Startlement

I marvel at Ada Limón’s ability to weave on the page her playfulness and wisdom. Her lyricism dances. This is the poetry of a tender and compassionate human – Joan Baez, singer-songwriter and author of When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance
Startlement is a book of rare treasures. With lyrical mastery and intimate storytelling, Limón’s poetry reveals new ways of paying attention. This powerful collection is a gift – Amy Tan, author of The Backyard Bird Chronicles
Ada Limón is a bright light in a dark time * Vanity Fair *
Limón is a poet of ecstatic revelation. Her poetry […] leads you to the beautiful bright mountaintop of language, then guides you gently down into the rocky valleys of a conscious human heart – Tracy K. Smith * Guardian *
I can always rely on an Ada Limón poem to give me hope, but Limón’s poems don’t give us the kind of facile Hallmark hope; rather, her hope is hard-earned, even laced with grief or happiness… . Limón is a master at making a simple idea (that of hindsight, seeing the bright side of things) askew. ‘And so I have / two brains now,’ she writes. ‘Two entirely different brains.’ Limón gives us two brains in her poems too, revealing new ways to view the world – Victoria Chang * New York Times Magazine *
[Ada Limón] is one of my all-time favorite writers, someone whose work I return to again and again for solace, inspiration, and truth * The Atlantic *

Ada Limon is the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States. She is the editor of the You Are Here anthology and the author of five collections of poems, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and Bright Dead Things, which was named a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Award. She’s also the author of the picture book In Praise of Mystery based on the poem engraved on NASA’s Europa Clipper. Limon is a MacArthur Fellow, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was named a TIME Woman of the Year. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and American Poetry Review. She lives in Glen Ellen, California.

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