Ada Limón has been named the 24th poet laureate of the United States.
The Library of Congress announced Limón’s honor on Tuesday morning, The Associated Press reported.
The 46-year-old will serve her term starting Sept. 29 with a reading at the Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium.
She replaces Joy Harjo.
When told of her appointment, Limón said, “To me, it felt like ‘how am I even allowed to stand in that lineage?’ And so I took a deep breath, and I said ‘yes,’ and we all sort of laughed together. An incredible honor and the shock of a lifetime,” NPR reported.
Who is Ada Limón?
Limón is known for her collection “Bright Dead Things,” which sold more than 40,000 copies and was nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. She has also published six books of poetry, including her most recent “The Hurting Kind,” published in May, NPR reported.
Limón is also a podcast host of “The Slowdown.”
“Ada Limón is a poet who connects,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement, according to the AP. “Her accessible, engaging poems ground us in where we are and who we share our world with. They speak of intimate truths, of the beauty and heartbreak that is living, in ways that help us move forward.”
Limón was raised in Sonoma, California. She now lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where writes and teaches remotely, according to her official biography.
What is the poet laureate?
The poet laureate position, formally known as the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, was established in 1985 by an act of Congress. But the country has had a poet consultant since 1937, NPR reported.
The person named to the 1-year term will get a stipend of $35,000 for their time.
The job is technically based in Washington, D.C., but Limón will work from her home in Lexington, Kentucky.
Each laureate uses their year as they see fit.
To see a complete list, visit the Library of Congress.
Limón’s poetry focuses on nature, so during her term she hopes to hold events at parks and other settings that show how we fit into the natural world.
Poetry allows us “to remember our relationship with the natural world is reciprocal,” Limón said, the AP reported. “It’s having a place to breathe and having a place to pay attention.”
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