Neil Aitken

Neil Aitken is a Canadian poet, editor, and translator. He founded Boxcar Poetry Review. His first book, The Lost Country of Sight, won the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry.

Biography

Early life and education

Aitken was born in Vancouver in 1974 and was raised in Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Canada, and the United States. His father was of Scottish and English descent and his mother was of Chinese descent. He had a younger sister. He attended elementary and secondary school in Regina. Throughout high school, he enjoyed painting. As an undergraduate, he studied Computer Engineering with a minor in Mathematics.
He worked as a computer games programmer for several years. In 2004, he quit his position to study at the University of California, Riverside, where he earned an MFA. He earned a PhD in Literature & Creative Writing from the University of Southern California.

Literature career

Aitken's first book, The Lost Country of Sight, won the 2007 Philip Levine Prize. In 2016, he published Babbage’s Dream, a semi-finalist for the Anthony Hecht Prize. He founded Boxcar Poetry Review. Aitken and Chinese poet-translator Ming Di translated The Book of Cranes: Selected Poems of Zang Di. In 2011, Aitken was awarded the DJS Translation Prize for "his translations of contemporary Chinese poetry."