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Neil Aitken

Goodreads Author

Born

in Canada

April 21

Website

http://www.neil-aitken.com

Twitter

neil_aitken

Genre

Poetry

Influences

Philip Levine, Li-Young Lee, Jane Kenyon ...more

Member Since

June 2009

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/neilaitken

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Neil Aitken is the author of two full-length books of poetry: The Lost Country of Sight (Anhinga 2008), winner of the Philip Levine Prize and Babbage's Dream (Sundress Publications, 2017), a semi-finalist for the Anthony Hecht Prize. His poetry chapbook, Leviathan was published in 2016 by Hyacinth Girl Press and recently received an Elgin Award from the SFPA. He is also the founding editor of Boxcar Poetry Review and administrator of book tour resource Have Book Will Travel (www.havebookwilltravel.com). His poems have appeared in Barn Owl Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Drunken Boat, Poetry Southeast, RHINO, Sou'wester, and Washington Square, and several anthologies. He is a Kundiman fellow and three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. In collabo ...more

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What are you currently working on?

Neil Aitken I'm working on a number of creative projects, some more defined than others. In terms of poetry, I've been researching and have started to write poems…moreI'm working on a number of creative projects, some more defined than others. In terms of poetry, I've been researching and have started to write poems toward a third book revolves around the themes of the historical erasure (mainly of mixed race figures like Sadakichi Hartmann), hybridity, and border-crossing. I also have a fiction project which I've started, but is currently on the back burner -- it's a novel set in an alternative Victorian timeline where Charles Babbage succeeds in building the first computer and uses it to solve serial crimes in 1850s London. Some paranormal elements and a tendency to twist and bend actual history in interesting ways.(less)

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How do you get inspired to write?

Neil Aitken 1) I read. I read a lot of different things, not just poetry. Most of the time when I'm trying to figure out what to write next, I read a mixture of h…more1) I read. I read a lot of different things, not just poetry. Most of the time when I'm trying to figure out what to write next, I read a mixture of history, essays, Wikipedia articles, random books with strange titles in used bookstores, books on religion, science, technology, or architecture. Sometimes I read field-specific glossaries and dictionaries from the 1950s (I highly recommend geology dictionaries from this period - beautifully written descriptions of land and water).

2) I don't read. I go outside and spend time with other people. I travel. I listen to strangers. I take long walks, preferably where there are glimpses of nature (fields, rivers, forests, etc). I try to organize my notes from other discontinued projects. I take pictures. I try to remember how to paint.

3) I immerse myself in another world -- whether that's through film or tv (and usually it's foreign film through subtitles), or through computer games (current favorite is The Long Dark, a near future solo wilderness survival game without zombies, just bitter cold, starvation, thirst, infection, and wolves to contend with). Sometimes it's just good to separate yourself from overthinking and instead experience a different life which might awaken something within you.(less)

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Neil Aitken’s books

Average rating: 4.47 · 90 ratings · 17 reviews · 10 distinct works

	The Lost Country of Sight 4.52 avg rating — 33 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Babbage's Dream 4.61 avg rating — 23 ratings — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Loudest Voice (Volume 1) by Amaranth Borsuk (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Gabriela Jáuregui, Jeff Solomon 4.50 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2010	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Leviathan 4.22 avg rating — 9 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Pebble Lake Review: Spring 2008 by Amanda Auchter (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Arlene Ang (Goodreads Author), Bruce Covey (Goodreads Author) 4.57 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2008	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Book of Cranes by Zang Di, Ming Di (Translation), Neil Aitken (Goodreads Author) (Translation) 3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Boxcar Poetry Review 2006 Anthology really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2008	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Boxcar Anthology 2 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2011 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Boxcar Poetry Review Anthology 2 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Crazy & Unexplained: The Race for the Relics by Larry Johnson Smith, Neil Aitken (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Neil Aitken's Blog

Writers of Color Discussing Craft – A Compilation of Invisible Texts

“I often wonder what I’d do if there weren’t any books in the world.”

― James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

A couple weeks ago I was thinking about how Junot Diaz often comments on the fact he’s almost never asked to speak about craft, and instead always is asked to talk about race, identity, and the immigrant experience. And it’s true — when I think about all the books on writing craft I’ve read or

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Neil Aitken is now friends with Haven Perez
Jun 15, 2026 03:37PM · like

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Neil’s Quotes

“Everything that is dead quivers. Not only the things of poetry, stars, moon, wood, flowers, but even a white trouser button glittering out of a puddle in the street... Everything has a secret soul, which is silent more often than it speaks.”
― Wassily Kandinsky

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Neil Aitken

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