Ada Limón, the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States and critically acclaimed author, spoke about her latest collection of poetry, “The Hurting Kind,” at UCI on Jan. 19.
The event was hosted by UCI Illuminations and consisted of a reading, Q&A session and book signing. During the reading, Limón selected poems from “The Hurting Kind,” as well as poems from her previous works, including “The Carrying,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry.
The night opened with a reading of Limón’s poem “Ancestors” from “The Carrying,” which addresses identity as an immigrant in the United States and the experience of living in a place where it feels you have no roots. Many of these ideas are also explored in “The Hurting Kind.”
Released last May, “The Hurting Kind” grapples with topics centered around the idea of family. With the poems organized into sections corresponding to the four seasons of the year, this collection strives to answer “the question of family” and what it means “to be connected to everything,” according to Limón.
Questions are a prominent part of poetry for Limón, specifically for the poems in “The Hurting Kind” and the writing process in general. It is often questions that guide her poems and act as a source of inspiration for her work.
“Everything for me begins with questions, and the self-interrogation of that,” Limón said at the event. “I mean that’s our life, right? Everything is a question, and I think the best part about being a poet is that you start with questions and you end with more questions. That means that you will always write poems because there are always more questions.”
The never-ending questions that Limón’s poetry explores are also a constant reminder of the endless possibilities and creativity in poetry as an art form. Like many writers, Limón struggles with writer’s block and wondered whether at a certain point she would completely run out of ideas.
“I used to have moments where I’d finish a poem and think, well, I guess I’ll never write again,” Limón said during the Q&A. “Now I think, yeah, maybe I won’t write for a little while, but then I will and I trust that a lot. That’s a thing for younger writers; remember that it’ll come.”
During the Q&A portion of the event, Limón answered questions regarding her new position. Limón was named the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States by the Librarian of Congress back in July, making her the first Latina to be Poet Laureate.
While Poet Laureate is a government-appointed, and technically nonpartisan, position, Limón still feels there is freedom of expression and that she was able to convey her true feelings through poetry.
“I am representing the Library and Congress, but for the most part, the only job the role has, is to widen the public experience of poetry,” Limón said to the audience.
Whether it be in her work in the laureateship or her many other collections of poetry, Limón ultimately argued that a big part of poetry is the truthfulness of it.
“The strangeness of the world is in its truths,” Limón said. “I don’t need to go searching very far to find that sort of awe, wonder and strangeness … within reality. I think that’s part of what keeps me interested, engaged and curious about our lives. Even when it’s hard, there are so many small places for wonder and strangeness to take place.”
Limón plans to announce her new national poetry project titled “Poetry and the Natural World” on Jan. 30. More information can be found on her website.
Sabrina Henderson is a Campus News Intern for the winter 2023 quarter. She can be reached at smhende1@uci.edu