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photo: Lucas Marquardt |
Ada Limón is the author of six books of poetry and is the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States. Her first picture book, In Praise of Mystery, illustrated by Peter Sís (Norton Young Readers), is based on the poem that she wrote to be engraved on NASA's orbiter spacecraft, Europa Clipper, which launched to the second moon of Jupiter on October 14, 2024. Her second children's book, And, Too, the Fox, illustrated by Gaby D'Alessandro, is out now from Lerner Books.
Handsell readers your book in 25 words or less:
A picture book for the imagination, In Praise of Mystery expands ideas about space and our relationship to our own wondrous planet.
On your nightstand now:
I'm currently reading The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger, a smart and engaging book about the biology and wonder of plants. I love how the more we learn about nature, the more we realize how wise the natural world is. I find this book a welcome journey into the inner workings and science behind the plant world. It's amazing to me how much we still have to learn about how plants live, thrive, and suffer on this planet.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Flying Dimitri by Blair Drawson is a beautiful picture book that explores the blurred lines between our reality and our dreams. I remember staring at the pictures as a child and imagining flying over the oceans, over whales. I think most of my flying dreams came from this book when I was a little one. Gorgeous illustrations that offer something new each time you look!
Your top five authors:
I'm honestly not sure if I can answer this question. I have a hard time ranking books that I love and authors that I love. We go to books and writers for different reasons. Sometimes I crave the lyrical poetry of Audre Lorde, sometimes the long line of Larry Levis. Sometimes I need the images and impeccable sentences of Virginia Woolf and sometimes I need the abundance and power of Juan Felipe Herrera's poetry. My favorites change because I change and what I need at the moment changes.
Book you've faked reading:
Okay, I don't want this to sound dismissive or rude, but I think I've faked reading pretty much anything by Philip Roth. I tried. I really did. I've tried and I've failed. But if someone asks me, I nod my head because it somehow seems like I've read his books. I've read portions: I've started and stopped. There's something about his books that have always shut me out. And I'm okay with that. I don't think they were written for me. Sometimes when someone is not talking to you, you don't have to listen.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer is a book I tell everyone about. Over and over, I'll send it out and share it. I send it to friends and family members. It's one of the few books I've read multiple times. It's also one of the few books that reimagines our relationship with the natural world as a reciprocal one. I've referred to her book in my poems and there are lines from that book I hold as talismans against despair.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X. What an incredible cover and title. Such a powerful book. And the image on the cover is so good. Also, when I was a teenager and working at my local independent bookstore (Readers' Books in Sonoma, Calif.) I remember buying both Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel and Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina García or their covers. Still love those books (and their covers!).
Book you hid from your parents:
I'm pretty sure I hid any of the Sweet Valley High books because I thought they'd assume they were full of silly romances and were more like soap operas. But let's face it, as a young person, soap operas and romance are delightful! I think those books felt like eating cotton candy and I don't think my parents disapproved entirely but I think they'd steer me in another direction if they saw me reading them.
Book that changed your life:
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde is a book that deeply changed me. It gave me language for so much of my life. I remember reading it as a sophomore in college and feeling unprepared for the world and yet her words, the explorations of feminism and racism and class, all felt like the world was being unveiled. It was a book that made me feel like I wasn't alone.
Also, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I had never read a book that mapped the mind so effortlessly, so seemingly true. I remember how it made me gasp as the mind and memory were laid bare. I believed every single word.
And the musical Really Rosie, with lyrics and books by Maurice Sendak and music by Carole King. I think I listened to that album for five years straight. I probably have every single word still memorized. Part of me thinks I always wanted to be, more than anyone else, Really Rosie. I still remember the first lines/lyrics: "I'm really Rosie, I'm Rosie real, you better believe me, I'm a great big deal."
Favorite line from a book:
"Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond." --Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
Five books you'll never part with:
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (I still have the original copy)
Elizabeth Bishop's Geography III
Snake Dreams by Francisco X. Alarcón (I have a signed copy I cherish)
Peter and Wendy by J.M. Barrie
Snow White by Paul Heins, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
I'd love to read The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare again. I loved the descriptions and the way being an outsider was explored. It's been years since I've read it, but I'd love to read it again. I'd also love to read the Narnia Chronicles again. I remember loving them so much as a child. And let me add that every time I'm reading Emily Dickinson, I feel like I'm reading her for the first time, so that's a gift. Each poem opens up in a new way and once again I am seeing the world anew.