Ada Limón: The New U.S. Poet Laureate

“One of the things I’ve learned this far into a life in language is to be grateful about all of this,” said poet Ada Limón in a 2018 interview with Poets & Writers. “I get to read and spend time with words as a vocation. Yes, it’s work, and there is so much failure and so much getting it wrong. But still, we are so lucky.”  

Limón’s life in language has taken another turn. Last month, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden named her the 24^th Poet Laureate of the United States. In her appointment, Hayden cited the poet’s ability to connect and how her poems “ground us in where we are and who we share our world with. They speak of intimate truths, of the beauty and heartbreak that is living, in ways that help us move forward.” 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Poetry at Work: The Work of a Poet Laureate

In 2011 here at Tweetspeak Poetry, I reviewed Why the House is Made of Gingerbread: Poems by Ama Leavell Haymon, a retelling of the story of Hansel and Gretel in poetic form (with a few additional poems as well). We also featured one of her poems that year for National Poetry Month.

Her other collections of poetry include The Strict Economy of Fire (2004), Kitchen Heat (2006), and Eldest Daughter (August 2013). All, including the Gingerbread poems (2010), are published by LSU Press (proving, and I occasionally have to do, that my alma mater is about more than football). On Friday, I received an email from LSU announcing that Haymon had just been named Louisiana’s poet laureate.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. “Louisiana has a poet laureate? Who knew?” Well, Louisiana does have a poet laureate, and for the next two years it’s Haymon. (She conveniently lives in Baton Rouge, the state capital.)

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.