Since its beginnings, Lexington has been somewhat of a low-key literary hotbed, serving as a home base to scores of best-selling, award-winning and otherwise notable poets, novelists and writers for over 200 years. Last year, the city’s literary status gained another significant notch when Ada Limón, a beloved poet who has called Lexington home for the past dozen or so years, was granted one of the nation’s very highest literary appointments: U.S. Poet Laureate.
Established in 1937 by the Library of Congress — our country’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world — the U.S. Poet Laureate position has been held by dozens of the nation’s most gifted writers, including Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop and Gwendolyn Brooks. The intent of the position is to raise the national consciousness surrounding poetry and writing, with much of the role consisting of traveling around the country to meet with national leaders, community activists, schoolchildren, educators and others, expanding and creating new ways for people to experience and appreciate poetry.
Limón, who is of Mexican descent and is the first Latina woman ever appointed to the post, began her first one-year term as 24th Poet Laureate last July, and will begin a second term in September — another historic moment, as she is the first U.S. Poet Laureate ever to be appointed to a second two-year term.
The beginning of Limón’s poet laureateship came on the coattails of a period of deep upheaval for our country, as we slowly emerged from a landscape that, for two years, had been largely permeated by illness, restrictions, fear, political instability and general discord. Limón has long seen poetry as a stabilizing force.
“Time and time again I have been witness to poetry’s immense power to connect us to the world, to allow us to heal, to love, to grieve, to remind us of the full spectrum of human emotion,” she said at the time of her appointment. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who appoints the position, also spoke to the poet’s ability to heal and connect, with poems that “speak of intimate truths, of the beauty and heartbreak that is living, in ways that help us move forward.”
Originally from Sonoma, California, Limón has described a childhood full of exploration, where language and creativity played a central role. Her mother is an artist (she created the cover art for all of Limón’s books) and her stepfather is a writer; her stepmother was a speech pathologist and her father sang, played guitar and wrote poems. Perhaps one of the most significant impacts to Limón’s poetic sensibility was her relationship with nature, which she grew up learning to value and respect.
“I was raised with a sense that the interconnectedness of humans and nature was sacred,” she said. “As a child, I always felt like I was an observer, and maybe a little like an outsider — it made me notice things. Any time you are deeply looking at things, you understand them more.”
The author of six poetry collections, Limón has an uncanny knack for observing the sublime nature of everyday experiences, in a voice that feels both intimate and ubiquitous. Reviewers have described her writing style as conversational, accessible, revelatory and haunting — descriptors many of her readers say that only begin to describe the range she exhibits in her work.
Her friend, fellow Lexington writer Hannah Pittard, describes Limón as “disarming, as a poet and a person.”
“She’s surprising, outgoing, generous and also somewhat of a glorious enigma,” said Pittard. “The world is a better place with her in it, always leaning toward the light.”
“Her work is accessible while also being profound, which is an incredibly hard balance to strike,” said the Lexington writer Silas House, who was recently appointed Kentucky Poet Laureate. “Her poetry resonates deeply with so many people, and there is a warmth about her that makes everyone she meets feel seen.”
In April 2022, Lexington-based writer Ada Limón was named United States poet laureate; earlier this year, she became the first U.S. Poet Laureate to be granted a second two-year term. Here, Limón is pictured at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., where the primary office for the position is located. Photo by Shawn Miller, Library of Congress
Tom Eblen, the literary liaison for the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning, echoed that sentiment.
“Her writing resonates because it’s just so universal,” he said. “It really speaks to so many people’s experiences, across the spectrum, [even though] a lot of it is very autobiographical.”
“Nobody was really surprised when she was named poet laureate, except her,” Eblen added with a laugh.
Limón first connected with poetry in high school, then took two college classes on poetry at the University of Washington. She recalls feeling “utterly changed by them.”
“I wanted to dedicate my life to poetry, but I had no idea what that meant or what it would look like,” she said.
She moved to New York to pursue her master’s in fine arts, and ultimately spent 12 years in that city, working for many years at magazines that included Martha Stewart Living, GQ and Travel + Leisure. She came to Lexington in 2011 with her now-husband, Lucas Marquardt, who owns a Thoroughbred marketing and media company.
Though she has admitted she didn’t know what to expect from Kentucky at first —other than a change of pace from the large coastal cities and towns where she’s spent most of her life — she quickly grew to appreciate her new home state, and now speaks lovingly of the “stunningly beautiful” natural beauty she’s enjoyed discovering in Kentucky, as well as of the literary community that has embraced and supported her since her arrival. Inspirations and observations about the Kentucky landscape and her experiences in the Bluegrass have made it into many of her poems.
As Limón ruminated during a recent interview from her Lexington backyard (one of three interviews she had scheduled that day!), the first year of her laureateship has been a revolving door of awe-inspiring experiences, sometimes moving at breakneck speed.
“I feel like I am just beginning to understand what it all means,” she said. “It’s been incredible.”
Indeed, a scroll through her Instagram account shows a dizzying jaunt through her first months in the role. It’s a picture of someone having a whirlwind adventure flying around the country to celebrate poetry: One week she’s speaking at the Portland Arts & Lecture Series and the next, she’s at the Sonoma Valley Authors Fest, speaking at her high school, which had her yearbook photos proudly displayed. Other weeks feature photos from stops in Brooklyn, Asheville, San Diego, Nashville, all interspersed with increasingly valued restful days at home with her adorable pug, Lily Bean.
As someone who for whom quiet and solitude have always been essential, she admits that the extensive travel has been a bit...extra, at times. “I think the next term will be a little calmer, as I’m learning to say ‘no’ more and protect myself and my time,” she said.
But that’s not to downplay her experiences, which have been nothing short of astounding: She’s participated in two events hosted by First Lady Jill Biden and another hosted by Mexico’s first lady, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller. She met Joni Mitchell, who’s been an inspiration since childhood, at a Library of Congress event in March; in May, she appeared on “Jeopardy! Masters” to present a category on poetry.
In her first term as poet laureate, she’s helped coordinate a first-ever partnership between the National Parks and the Poetry Society of America, and another between the Library of Congress and the Academy of American Poets with the “Poem-a-Day” series.
And this summer, she was met with a task that she describes as “truly life-changing” when she completed a poem for NASA that will be engraved on a rocket that will orbit Jupiter next October as part of the Europa Clipper mission.
It was perhaps her most notable — and nerve wracking — assignment to date.
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“In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” was released at the Library of Congress by the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón on June 1, 2023, in celebration of the poem’s engraving on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, scheduled to launch in October of 2024. Image furnished
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Ada Limón visited NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories Space Flight Operations Facility, commonly called “Mission Control.” Photo furnished by Library of Congress
“Writing this poem was one of the greatest honors of my life, but also one of the most difficult tasks I’ve ever been assigned,” she said.
“Eventually, what made the poem come together was realizing that in pointing toward other planets, stars and moons, we are also recognizing the enormous gift that is our planet Earth. To point outward is also to point inward.”
United States Poet Laureate Ada Limón graciously took some time from her busy schedule recently to answer a few questions for Smiley Pete reporter Celeste Lewis and the readers of Chevy Chaser and Southsider magazines.
“These uncertain times require the humanity that poetry offers.” This great quote from you really resonated with me. How does poetry help us access our humanity. How does poetry teach us to be better humans? I don’t know if poetry can teach us to be better humans. I think what it can do is teach us to notice what kind of humans we are, what we are going through, what matters to us, what we feel connected to. If poetry can offer us any type of healing, that will come from its surrender towards a larger unknowing. It allows us to witness and to feel. And we need that desperately.
Your tenure as U.S. Poet Laureate seems to have really caught fire and is getting lots of positive attention. You are the first United States poet laureate to have been appointed to a second two-year term. What do you think has brought this about? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we are emerging from the pandemic and how much we need language and connection. This may be the pulse behind it. We’ve been isolated and the poet laureate program and poetry has become a way to express ourselves. I’m very happy about the second term. In some areas I feel like I’m just getting started and this extension will give me more time to develop things. We have some exciting things to launch. I feel good about it.
Reading your poems, I often feel like I am sharing a moment or a life experience with you. Do you feel that connection with your readers? My poems are often very personal, but I want them to connect with others too. When I begin, I often think of the poem as just for myself and then it opens up to include a reader. I am often very moved by how others feel a connection to the work. It’s overwhelming sometimes, but always quite touching. It’s humbling to know how my work has reached others.
What is something you can’t live without? I can’t live without quiet. I am “on” much of the time due to the position and it’s beautiful, but I crave silence and ease. I need silence to write, to breathe, to reconnect with my beloveds. I need to remember that I am here to be a small part of the world, not a major part of it. Being small and quiet is important to me as a writer and as a human.
The natural world seems to be an important ingredient in your writing and in your life. What is the origin of that? I’ve always loved the natural world, but that’s because we are the natural world! We aren’t separate from it. Though we often think we are. I grew up in a place with a lot of natural beauty, and I was encouraged to name and identify the plants and animals around me. It was an essential part of my upbringing.
While researching you, there are so many references to your refreshing honesty, your sense of humor and being comfortable in your own skin. Where do you think that comes from? I feel like I have practiced a fair amount of surrender as a grown-up and as a poet. I don’t have to be anyone else but who I am. I have embraced who I am. I started meditating in 2007 and it has been a game changer. I am always trying to build equanimity around myself to see the whole picture and recognize the things that matter.
Can you write anywhere, or do you have to have a setting or a routine? How has your very busy schedule impacted your writing time? I can write anywhere because I have to! I start to feel unwell if I don’t. You have to just do it; you have to carve out time to write. I also want to be as generous as possible with all the people who have supported me and are interested in my tenure as poet laureate, so I try to make room for it all.
Limón enjoys a moment with her beloved pug Lily Bean on the back porch of her Lexington home. Photo by Emily Giancarlo