U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón to Launch “You Are Here” with Anthology of Nature Poems, Poetry Installations in National Parks
“You Are Here,” Ada Limón’s signature project as the nation’s 24th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, will launch during National Poetry Month in April with a celebration at the Library of Congress and will continue throughout the year with installations of poetry as public art in national parks across the country.
“You Are Here” is comprised of two major initiatives, a new anthology of nature poems and a series of visits to national parks, as well as a call for the public to participate. The new anthology, “You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World,” will be published by Milkweed Editions in association with the Library of Congress on April 2. It features a foreword by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, an introduction by Limón, and 50 original poems by living American poets, including former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo; Pulitzer Prize winners Jericho Brown, Carl Phillips and Diane Suess; and PEN/Voelcker Award winners Victoria Chang and Rigoberto González.
“I believe the way we respond to this crucial moment on our planet could define humanity forever. In conceiving of my signature project, I wanted something that could both praise our sacred and natural wonders and also speak the complex truths of this urgent time. It's my hope that You Are Here will do just that,” Limón said. “You Are Here: Poetry in the Parks aims to deepen our connection to nature through poetry, and You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World is an anthology that speaks to the many different ways we are nature too. It may seem easier to surrender to the overwhelm of the world's challenges right now, but I believe that singing out, offering something back to the earth, noticing our connection to the planet, could help us all move forward together in a powerful way.”
Limón said this project is for everyone, and she hopes people of all ages — poets and non-poets — will feel moved to write their own responses to the You Are Here prompt. It's simple: What would you write in response to the landscape around you? People can share their responses on social media if they choose, using the hashtag #YouAreHerePoetry.
“Above all, this project is about rising to this moment with hope, the kind of hope that will echo outwards for years to come,” Limón said.
Limón will return to the Library of Congress on Thursday, April 4 to celebrate the launch of “You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World” in an event with anthology poets Molly McCully Brown, Jake Skeets, Analicia Sotelo and Paul Tran. The event, part of the Library’s Live! at the Library series, will take place in the Coolidge Auditorium at 7 p.m. ET. Register for free tickets here.
Limón has also selected four anthology poems to be featured in the Academy of American Poets “Poem-a-Day” feature throughout National Poetry Month.
You Are Here: Poetry in Parks to Launch in National Parks
In June, Limón will launch “You Are Here: Poetry in Parks,” an initiative with the National Park Service and the Poetry Society of America. It will feature site-specific poetry installations in seven national parks across the country. These installations, which will transform picnic tables into works of public art, will each feature a historic American poem that connects in a meaningful way to the park.
The featured poets and poems include:
- Mary Oliver, “Can You Imagine?” at Cape Cod National Seashore
- Jean Valentine, “The valley” at Cuyahoga Valley National Park
- June Jordan, “Ecology” at Everglades National Park
- Lucille Clifton, “the earth is a living thing” at Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- A.R. Ammons, “Uppermost” at Mount Rainier National Park
- Francisco X. Alarcón, “Never Alone” at Redwood National and State Parks
- Ofelia Zepeda, “Na:nko Ma:s Cewagi/Cloud Song” at Saguaro National Park
Limón will travel to each of the participating parks in 2024 to unveil and celebrate the new installations and support community outreach. The calendar of her visits is as follows:
- June 14: Cape Cod National Seashore (Massachusetts)
- June 21: Mount Rainier National Park (Washington)
- June 23: Redwood National and State Parks (California)
- July 12: Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio)
- July 20: Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina and Tennessee)
- Oct. 8: Everglades National Park (Florida)
- Dec. 3: Saguaro National Park (Arizona)
Limón’s Work as Poet Laureate
As poet laureate, Limón has participated in other major programs and initiatives to share poetry with the public. For National Poetry Month 2023, Limón served as the guest editor for the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series.
On June 1, 2023 Limón returned to the Library to reveal “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” which she wrote for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. Limón’s poem will be engraved on the spacecraft that will travel 1.8 billion miles to explore Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. More than 2.5 million from people around the world signed on to send their names to space with the poem. The Clipper will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch period opens on Oct. 10, 2024.
In November 2023 Limón’s poem “Startlement,” commissioned by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, was released in the frontmatter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment — a congressionally mandated effort by the program and 14 federal agencies on the risks, impacts, and responses to climate change in the United States. This marked the first time the report included poetry.
About Ada Limón
Ada Limón was born in Sonoma, California, in 1976 and is of Mexican ancestry. She is the author of six poetry collections, including “The Carrying” (Milkweed Editions, 2018), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry; “Bright Dead Things” (2015), a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Books Critics Circle Award; “Sharks in the Rivers” (2010); “Lucky Wreck” (Autumn House, 2006); and “This Big Fake World” (Pearl Editions, 2006). She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University and is the recipient of fellowships from the MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, and the Kentucky Foundation for Women.
Her newest poetry collection, “The Hurting Kind” (2022), was published as part of a three-book deal with Milkweed Editions that includes the publication of “Beast: An Anthology of Animal Poems,” featuring work by major poets over the last century, followed by a volume of new and selected poems.
About the Poet Laureate Position
The Library of Congress Literary Initiatives Office is the home of the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, a position that has existed since 1937 when Archer M. Huntington endowed the Chair of Poetry at the Library. Since then, many of the nation’s most eminent poets have served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and, after the passage of Public Law 99-194 (Dec. 20, 1985), as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry — a position that the law states “is equivalent to that of Poet Laureate of the United States.”
During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry. In recent years, Laureates have initiated poetry projects that broaden the audiences for poetry.
For more information on the Poet Laureate and the Literary Initiatives Office, visit loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/. Consultants in Poetry and Poets Laureate Consultants in Poetry and their terms of service can be found at loc.gov/poetry/laureate-2011-present.html. To learn more about Poet Laureate projects, visit loc.gov/poetry/laureate-projects.html.
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov, access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov, and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.
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Media Contact: Brett Zongker, bzongker@loc.gov
Public Contact: Rob Casper, roca@loc.gov
PR 24-025
03/06/2024
ISSN 0731-3527