Ada Limón (born March 28, 1976) is an American poet. On 12 July 2022, she was named the 24th

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

of the United States by the

Librarian of Congress The Librarian of Congress is the head of the Library of Congress, appointed by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, for a term of ten years. In addition to overseeing the library, the Libra ...

. 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 Sonoma is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Sonoma is one of the principal cities of California's Wine Country and the center of the Sonoma Valley AVA. Sonoma's ...

. She attended the

drama school A drama school, stage school or theatre school is an undergraduate and/or graduate school or department at a college or university; or a free-standing institution (such as the Drama section at the Juilliard School); which specializes in the p ...

at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...

, where she studied theatre. After taking writing courses from professors including

Colleen J. McElroy Colleen J. McElroy (born October 31, 1935 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American poet, short story writer, editor, memoirist. Life She graduated from Kansas State University (1958) and from the University of Washington with a Ph.D. (1973). She i ...

, she went on to receive her MFA from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

in 2001, where she studied with

Sharon Olds Sharon Olds (born November 12, 1942) is an American poet. Olds won the first San Francisco Poetry Center Award in 1980, the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award, and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

, Philip Levine,

Marie Howe Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in ...

Mark Doty Mark Doty (born August 10, 1953) is an American poet and memoirist best known for his work ''My Alexandria.'' He was the winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008. Early life Mark Doty was born in Maryville, Tennessee to Lawrence a ...

, Agha Shahid Ali, and Tom Sleigh. Upon graduation, Limón received a fellowship to live and write at the

Fine Arts Work Center The Fine Arts Work Center is a non-profit enterprise devoted to encouraging the growth and development of emerging visual artists and writers through residency programs, to the propagation of aesthetic values and experience, and to the restoratio ...

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provin ...

. In 2003, she received a grant from the

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organization ...

, and in the same year won the Chicago Literary Award for Poetry.

Career

After 12 years in New York City, where she worked for various magazines such as ''

Martha Stewart Living ''Martha Stewart Living'' is a magazine and former television program featuring entertaining and lifestyle expert Martha Stewart. Both the magazine and the television program focus on lifestyle content and the domestic arts. Magazine ''Martha S ...

'', '' GQ'', and ''

Travel + Leisure ''Travel + Leisure'' is a travel magazine based in New York City, New York. Published 12 times a year, it has 4.8 million readers, according to its corporate media kit. It is published by Dotdash Meredith, a subsidiary of IAC, with trademark ...

'', Limón now lives in both

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest ...

and

, 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 The Queens University of Charlotte is a private university in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has approximately 2,300 undergraduate and graduate students through the College of Arts and Sciences, the McColl School of Business, the Wayland H. Cato, ...

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 ''The Brooklyn Rail'' is a publication and platform for the arts, culture, humanities, and politics. The ''Rail'' is based out of Brooklyn, New York. It features in-depth critical essays, fiction, poetry, as well as interviews with artists, criti ...

'' 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 The National Book Award for Poetry is one of five annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers".

. Her 2018 book, ''The Carrying'', subsequently won a

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issue ...

'', and her poem "How to Triumph Like a Girl" (2013), which portrays different aspects of female horses, was awarded the 2015

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors ar ...

. Her work has also appeared in the ''

Harvard Review ''Harvard Review'' is a biannual literary journal published by Houghton Library at Harvard University. History In 1986 Stratis Haviaras, curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University, founded a quarterly periodical called ''Erato''. ...

'' and the ''Pleiades''. She has been a beneficiary of the Kentucky Foundation for Women.

Awards and honors

In 2013, Limón served as a judge for the

."2013 National Book Awards"
NBF. Retrieved October 21, 2013. In July 2022,

Carla Hayden Carla Diane Hayden (born August 10, 1952) is an American librarian and the 14th Librarian of Congress. Since the creation of the office of the Librarian of Congress in 1802, Hayden is both the first African American and the first woman to hold th ...

appointed her the 24th United States Poet Laureate for the term of 2022-2023.

Bibliography

Poetry

;Collections * * ''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 ;List of poems

References

External links

Official Site

Official Blog

"Crush"
poem by Ada Limón, ''The New Yorker''

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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Limon, Ada 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 People from Lexington, Kentucky