At the Drive-In Volcano

"I can think of no other poet-except Neruda-who has inscribed the sensual world with such accurate charm. . . . Her poems are seriously delicious: toothsome and saucy, wise and mischievous."-Alice Fulton, author of Cascade Experiment

This eagerly anticipated second collection of elegant and exuberant poems from the award-winning author of Miracle Fruit will charm and surprise. A calm and gentle wisdom wafts through Aimee Nezhukumatathil's sharp and unpretentious poetry, guiding the reader eloquently though physical and emotional scenery, shaping insight from a miscellany of images and emotions.

Nezhukumatathil uses a dark and lovely natural world as a backdrop and elemental character in her poems. Here, worms glow in the dark, lizards speak, the most delicious soup in the world turns out to be deadly, and a woman eats soil as if it were candy. At the Drive-In Volcano explodes with brazen charm, verve, and wit.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of Miracle Fruit (2003), winner of the Tupelo Press Prize awarded by Gregory Orr, the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award in poetry, and the Global Filipino Award. Her poetry and essays have been widely anthologized and have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Black Warrior Review, FIELD, Mid-American Review, and Tin House. She is an associate professor of English at State University of New York Fredonia, where she has received the Hagan Scholar Award and the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities.