling illustrated collection of nature essays and Kirkus Prize finalist, , a collection of garden poems. Her honors include the Pushcart Prize, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Mississippi Institute for Arts and Letters Award in poetry. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Nezhukumatathil’s work draws upon her Filipina and south Indian heritage. Her writing has appeared twice in the Best American Poetry Series and in The New York Times Magazine, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and elsewhere. She is poetry editor of Sierra magazine and teaches environmental literature and poetry writing at the University of Mississippi. During the pandemic, her adoration of axolotls and roller-skating has manifested ten-fold. She lives with her husband and sons in Oxford, Mississippi.