Neil Aitken

Campbell High School

Class of 1992

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Neil Aitken - Class of 1992 - Campbell High School

First Name	Neil
Last Name	Aitken
Graduation Year	Class of 1992
Gender	Male
City	N/A
State/Province	California
Country	United States
Occupation	Author, Editor, Translator, Graduate Student
Married	No
About Me	I left Regina in 1992, went to BYU-Provo to pursue an undergraduate degree in Computer Engineering (later switching to Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics). I took a two-year break to serve as a missionary in Taiwan where I relearned Mandarin Chinese. After returning and completing my undergraduate degree, I moved to Calgary for a year and looked for programming work in the area, eventually landing a job in Los Angeles with Knowledge Adventure, an educational software company that produces computer games for kids. I spent 5 years as a computer games programmer, writing poetry and attending readings on the side, before eventually jumping ship in 2004 to pursue a MFA in Creative Writing at UC Riverside. I helped found the graduate literary journal CRATE while there. After graduating in 2006, I moved back to Canada and lived in Port Coquitlam for a year working as a tutor, an editor, and a web designer. I launched my own online literary journal, Boxcar Poetry Review which still is running today. I also finished my first book manuscript of poetry and was sending it around for its third round through the various poetry contests in the US. In 2007, I was accepted into the University of Southern California's very prestigious PhD in Literature and Creative Writing program, one of only 3 poets accepted that year. That winter I was notified that my first book, The Lost Country of Sight, had won the 2007 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry and would be published by Anhinga Press in 2008. After its publication, I had the wonderful opportunity to read across the country at different universities and venues. I later became involved with literary translation, working with Chinese poet Ming Di to translate various contemporary Chinese poets into English. Our labors have produced one international bilingual journal (Poetry East West), 2 volumes of selected poems translated into English, and an anthology (New Cathay: Contemporary Chinese Poetry, 1990-2012). I am almost done with my PhD dissertation which examines 19th century literature and technology through the lens of artificial intelligence -- and a second book which is titled Babbage's Dream. I live very happily in Los Angeles, but look forward ...(read more)