U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón will make her final public appearance in her official role on Tuesday, May 20, during a special event hosted by the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology at Nestucca K-8 School. The reading, which is free to the public with advance registration, marks the culmination of Limón’s three-year tenure as the nation’s 24th Poet Laureate.
Organizers say the event is the largest in Sitka Center’s history — a fitting farewell for a literary figure whose influence has reached from national parks to outer space.
“We are above and beyond thrilled,” said Alison Dennis, executive director of the Sitka Center. “Ada Limón embodies the power of poetry to connect people to art, nature, and community — exactly what we aim to do here.”
Limón, the recipient of prestigious awards including a MacArthur “genius” fellowship and a Guggenheim, was first appointed Poet Laureate in 2022. Her term was extended to support her signature initiative, You Are Here, a project placing poetry installations in national parks across the country.
The Sitka Center invited Limón after Dennis heard her on National Public Radio discussing the project. The outreach emphasized Sitka’s mission and its efforts to close rural arts-education gaps — an invitation Limón accepted “with generosity and excitement,” Dennis said.
“Art and nature are both ways of paying deep attention,” Dennis added. “Meeting a poet like Ada Limón makes it real for students and community members to see that their words and their imaginations matter.”
A Laureateship Beyond Expectation
Limón said she never expected to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate — at least not so soon.
“In my mind, it was something — if it were to happen — that would happen in my 70s or 80s,” she said in a recent phone interview. “So I was utterly surprised when I was invited.”
She learned of her appointment during an anonymous Zoom call arranged by Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden.
“I got on the call, and I recognized Dr. Hayden and thought, ‘Oh, my god,’” Limón recalled. “I was stunned. I don’t think I said anything eloquent at all. I have so much respect for librarians — it felt enormously humbling.”
Although initially a one-year position, Limón extended her term to complete the ambitious You Are Here project, developed in partnership with the Library of Congress, the National Park Service, and the Poetry Society of America.
Poetry in the Parks — and Beyond
The project aimed to place site-specific poetry installations, primarily on picnic tables, in national parks nationwide. The first installation featured a poem by Mary Oliver in Cape Cod National Seashore, followed by additional sites including Mount Rainier, where Limón’s own brother, a park ranger, helped unveil the piece. Other locations included Redwood National and State Parks, Great Smoky Mountains, Cuyahoga Valley, Everglades, and Saguaro National Park in Arizona.
“The idea was to highlight poetry’s role in connecting us to the natural world,” Limón said. “The collaborations with the National Park Service and other partners were beautiful. It felt enormous, meaningful, and seamless.”
Limón also contributed to another historic project: writing a poem for NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, set to launch later this year. The poem is engraved in her own handwriting and will accompany the spacecraft on its journey to Jupiter’s moon, Europa.
“It took me 19 drafts and two months to get to a poem I felt spoke back to this planet,” she said.
Looking Ahead
As she transitions out of her public role, Limón said she looks forward to returning to life as a working artist.
“One of the hard things about being the Poet Laureate is that you become a public figure,” she said. “Now, the uniform of the laureate is dissolving, and I’m returning to the original animal — the poet animal.”
Her advice to poets still striving toward their goals is simple but profound.
“Sharing your work, even with just a few people, is powerful and healing,” she said. “We also have to redefine what success looks like. Build community. Show up for your fellow poets. That’s how a satisfying poetry life gets made.”
