Author Interview - Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Mississippi author, Aimee Nezhukumatathil joins Randi in the FCB studio to celebrate her new book, Bite by Bite! Don't miss Aimee IN COLUMBUS, MS this Saturday, May 11th!-Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the New York Times best-selling illustrated collection of nature essays, WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, & OTHER ASTONISHMENTS (bookshop.org)(libro.fm), which was chosen as Barnes and Noble’s Book of the Year and named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize.She also wrote four previous poetry collections:Oceanic (bookshop.org)Lucky Fish (bookshop.org)At The Drive-In Volcano (bookshop.org)Miracle FruitWith the poet Ross Gay, she co-authored the chapbook LACE & PYRITE (bookshop.org), a collaboration of epistolary garden poems. Her writing appears twice in the Best American Poetry Series, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and The Paris Review.Honors include a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pushcart Prize, a Mississippi Arts Council grant, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the first-ever poetry editor for SIERRA magazine, the story-telling arm of The Sierra Club. Nezhukumatathil is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi’s MFA program where she received the faculty’s Distinguished Research and Creative Achievement Award.-Aimee's new book, BITE BY BITE: NOURISHMENTS AND JAMBOREES (bookshop.org)(libro.fm) is OUT NOW!Bite by Bite a lyrical book of short essays about food, offering a banquet of tastes, smells, memories, associations, and marvelous curiosities from nature.In Bite by Bite, poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil explores the way food and drink evoke our associations and remembrances—a subtext or layering, a flavor tinged with joy, shame, exuberance, grief, desire, or nostalgia.Nezhukmatathil restores our astonishment and wonder about food through her encounters with a range of foods and food traditions. From shave ice to lumpia, mangoes to pecans, rambutan to vanilla, she investigates how food marks our experiences and identities and explores the boundaries between heritage and memory.Bite by Bite offers a rich and textured kaleidoscope of vignettes and visions into the world of food and nature, drawn together by intimate and humorous personal reflections.-For a video version of this author interview, check out the Friendly City Books Youtube channel!-Thank you for supporting Friendly City Books by listening to our podcast. Shop with us in store and online at friendlycitybooks.com/shop or through bookshop.org and libro.fm.-Find us on social media -Facebook: facebook.com/friendlycitybooksInstagram: @friendlycitybooksTiktok: @friendlycitybooksYoutube: @friendlycitybooks2586-Host: Randi RobisonGuest Author: Aimee Nezhukumatathil Music: Rear Projection by Hartle RoadProduction Assistance: Neon Newt Media LLCFriendly City Books Inc.Friendlycitybooks.com