When the world feels too heavy, when the blank page looks like a sky without stars—what do we do? Aimee Nezhukumatathil invites writers to consider what the night creatures already know: that darkness is not absence, but invitation. Through a fresh look at nocturnal animals and bioluminescent beings as teachers, this talk encourages and gives concrete tips on how to keep creating, how to keep glowing, even when light feels far away. This talk will remind writers that their unique voices are necessary glimmers in the larger constellation of literature, and that resilience often looks like sitting still long enough to notice what begins to glow.
This listing is for those of you who can’t be in person at the Festival, and want to watch it on ZOOM. Cost is $10.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the New York Times best-selling author of the forthcoming poetry book, Night Owl (Mar. 2026), and two illustrated collections of essays, Bite by Bite and World of Wonders: Whale Sharks & Other Astonishments. She also wrote four previous award-winning poetry collections. and with the poet Ross Gay, she co-authored the chapbook Lace & Pyrite, a collaboration of epistolary garden poems. Her writing appears twice in the Best American Poetry Series, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and The Paris Review.