The Hermit Poet

Neil Aitken was born in Vancouver, British Columbia and grew up in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and various parts of western Canada and the United States. He worked for a number of years as a computer games programmer before leaving the industry in 2004 to complete an MFA from the University of California, Riverside. He is currently pursuing a PhD in literature and creative writing at the University of Southern California.

His first book of poetry, The Lost Country of Sight, won the 2007 Philip Levine Prize and will be published by Anhinga Press in fall 2008. His work has appeared in Barn Owl Review, Crab Orchard Review,The Drunken Boat, Poetry Southeast, RHINO, Sou’wester, and Washington Square, as well as in the anthologies Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets and Homage to Vallejo. He is the founding editor of Boxcar Poetry Review, a Kundiman fellow, and three-time Pushcart Prize nominee. The Lost Country of Sight is his first book.

Visit his website: www.neil-aitken.com for more information.