Ada Limón

Ada Limón (born March 28, 1976) is an American poet. On 12 July 2022, she was named the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States by the Librarian of Congress. This made her the first Latina to be Poet Laureate of the United States.
Early years and education
Limón, who is of Mexican-American descent, grew up in Sonoma, California. She is the daughter of Ken Limón and Stacia Brady, the latter being an artist whose work graces the covers of Ada’s books. Ada admits to having developed a love for poetry in high school, despite dedicating her extracurriculars to theatrical productions. She attended the drama school at the University of Washington, where she studied theatre. After taking writing courses from professors including Colleen J. McElroy, she went on to receive her MFA from New York University in 2001, where she studied with Sharon Olds, Philip Levine, Marie Howe, Mark Doty, Agha Shahid Ali, and Tom Sleigh.
Upon graduation, Limón received a fellowship to live and write at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In 2003, she received a grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and in the same year won the Chicago Literary Award for Poetry.
To support her writing career, Limón began working in marketing for Condé Nast (the publisher for The New Yorker, Vogue, etc.) she quit this job following her stepmother’s untimely death, which was a catalyst for Limón to decide to pursue her writing career before it was too late.
Career
After 12 years in New York City, where she worked for various magazines such as Martha Stewart Living, GQ, and Travel + Leisure, Limón now lives in both Lexington, Kentucky and Sonoma, California, where she writes and teaches.
Limón's first book, Lucky Wreck, was chosen by Jean Valentine as the winner of the Autumn House Poetry Prize in 2005, while her second book, This Big Fake World, was the winner of the Pearl Poetry Prize in 2006. The two books came out within less than a year of each other. In a 2014 article in Compose magazine, she stated: "I went from having no books at all, to having two in the span of a year. I felt like I had won the lottery, well, without the money. I suppose, in my life, I’ve never done things the ordinary way. I’m either deep in the bottom of the well or nowhere near water." She serves on the faculty of Queens University of Charlotte low-residency M.F.A. program, and the "24 Pearl Street" online program for the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.
When her third book, Sharks in the Rivers (Milkweed Editions, 2010) was released, a reviewer writing in The Brooklyn Rail observed: "Unlike much contemporary poetry, Limón’s work isn’t text-derivative or deconstructivist. She personalizes her homilies, stamping them with the authenticity of invention and self-discovery." Limón's fourth book, Bright Dead Things, was released in 2015. She was shortlisted as a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award for Poetry. Her 2018 book, The Carrying, subsequently won a National Book Critics Circle Award.
Her poem "State Bird" appeared in the June 2, 2014 issue of The New Yorker, and her poem "How to Triumph Like a Girl" (2013), which portrays different aspects of female horses, was awarded the 2015 Pushcart Prize. Her work has also appeared in the Harvard Review and the Pleiades.
It was announced on January 30, 2023, that she will be writing an original poem dedicated to NASA's Europa Clipper. The Europa Clipper will launch in 2024, and by 2030, will be orbiting Jupiter. Limón's poem will be engraved onto the craft.
She has been a beneficiary of the Kentucky Foundation for Women.
Awards and honors
In 2013, Limón served as a judge for the National Book Award for Poetry.
In 2020, Limón was awarded a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
In July 2022, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden appointed her the 24th United States Poet Laureate for the term of 2022-2023. Hayden renewed Limón's term for another two years in April 2023.
In October 2023, she was named a MacArthur Fellow.
She received a 2023 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for The Hurting Kind.
Bibliography
Poetry
Collections
Lucky Wreck, Autumn House Press, 2006
This Big Fake World, Pearl Editions, 2006
Sharks in the rivers, Milkweed Editions, 2010
Bright Dead Things, Milkweed Editions, 2015
The Carrying, Milkweed Editions, 2018
The Hurting Kind, Milkweed Editions, 2022
Shelter: A Love Letter To Trees, Scribd Originals, 2022
Chapbooks
99¢ Heart, Big Game Books, 2007
What Sucks Us In Will Surely Swallow Us Whole, Cinematheque Press, 2009
Recorded Poetry Readings and Talks
Video recordings of Ada Limón from The Library of Congress
Ada Limón: poetry reading; February 23rd, 2017 from The Elliston Project: Poetry Readings and Lectures at the University of Cincinnati
Video recordings of Ada Limón from Voca, the University of Arizona Poetry Center's audiovisual archive
List of poems
References
External links
Official Site
Official Blog
"Crush", poem by Ada Limón, The New Yorker
"Overjoyed", poem by Ada Limón, Harvard Review
Two Poems by Ada Limón, "Marketing Life For Those Of Us Left" and "A Name"
Two Poems by Ada Limón, "61 Trees" and "rest Stop"
An Interview with Poet Ada Limón
Living people
1976 births
American women poets
The New Yorker people
21st-century American poets
American poets of Mexican descent
21st-century American women writers
University of Washington alumni
People from Sonoma County, California
Writers from Lexington, Kentucky
MacArthur Fellows