A Conversation with Ada Limón, 24th Poet Laureate of the United States
Listen in on an oral history conversation with 24th Poet Laureate of the United States Ada Limón, interviewed by Laura Villareal, Letras Latinas Associate, as part of the Letras Latinas Oral History Project. Discover Limón’s journey from her artistic beginnings as a child connecting to nature and the poets who inspire her to her first job as a professional writer at GQ Magazine and what it’s like now to be a poet collaborating with the National Park Service.
Experience the Episode
Wednesday, September 18, 2024 12:00 pm
Listen in on an oral history conversation with 24th Poet Laureate of the United States Ada Limón, interviewed by Laura Villareal, Letras Latinas Associate, as part of the Letras Latinas Oral History Project. Discover Limón’s journey from her artistic beginnings as a child connecting to nature and the poets who inspire her to her first job as a professional writer at GQ Magazine and what it’s like now to be a poet collaborating with the National Park Service.
The Letras Latinas Oral History Project produces video interviews of Latinx writers visiting the Notre Dame campus with the aim of making them available as an online resource for faculty, students, scholars, and the community at large. For more information, please visit the Letras Latinas website.
MoreMeet the Poet: Ada Limón
Ada Limón is the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her book Bright Dead Things was nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Her most recent book of poetry, The Hurting Kind, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is also the author of two children’s books: In Praise of Mystery, with illustrations by Peter Sís; and And, Too, The Fox, which will be released in 2025. In October of 2023 she was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and she was named a TIME magazine woman of the year in 2024. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and wrote a poem that will be engraved on NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft that will be launched to the second moon of Jupiter in October 2024.
As the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States, her signature project is called You Are Here and focuses on how poetry can help connect us to the natural world. She will serve as Poet Laureate until the spring of 2025.
Meet the Moderator: Laura Villareal
Laura Villareal is a poet and book critic. Her debut poetry collection, Girl’s Guide to Leaving, (University of Wisconsin Press 2022) was awarded Texas Institute of Letters’ John A. Robert Johnson Award for a First Book of Poetry and the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award for Poetry. She earned an MFA at Rutgers University—Newark and has been the recipient of fellowships and scholarships from the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts, National Book Critics Circle’s Emerging Critics Program, VONA, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Dobie Paisano Fellowship Program at University of Texas-Austin. She is currently an associate with Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, where she co-edits and writes for Letras Latinas Blog 2, in addition to working on other related projects. She is also the Publications Coordinator for Inlandia Books.
Notre Dame to host US Poet Laureate Ada Limón and poets Carmen Giménez and heidi andrea restrepo rhodes
The University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies (ILS) and Creative Writing Program will present a poetry reading and discussion on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 4:30 p.m., featuring Ada Limón, the U.S. Poet Laureate; Carmen Giménez, executive director and publisher of Graywolf Press; and poet and scholar heidi andrea restrepo rhodes, who uses they/them pronouns and styles their name with all lowercase letters.
The event, which takes place in the Reyes Family Board Room in McKenna Hall, is free and open to the public. It will be moderated by Laura Villareal, a poet and Letras Latinas associate. A reception and book signing will follow at 6 p.m.
The discussion is part of a yearlong celebration of the 20th anniversary of Letras Latinas — a literary initiative within ILS that strives to enhance the visibility, appreciation and study of Latino literature on and off campus.
“Throughout the life of the institute, there have been initiatives that have come and gone. But Letras Latinas is the longest standing and is still here 20 years later,” said Francisco Aragón, founder and director of the initiative. “I’m really proud of our longevity and I think this program has burnished the institute’s reputation both within the Latino literary community and nationally.”
The Letras Latinas initiative, which emphasizes programs that support newer voices, has also helped forge connections between the three poets, Aragón said. Limón and Giménez have each served as a final judge for two national poetry prizes administered by the initiative. Limón selected the winner of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize in 2018, and Giménez chose the winner of the Lorca Latinx Poetry Prize in 2022.
“Both Ada and Carmen, years apart and independent of each other, selected heidi as the winner of those two prizes,” he said. “So, on April 10, they will both be reading with the same emerging poet they selected, which makes this roster very special.”
In addition to the public event, Limón, Giménez and rhodes will spend time visiting with undergraduate and graduate creative writing and poetry classes while on campus.
“It is a really meaningful experience when our students get to interact with writers they’ve been studying in their classes,” Aragón said. “Part of the mission of Letras Latinas is to not only enhance the education of our students, but to create situations where writers are in community with each other. So, I’m particularly excited that these three poets will be able to spend this time here, forming bonds with each other and connecting with our students.”
Limón is the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. As the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States, her signature project, You Are Here, focuses on how poetry can help connect us to the natural world. Giménez is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Milk and Filth, a finalist for the NBCC Award in Poetry, and Be Recorder, which was a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry, the PEN Open Book Award, the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She is publisher and executive director of Graywolf Press. A poet, scholar, educator and cultural worker, rhodes won the 2018 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize for their poetry collection, The Inheritance of Haunting. They are a 2023 recipient of the Creative Capital Award, a VONA alum, and have received fellowships from Zoeglossia, CantoMundo, Radar, and Yale’s Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration.
The event is the fourth in a series of nine events in 2024 commemorating the initiative’s 20th anniversary, featuring a total of more than 20 poets. Following the series, Aragón and Villareal will guest edit a folio of the poets’ work, which will be published in the December 2024 issue of Poetry Magazine.
Originally published by Carrie Gates at news.nd.edu on April 03, 2024.
Letras Latinas 20th anniversary, year-long celebration
Throughout calendar year 2024, Letras Latinas will be holding nine multi-city events marking this special anniversary. The first took place last January 25 at the Arts Club of Washington in Washington, D.C. The next two events took place on February 22 at the Poetry Center at the University of Arizona, and on March 21 and March 23 at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. For more information visit the websites of the Poetry Center at the University of Arizona and the Poetry Foundation. To learn about future events, please visit the schedule at Letras Latinas Blog 2.
To view the Letras Latinas poetry reading with Edgar Garcia, Sheila Maldonado, Gina Franco, and Laura Villareal at The University of Arizona Poetry Center, please click here.
Hispanic Heritage Month
The Institute for Latino Studies (ILS) is very proud to lead the annual celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month at the University of Notre Dame from September 15 to October 15. We organize lectures, presentations, movies, and cultural events to demonstrate how the entire Notre Dame community is enriched by the work ethic, aspirations, and commitment of Latino students, faculty, and staff directly affiliated with Our Lady’s University.
To find out more about the timeline of Latino Studies, legacy, influence, and heritage at Notre Dame, please click below.
For more information, please visit our Hispanic Heritage Month website.