The UWM Distinguished Lecture Series will host Ada Limón, the 24th U.S. poet laureate, on campus from 7-9 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15, in the UWM Student Union, Wisconsin Room.
Limón is the author of six books of poetry, including “The Carrying,” which won the National Book Critics Circle 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 most recent book of poetry, The Hurting Kind, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is also the author of two children’s books: In Praise of Mystery, with illustrations by Peter Sís; and And, Too, The Fox, released in 2025.
In October 2023 she was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and she was named a Time magazine woman of the year in 2024. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and wrote a poem that was engraved on NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft that was launched to the second moon of Jupiter in October 2024. As the U.S. poet laureate, her signature project is called “You Are Here” and focuses on how poetry can help connect us to the natural world. She will serve as poet laureate until this spring.
Tickets are required for the event, which is free for UWM students and $10 for all others.
The event is sponsored by UWM Student Involvement, Women’s Resource Center, Women’s and Gender Studies, English Department, Honors College and ColorLit. It’s also presented in partnership with the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, 21st Century Studies and the Roberto Hernández Center.
