Ada Limón
Ada Limón (born March 28, 1976) is an American poet.
Life
Limón grew up in Sonoma, California, before attending The University of Washington where she studied theater at the University of Washington School of Drama. After taking writing courses from professors, including Colleen J. McElroy, she went on to receive her MFA from New York University in 2001, where she studied with Sharon Olds, Philip Levine, Marie Howe, Mark Doty, Agha Shahid Ali, and Tom Sleigh. Her graduate class included the noted poets, Jennifer L. Knox, Gregory Pardlo, Jason Schneiderman, Kazim Ali, and Kathleen Graber.
Upon graduation, she received a fellowship to live and write at the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. In 2003, she received a grant from New York Foundation for the Arts.
After 12 years in New York City, where she worked for various magazines such as Martha Stewart Living, GQ, and Travel + Leisure, she now lives in Lexington, Kentucky and Sonoma, California where she writes and teaches.
Work
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 wrote "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."
Her third book, Sharks in the Rivers was released in 2010 from Milkweed Editions. Of which the Brooklyn Rail said, "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, is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions.
While still at work on two fiction projects as well as non-fiction pieces, Limón's poems continue to be published widely. Limón's poem "State Bird" appeared in the June 2, 2014 issue The New Yorker and her poem, "How to Triumph Like a Girl" was recently awarded the Pushcart Prize.
Bibliography
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Poetry
Collections
- Limón, Ada (2006). Lucky wreck. Autumn House Press.
- 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
List of poems
| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected |
|---|---|---|---|
| State Bird | 2014 | Limón, Ada (June 2, 2014). "State Bird". The New Yorker 90 (15): 30. Retrieved 2015-03-13. | |
References
- An Interview with Poet Ada Limón
- The New Yorker,"Crush"
- Harvard Review, "Overjoyed"
- 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"