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Aimee Nezhukumatathil Author Visit with Hanif Abdurraqib

Night Owl Book Release Event

Aimee Nezhukumatathil visits the Bexley Library to celebrate the release of her fifth book of poems, Night Owl. Aimee will be joined by Hanif Abdurraqib for this poetry reading and conversation.

Acclaimed poet and essayist Aimee Nezhukumatathil visits the Bexley Public Library to celebrate the release of Night Owl, her fifth collection of poetry that explores love, nature, and the transformative power of the night. Pulitzer Prize winning poet Diane Seuss calls Night Owl "meticulously artful, with a steadfast insistence on tenderness and love." Aimee will be joined by Columbus poet, essayist, and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib for a poetry reading and conversation.

Thank you to Gramercy Books for partnering with us on this event to sell copies of Night Owl for the book signing.

About the Author:

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the New York Times bestselling author of two illustrated collections of essays: Bite by Bite and World of Wonders, chosen as Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year and as a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She has published four award-winning poetry collections and spent a decade serving as the poetry editor for environmental magazines, first for Orion and then Sierra. A professor of English and creative writing for more than twenty-five years, she gives firefly tours for Mississippi State Parks and lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with her family. Learn more and follow Aimee's work on her website.

About the Moderator:

Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. He is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” grant and the author of There’s Always This Year, a New York Times bestseller and winner of the National Books Critics Circle Award; A Little Devil in America, winner of the Carnegie Medal and a National Book Award finalist; The Crown Ain’t Worth Much; They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us; Go Ahead in the Rain; and A Fortune for Your Disaster, winner of the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. He is a graduate of Beechcroft High School. You can follow Hanif's work on his website.

About the Book:

From the New York Times bestselling author of World of Wonders and Bite by Bite, Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s fifth collection of poetry explores love, nature, and the transformative powers of the night.

In her latest poetry collection, Aimee Nezhukumatathil plumbs the depths of nighttime, crafting a series of nocturnes that explore the magic, sensuality, and life that emerge as the rest of the world goes to bed.

Night Owl navigates questions and concerns for the environment that envelops us. It meditates on our connections to family and beloveds, and explores our position within the broader beauty of the planet. Just as the night transforms how we see things, love in its many forms shifts our understanding of togetherness and the natural world. And these poems are deeply suffused with love—each an expression of Nezhukumatathil’s captivating responses to the animals, plants, and people who have her heart and enliven her world.

Night Owl presents a dazzling vision of nature that celebrates the beautiful noises and silences of this planet, as well as its many complications. Nezhukumatathil provides a singular contribution to writing on the natural world, calling on our sense of love—even in the face of increasing violence to one another and the environment—by focusing on the revolutionary impact of the dark.

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