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Ada Limón is the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award.  Her book Bright Dead Things was nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.  Her work has been supported most recently by a Guggenheim Fellowship.  She is the new host of American Public Media’s weekday poetry podcast, The Slowdown.  She grew up in Sonoma, California and now lives in Lexington, Kentucky where she writes and teaches remotely.  She is the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States.

The Hurting Kind 2023 Shortlist

Little, Brown Book Group/Corsair, UK

Judges’ Citation

Again and again the clarity of vision and depth of emotion in this lovely book turns the ordinary on its head, asking us to slow down, to see the world askew, and thus anew.

Again and again the clarity of vision and depth of emotion in this lovely book turns the ordinary on its head, asking us to slow down, to see the world askew, and thus anew. Tinged with grief and longing, and buoyed by wonder in the natural world and the possibility of human connection, these are poems that seem to move effortlessly—in the way that only a deft touch can do. The precision of syntax—at once plainspoken and fiercely lyrical—unfolds its revelations masterfully and with a kind of grace that is often heartbreaking. The Hurting Kind is a marvel.


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