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Ada Limón is an acclaimed poet, author of four books of poetry, 2015 National Book Award finalist, and winner of the Chicago Literary Award for Poetry. Originally from Sonoma California, Limon holds an M.F.A from the Creative Writing Program at New York University, and serves on the faculty of the Queens University of Charlotte Low Residency M.F.A Program and the 24Pearl Street online program for the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.
Limón’s most recent book of poetry, Bright Dead Things, was one of the New York Times Top Ten Poetry Books of the Year, as well as a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry, a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and a finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award. Limón’s other works include Lucky Wreck, winner of the 2005 Autumn House Poetry Prize; This Big Fake World, winner of the 2005 Pearl Poetry Prize, and Sharks in the Rivers.
Poet Richard Blanco praises Limón’s work as “both soft and tender, enormous and resounding, …[with] poetic gestures [that] entrance and transfix.” Author Matthew Zapruder writes “Limón does far more than merely reflect the world: she continually transforms it, thereby revealing herself as an everyday symbolist and high level duende enabler.”
Praise for Bright Dead Things
“Limón’s calling card is her relaxed, winningly unpretentious voice (“Every time I’m in an airport / I think I should drastically / change my life…”). Her strongest work (the poem that gives this book its title, for example) is a study in casual intensity” —The New York Times
“Generous of heart, intricate and accessible, the poems in this book are wondrous and deeply moving.” —Library Journal
“Limón…goes into deep introspection mode in a fourth collection in which her speakers struggle with loss and alienation. As her poems move across varied geographies (New York, Kentucky, California), Limón narrates experiences in bewildering landscapes that should otherwise feel familiar. Perhaps feelings of alienation result from intersections of identity; perhaps they are the cost of memory, a theme woven through each of the collection’s four sections…Recurring instances of anxiety about mortality in Limón’s poems complicate experiences so richly written and felt.” —Publisher’s Weekly
