Majmudar, a radiologist, has written two novels too.
AB Wire
Indian American physician and writer Amit Majmudar has been named Ohio’s first poet laureate.
Majmudar, a Dublin, Ohio-based physician, was named to the two-year honorary position by Gov. John Kasich, reported The Columbus Dispatch.
A selection committee nominated Majmudar for the honor following a statewide review. Legislation creating an official poet laureate was passed by lawmakers in 2014, the Dispatch reported.
Majmudar wants to promote poetry by linking to the Ohio arts community and engaging with high school students, the governor’s office said.
The Cleveland-area native is a diagnostic and nuclear radiologist with Radiology Inc. in Columbus and writes poetry, essays and novels on the side.
Majmudar grew up in Greater Cleveland to parents who emigrated from India, reported Cleveland.com
A graduate of the University of Akron and the Northeast Ohio Medical University, Majmudar completed his medical residency at University Hospitals. He works for Radiology, Inc. in Columbus and lives in Dublin, in suburban Columbus, with his wife, twin sons and daughter.
“Our first poet laureate will bring a unique perspective to this new role and is a powerful example to our young people that regardless of what career path they choose to pursue, they always can tap into their other passions,†Kasich said in a statement.
Majmudar has published two novels, “Partitions” (2009) and “The Abundance” (2011). His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic Monthly, Poetry Magazine, The Antioch Review and “The Best of the Best American Poetry, 1988-2012.” His next collection of poems, “Dothead,” will be published in March.
The Poetry Foundation, in an online biography, describes Majmudar’s poems as “precise, often formally driven” works in which he “explores themes of identity, history, spiritual faith, and mortality.”
In 2011, his poetry collection “Heaven and Earth” was named winner of the Donald Justice Prize, a national poetry award presented by the Iris N. Spencer Poetry Awards.
His next collection of poems, “Dothead,” will be published in March.