NEIL TANGAROA AITKEN
neil.aitken@gmail.com


EDUCATION

• Ph.D. English Literature & Creative Writing. USC. 2012 (planned)
  Dissertation: Babbage's Dream (Poetry)
  Interests: poetry, poetics, translation theory, technology
• M.F.A. Creative Writing. UC Riverside. 2006
  Thesis: The Lost Country of Sight (Poetry).
  Committee: Christopher Buckley (chair), Maurya Simon, Chris Abani
• B.S. Computer Science. Brigham Young University (Utah). 1999
  Studied poetry under Leslie Norris and Lance Larsen.
  Additional coursework: Asian American literature, the history of rhetoric.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

• University of Southern California
  Assistant Lecturer
  Writing 140: Writing & Critical Reasoning, 2008-Present
• University of California-Riverside
  Graduate Teaching Assistant
  Creative Writing 56: Intro to Creative Writing, 2005-2006 (3 quarters)

EDITORIAL/PROFESSIONAL

• Founding Editor, Boxcar Poetry Review, Dec 2005 – present
• Co-Editor, CRATE, UC Riverside, Jul 2005 – Jun 2006
• Assistant Poetry Editor, CRATE, UC Riverside, Aug 2004 – Jul 2005
• Layout & Design Editor, CRATE, UC Riverside, Aug 2004 – Jul 2005

HONORS & AWARDS

• Winner, Philip Levine Prize (CSU Fresno & Anhinga Press) for The Lost Country of Sight, 2008
• Finalist, May Swenson Poetry Prize, Utah State University Press for The Lost Country of Sight, 2008
• Semi-Finalist, Elixir Press Prize for The Lost Country of Sight, 2008
• Pushcart nomination for “Letter Fifty,” DMQ Review, 2007
• Pushcart nomination for “comment,” Redactions, 2007
• Semi-Finalist, Elixir Press Prize for The Lost Country of Sight, 2007
• Semi-Finalist, Brittingham-Pollak Prize (University of Wisconsin Press) for The Lost Country of Sight, 2005
• Pushcart nomination for “After Neruda,” Beyond the Valley of Contemporary Poets, 2005
• Friends' Prize for “Adrift,” Prairie Poetry, 2004
• Peer Award for “Adrift,” Prairie Poetry, 2004
• Peer Award for “Forgetting to Fill Up in Saskatoon,” Prairie Poetry, 2003
• 2nd Place for “Burials,”, Inscape Poetry Competition, 1999
• Honorable Mention for “Love Song,” Brigham Young University Eisteddfod, 1999

FELLOWSHIPS

• Merit Fellowship, English Department, University of Southern California, 2007
• Kundiman Asian American Poetry Fellow, 2005, 2006, 2008
• Scholarship, Idyllwild Summer Poetry Program, 2005
• Dean's Fellowship & Stipend, University of California-Riverside, 2004

PUBLICATIONS

Books:

• The Lost Country of Sight. (Anhinga 2008).
  Winner of the 2007 Philip Levine Prize / CSU Fresno
  Expected release date: Nov 2008

Anthologies:

• “Leaving the Plane,” “Ghost Passport,” “The Art of Forgetting,” “Burials,” and “In the Country I Call Home,” Completely Mixed Up: An Asian North American Mixed Race Anthology. (Mixed Up Productions, 2007)
• “After Neruda” and “Pomello,” Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets. (Tebot Bach Press, 2006)
• “A Winter Day Like Any Other,” Homage to Vallejo. (Greenhouse Review Press, 2006)
• “Forgetting to Fill Up in Saskatoon,” Literary Angles. (Sybaritic Press, 2005)

Poems in Magazines:

• Anagram: “Time Enfolding Time,” Volume 5, Issue 1. Fall 1998. 27.
• Avatar Review: “Considering Photography,” “Seeking Shelter at -50,” “To the Street Musician,” Volume 8. May 2006.
• Barn Owl Review: “Traveling Through the Prairies, I Think of My Father's Voice,” Volume 1. 2008. 10.
• Beyond the Valley of Contemporary Poets: “For Sal Paradise, Lost in America,” “After Neruda,” “Bad Sestina,” 2004. 14, 20, 51
• Concelebratory Shoehorn Review: “Four Hours to Taipei,” “Cycling in the Dark,” “Gift,” “Kite Flying,” May 2007.
• Crab Orchard Review: “Prodigal,” Volume 11, Issue 2. Fall 2006. 19.
• Diagram: “At the Physicists' Ball,” Volume 5, Issue 5. Nov 2005.
• DMQ Review: “Letter Ten,” “Letter Fifty,” Spring & Summer 2007.
• The Drunken Boat: “How the World Fits Together,” “In the Long Dream of Exile,” “The Memory Theatre,” Spring 2007.
• Ecotone Blog / Reimagining Place: “In the Long Dream of Exile,” (reprint). (Feb 22, 2008).
• Inscape: “Burials,” “Birth,” Volume 19, Issue 1. Fall 1999. 44, 63.
• LocusPoint: “Here and There,” “The Center of Memory,” “Hermit,” “Litany,” “The Mortician's Bookkeeper,” forthcoming.
• MiPOesias: “All the Names of Children and Homes We May Never Know,” “The Art of Forgetting,” “At the End of Poetry,” “Ghost Passport,” “In Hsin Chu,” Jan 2007.
• Ninth Letter: “enumeration,” forthcoming.
• Pebble Lake Review: “An Hour Before Arriving, I See Home,” forthcoming.
• Poetic Diversity: “Counting Winters in Los Angeles,” “Jericho,” Volume 2, Issue 4. Nov 2004.
• Poetry Southeast: “After Neruda” (reprint), Spring 2007.
• Portland Review: “In the Country I Call Home,” “What I Know About Abstraction,” Volume 53, Issue 2. Fall 2006. 54, 95.
• Prairie Poetry: “Forgetting to Fill Up in Saskatoon,” December 2003.
• Prairie Poetry: “Sun Dance,” Apr 2004.
• Prairie Poetry: “Adrift,” Jun 2004.
• Quill & Parchment: “Shaman,” Aug 2001.
• Quill & Parchment: “Man Pulled from the Earth (El Salvador),” Jan 2003.
• Redactions: “comment,” “conditional,” Issue 8/9. Jun 2007. 16, 17.
• RHINO: “Outside Plato's Republic the Last Poets Wait for Departure,” 2006. 4
• Rock & Sling: “My Father as Landscape,” “Halfway,” “How We Are Saved,” Volume 4, Issue 2. Winter 2007.
• Silk Road, “For the Drowned,” Volume 1, Issue 1. Jun 2006. 80.
• Sou'wester: “I Dream My Father on the Shore,” forthcoming
• Spillway: “Letter from Home,” “Fridge,” Volume 13. Dec 2006.
• Stirring: “Elegy for Grey,” Jun 2007.
• Washington Square: “Letter to the Unknown Wife,” Volume 17. Spring 2006.

Broadsides:

• “Questions for the Garbage Man” (broadside), Naranjas y Nopales, Fall 2005.

Poems Set to Music:

• "The Lost Country of Sight," suite (settings for 4 poems), music by Juhi Bansal, (piano, percussion, cello, and voice). Fall 2008.
• “Elegy," music by Zhou Tian, (piano and voice). Spring 2008.
• "Elegy," music by Charlie Shipley, (piano and voice). Spring 2008.
• “Halfway," music by Juhi Bansal, (piano, percussion, cello, and voice). Spring 2008.
• “Babbage's Dream," (based on "array"), music by Ivor Warren Francis, (piano, vibraphone, harp, and 2 voices). Spring 2008.

CURRENT PROJECTS

• Babbage's Dream. (poetry). In progress.
• Letters to the Unknown Wife. (poetry). In progress.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Post World War II Working Class Poets (Factory & Industry)
• Poetry and Technology
• 20th Century Poetry of Exile and Displacement
• The Process and Problem of Literary Translation
• The Influence of Classical Chinese Poetry in Translation on Contemporary American Poetics
• Poetry as Embedded Texts in Ming and Qing Dynasty Novels

EMPLOYMENT

• Website Designer, Freelance, Vancouver, BC, Jun 2006 – present
• Lead Programmer, VU Games, Los Angeles, CA, Feb 2000 – Aug 2004
• Website Designer, Freelance, Calgary, AB, Apr 1999 – Feb 2000

MEMBERSHIPS

• Association of Writers & Writing Programs
• Federation of BC Writers
• Vancouver Artists' Collective Association

LANGUAGES

• English (fluent, native speaker)
• Mandarin Chinese (advanced conversational, intermediate reading ability)

REFERENCES

• Available on request