For the second time this year, a U.S. poet laureate will visit Transylvania University for a public event.
Ada Limón, who lives here in Lexington, will give a poetry reading followed by a Q&A and book signing Nov. 10 at 5:30 p.m. in the Mitchell Fine Arts Center. The event is free, but you must reserve tickets. (It will be livestreamed as well.)
While she’s on campus, Limón will also meet with Transylvania students.
Her reading is part of Transylvania’s Delcamp Visiting Writer series and sponsored by other campus programs including Creative Intelligence, Crucial Terrain and the Hazelrigg-Humanities Endowment.
Limón, whose poetry collection “The Carrying” won a National Book Critics Circle Award, begins her term as the nation’s 24th poet laureate Sept. 1.
“We are excited to celebrate with her, with our students and with the city of Lexington her recent appointment as poet laureate,” Transylvania professor Jeremy Paden said.
Paden’s review of Limón’s “The Hurting Kind” was published last week. “In her eyes, through her eyes, we see our suffering and loneliness and we see moments of humor and human connection, we witness her and are witnessed by her, and her vulnerability helps us endure,” he said.
Limón has authored a total of six books of poetry. Her “Bright Dead Things” was nominated for the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. She also recently received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
“In her poetry, students will find a model for writing about the self and others with compassion, humor and grace; for how curiosity about the world and attention to nature can enrich and enliven the moral imagination,” Paden said.
After growing up in Sonoma, California, Limón now calls Lexington home — it’s where she writes, hosts an acclaimed podcast called “The Slowdown” and teaches remotely.
Limón’s Nov. 10 reading comes on the heels of a Kenan Lecture this past spring by then poet laureate Joy Harjo, an internationally known, award-winning poet, writer and performer of the Mvskoke Nation.
Photo: Lucas Marquardt