Ada Limón

Ada Limón
Born (1976-03-28) March 28, 1976 (age 48)
Sonoma, California, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Washington (BFA)
New York University (MFA)
GenrePoetry
SpouseLucas Marquardt

Ada Limón (born March 28, 1976) is an American poet.[1] On July 12, 2022, she was named the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States by the Librarian of Congress.[2][3][4] This made her the first Latina to be Poet Laureate of the United States.[5] She is married to Lucas Marquardt.[6]

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 the cover artist for her daughter's books. Ada says she developed a love for poetry in high school, despite dedicating her extracurriculars to theatrical productions.[7] 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,[8] 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.[citation needed]

To support her writing career, Limón began working in marketing for Condé Nast. 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.[7]

Career

Limón at SXSW Interactive in 2024, talking about her work with NASA.
Limón in 2019

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.[8]

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."[9] 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."[10] 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.[11]

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.[12][13] Her work has also appeared in the Harvard Review and the Pleiades.[14]

Limón was appointed 24th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in 2022 and reappointed for a second, two-year term in 2023.[15]

As part of her laureateship, she wrote an original poem, “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which debuted on June 1, 2023.[16] The poem is engraved in her own handwriting on a metal plate affixed to the Europa Clipper spacecraft. The Europa Clipper launched on October 14, 2024, and is expected to arrive in the Jupiter system in 2030, where it will perform flybys of Jupiter's Galilean moon, Europa.

She has been a beneficiary of the Kentucky Foundation for Women.[4]

Awards and honors

This side of a commemorative plate mounted on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft features U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa” (blurred out for copyright reasons)

In 2013, Limón served as a judge for the National Book Award for Poetry.[17]

In 2020, Limón was awarded a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. [18]

In July 2022, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden appointed her the 24th United States Poet Laureate for the term of 2022–2023.[4] Hayden renewed Limón's term for another two years in April 2023.[19]

In October 2023, she was named a MacArthur Fellow receiving the “genius” grant from the John and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.[20]

She received a 2023 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for The Hurting Kind.

In February 2024, Limón was named as one of Time magazine's 12 Women of the Year for 2024, for being “extraordinary leaders who are working toward a more equal world.”.[21]

To raise public awareness of the Europa Clipper mission, NASA undertook a "Message In A Bottle" campaign, i.e. actually "Send Your Name to Europa" campaign on June 1, 2023, through which people around the world are invited to send their names as signatories to a poem called, "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa" written by Ada Limón. The poem connects the two water worlds — Earth, yearning to reach out and understand what makes a world habitable, and Europa, waiting with secrets yet to be explored. The poem is engraved on a tantalum metal plate that seals an opening into the vault. The inward-facing side of the metal plate is engraved with the poem in the poet's own handwriting, along with participants' names that will be etched onto microchips mounted on the spacecraft.[22]

On Friday, August 18, 2023, the City of Sonoma paid tribute to Limón, with a Bench Dedication. The bench is adorned with quotes from Limón's work and is situated in front of Readers’ Books in Sonoma.[23]

Year Title Award Result Ref.
2005 Lucky Wreck Autumn House Poetry Prize Winner [24]
2006 This Big Fake World Pearl Poetry Prize Winner [25]
2015 Bright Dead Things National Book Award for Poetry Finalist [26][3]
National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry Finalist [3]
2018 The Carrying National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry Winner [27][3]
2019 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Finalist [28]
2023 The Hurting Kind Griffin Poetry Prize Finalist [29]
PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award Winner

Bibliography

Poetry

Collections
  • Lucky Wreck, Autumn House Press, 2006 ISBN 978-1932870084
  • This Big Fake World, Pearl Editions, 2006 ISBN 978-1-888219-35-7
  • Sharks in the Rivers, Milkweed Editions, 2010 ISBN 978-1-57131-438-3
  • Bright Dead Things, Milkweed Editions, 2015 ISBN 978-1-57131-925-8
  • The Carrying, Milkweed Editions, 2018 ISBN 978-1-57131-512-0
  • The Hurting Kind, Milkweed Editions, 2022 ISBN 978-1-63955-049-4
  • Shelter: A Love Letter To Trees, Scribd Originals, 2022 ISBN 978-1-09444-438-3
Children's Books
  • In Praise of Mystery, Norton Young Readers, 2024 ISBN 978-1324054009
Chapbooks
  • 99¢ Heart, Big Game Books, 2007
  • What Sucks Us In Will Surely Swallow Us Whole, Cinematheque Press, 2009

Recorded poetry readings and talks

List of poems
Year Title First published Reprinted/collected
2010 Sharks in the rivers Limón, Ada (2010). Sharks in the rivers. Milkweed Editions.
2014 State Bird Limón, Ada (June 2, 2014). "State Bird". The New Yorker. 90 (15): 30.
2017 The Burying Beetle Limón, Ada (February 27, 2017). "The Burying Beetle". The New Yorker. 93 (2): 39.
Overpass Limón, Ada (December 4, 2017). "Overpass". The New Yorker. 93 (39): 27.
2021 Privacy Limón, Ada (March 22, 2021). "Privacy". The New Yorker. 97 (5): 51.

References

  1. ^ "Ada Limon On Poetry Collection, 'The Carrying'". NPR.org. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  2. ^ Sullivan, Meghan Collins (July 12, 2022). "Ada Limón named new U.S. poet laureate". NPR. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d Schaub, Michael (July 12, 2022). "Ada Limón Is New U.S. Poet Laureate". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c "Librarian of Congress Names Ada Limón the Nation's 24th U.S. Poet Laureate". Library of Congress Newsroom. July 12, 2022.
  5. ^ Novogratz, Narciso (July 28, 2022). "Ada Limón is the Next Poet Laureate".
  6. ^ Harris, Elizabeth A. (May 6, 2022). "Ada Limón Makes Poems for a Living" – via NYTimes.com.
  7. ^ a b "Ada Limon | Biography, Poems, Books, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved October 23, 2023.
  8. ^ a b Harris, Elizabeth A. (May 6, 2022). "Ada Limón Makes Poems for a Living". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  9. ^ Windsor, Suzannah (April 24, 2014). "An Interview with Poet Ada Limón". Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  10. ^ Wright, Jeffrey Cyphers (December 7, 2010). "Review of Ada Limón’s Sharks in the Rivers. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  11. ^ Ulin, David L. (May 13, 2022). "Ada Limón is the poet of our lonely, terrifying moment". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  12. ^ "From her Lexington backyard, poet Ada Limón's latest book finds light amid despair". Lexington Herald Reader. May 20, 2022. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
  13. ^ Foust, Rebecca (May 29, 2016). "Poetry Sunday: 'How to Triumph Like a Girl' by Ada Limón". Women's Voices for Change. Archived from the original on May 5, 2017. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
  14. ^ Hijazi, Jennifer (August 14, 2018). "'The human capacity to carry many things at once'". PBS. Archived from the original on August 15, 2018. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
  15. ^ "NASA's Message in a Bottle". NASA's Europa Clipper. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  16. ^ "In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa | Poet Laureate Projects | Poet Laureate | Poetry & Literature | Programs | Library of Congress". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved October 15, 2024.
  17. ^ "2013 National Book Awards". NBF. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  18. ^ "Ada Limon". JSGMF. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  19. ^ "U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón Appointed for a Historic Two-Year Second Term". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  20. ^ "Ada Limón". www.macfound.org. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
  21. ^ JOHNSON, DANIEL (February 21, 2024). "Time magazine names Sonoma native Limón a 2024 Woman of the Year". Sonoma Index-Tribune. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  22. ^ "Learn | Message in a bottle". NASA's Europa Clipper. Retrieved June 2, 2023.
  23. ^ [email protected] (August 25, 2023). "Celebrating Ada Limón: Sonoma's Special Bench Dedication Ceremony". City of Sonoma. Retrieved October 6, 2024.
  24. ^ "Poetry Contest". Autumn House Press. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  25. ^ Burack, Emily. "A Guide of Ada Limón's Poetry". Town & Country. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  26. ^ "Bright Dead Things". National Book Foundation. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  27. ^ Hillel Italie (March 14, 2018). "Zadie Smith, Anna Burns among winners of critics prizes". The Washington Post. The Associated Press. Archived from the original on March 15, 2019. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  28. ^ "Announcing the 2019 PEN America Literary Awards Finalists". PEN America. January 15, 2019. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  29. ^ Cassandra Drudi, "Susan Musgrave, Iman Mersal among Griffin Poetry Prize finalists". Quill & Quire, April 19, 2023.
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