Ada Limón closes her tenure as U.S. Poet Laureate with May 20 appearance at Sitka Center for Art + Ecology

The poet, a MacArthur “genius” grant and National Book Award winner, has made her signature project to connect poetry to the natural world via installations in national parks. 

By Lori Tobias

Next week, when the Sitka Center for Art + Ecology hosts the largest public event in the nonprofit’s history, it seems only natural it should take place in a wildly beautiful setting known for inspiring art. What the small coastal community on Cascade Head is not known for, however, is attracting speakers so esteemed their name can be found on a rocket ship, linked to multiple U.S. National Parks, and on the list of Time Magazine’s Women of the Year.

Ask Sitka Executive Director Alison Dennis exactly how it came to be, and she’ll tell you, “We asked, and she said, ‘Yes.’”

On Tuesday, May 20, Ada Limón, 24^th Poet Laureate of the United States, will appear on stage in her last public event as poet laureate at the Nestucca K-8 School in Cloverdale. “We are above and beyond thrilled,” said Dennis.

Dennis invited Limón to Sitka after hearing her interviewed on NPR about her Library of Congress signature project, You Are Here. The invitation highlighted Sitka’s mission “of connecting people to art, nature, and community,” as well as its recent work to “help close rural arts-education gaps. Ada responded with generosity and excitement,” Dennis said.

The reading is open to the public at no charge, but tickets are required and available only online.

“It truly is moving,” Dennis said. “We hear a deep resonance between Limón’s poetry and Sitka’s mission. Art and nature are both ways of paying deep attention. Students in rural areas deserve the same opportunities to meet living artists, experience the best of human creativity and to hear their own stories reflected in that. I hope that people who attend leave the event knowing their words matter, their imaginations matter and that their voices belong in the world. Meeting a poet like Ada Limón makes that real.”

Oregon ArtsWatch talked by phone with Limón about her career, her coming visit, and life after serving as the country’s 24^th Poet Laureate.

You are the author of six books of poetry and two children’s books, the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, named a Time Magazine Woman of the Year. You’re also the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Carrying and were nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for Bright Dead Things. The list goes on. Did you aspire to become the Poet Laureate of the U.S.?

Limón: It wasn’t really on my radar. In my mind, it was something — if it were to happen — that would happen in my 70s or 80s. For me, it felt more of a lifetime achievement. So, I was really, utterly surprised when I was invited.

How did you get the news?

Basically, Dr. Carla Hayden, wonderful Librarian of Congress, set up a Zoom call. It was anonymous, so I didn’t know what it was. And my wonderful collaborator/agent Vaughan Fielder said, “You’re going to want to do the Zoom call, and I can’t tell you what it is.” Then she said, “But you’re going to want to do your hair and makeup.” She knows me (laughs).

And so, I got on the call and I would say there were maybe 10 people from the Library of Congress, and I recognized one of them, and I recognized Dr. Carla Hayden, and I thought, “Oh, my god,” and Dr. Carla Hayden said, “We would like to invite you to be the 24^th Poet Laureate of the United States.” I think I was so stunned, I was really at a loss for words. I have so much respect for the Library of Congress, so much respect for all librarians, it just felt enormously humbling. I think I was sort of stunned silent. I don’t think I said anything eloquent at all. [Editor’s note: President Trump fired Carla Hayden as Librarian of Congress on May 8; this interview was conducted prior to that.]

Your term was for one year starting in 2022, but it just ended in April of this year. How did it end up being three years?

It was a one-year term originally. Then we signed up for a two-year second term, because my signature project was so enormous that in order to do the work that we wanted to do with the national parks, we agreed to extend my term so that we could really accomplish something.

That would be the You Are Here project, featuring the anthology, You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, and site-specific poetry installations in national parks. Tell us about it.

The idea was to talk about the necessity of poetry and the idea of poetry connecting us to the natural world. I had the beautiful opportunity to put all these poetry installations, which are basically poems, on picnic tables. The goal was to put a poem in every single national park — which may or may not happen. But I began with seven.

Our first park was in Cape Cod, where we did a poem by Mary Oliver, and then we traveled to Mount Rainier and put a poem on the top of Mount Rainier, which was incredible. My little brother was a ranger at Mount Rainier National Park, and he helped me unveil the picnic table. And from there, we drove all the way down to the Redwoods and we put a table at the Redwood National and State Parks, and then we went to the Smoky Mountains, and then Cuyahoga [Valley] National Park, and then the Everglades. [The seventh park was Saguaro National Park in Arizona.]

On top of it all, you actually have a poem on the Europa Clipper spacecraft. How did that happen?

I was invited by NASA in October 2022 to write a poem for the Europa Clipper, and at the time, I had no idea it was going to be engraved in my own handwriting. It took me 2 months and 19 drafts, and I eventually got to a poem I felt spoke back to this planet.

What are some of the memorable moments of the past years?

I think a lot of it is hearing people’s stories and relationship to poems. I think also working with the National Park [Service], there was such a beautiful collaboration happening between the national parks, the Library of Congress, the Poetry Society of America, Milkweed Editions… everyone worked together. When we first started, it felt like this was going to be impossible, because it had so many moving elements, and then it was so seamless and beautiful and truly moving.

And working with the National Parks and seeing these stewards of these national parks and how much they work to preserve their ecosystems, the educational outreach that they do. The care that they have for these places is so incredible and inspiring. Right now, when all of our national parks and all of the arts are being threatened, it feels meaningful and so deeply disturbing, I felt like what we did was so massive and important.

What’s next?

Well, I’m trying my best to turn back into being the artist. I think that one of the hard things about being the poet laureate is that you turn into being more of the public figure, more of a symbolic gesture in the world. And now I think the uniform of the poet laureate is dissolving, and I am returning to the original animal, which is the poet animal.

Do you have any encouragement for poets who haven’t reached their definition of success?

l think writing poetry and sharing it with even yourself or just three or four other people is powerful and healing.  It works to transform both pain and joy into art. And I think there’s a lot of power in that. I also think sometimes we have to redefine what we think about success. The other thing is, if you want to get out there and be published, one of the best things to do is to really focus on community, to show up for your poetry community in the way you want them to show up for you. Remember that it really is a collective, and growing together is the way a satisfying poetry life gets made.

One last question: If you were to write a poem about your years as the 24^th Poet Laureate of the U.S., what would the title be?

(Pauses) I think it would be titled, Please Pay Attention.

Lori Tobias is a journalist of many years, and was a staff writer for The Oregonian for more than a decade, and a columnist and features writer for the Rocky Mountain News. Her memoir “Storm Beat – A Journalist Reports from the Oregon Coast” was published in 2020 by Oregon State University press. She is also the author of the novel Wander, winner of the 2017 Nancy Pearl Book Award for literary fiction and a finalist for the 2017 International Book Awards for new fiction. She lives on the Oregon Coast with her husband Chan and Rescue pups Gus and Lily.