NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"Whoever you are, you will find yourself and your own world in the expansiveness of this collection."
-Margaret Renkl, New York Times
Published in association with the Library of Congress and edited by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, a singular collection of poems reflecting on our relationship to the natural world by fifty of our most celebrated contemporary writers.
In recent years, our poetic landscape has evolved in profound and exciting ways. So has our planet. Edited and introduced by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, Ada Limón, this book challenges what we think we know about "nature poetry," illuminating the myriad ways our landscapes-both literal and literary-are changing.
You Are Here features fifty previously unpublished poems from some of the nation's most accomplished poets, including Joy Harjo, Diane Seuss, Rigoberto González, Jericho Brown, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Paul Tran, and more. Each poem engages with its author's local landscape-be it the breathtaking variety of flora in a national park, or a lone tree flowering persistently by a bus stop-offering an intimate model of how we relate to the world around us and a beautifully diverse range of voices from across the United States.
Joyful and provocative, wondrous and urgent, this singular collection of poems offers a lyrical reimagining of what "nature" and "poetry" are today, inviting readers to experience both anew.
"Ada is one of those people who can recognize all the ways we inflict pain on one another, not to mention our planet, without getting consumed by it. She writes in that space between grief and joy, and I love that space." --Rachel Martin, NPR
"A lovely book to take with you to read at the end of your next hike." -Los Angeles Times
"Lush with lyricism and striking imagery, these poems by Jericho Brown, Diane Seuss, and others contemplate seascapes, backyards, national borders, and built environments where life sings beneath the surface." --Poets & Writers
"Contemporary American poets were asked to reflect on their relationship to the natural world in this evocative anthology of poems edited by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón . . . The poems range from meditating on planting flowers in a garden to flora and fauna in parks and the wild, and express how each poet has their unique--frequently surprising--relationship to nature." --Seattle Times, "6 books to check out this spring"
"Ada Limón needs no introduction whether it's to outer space, or with her feet on the ground because of how she has impacted an entire new generation of minds with the weight of her words. [...] Limón sees poems as a vessel and a remedy for all kinds of hurt, even for the hurt we cause. And now we need poems and their remedies more than ever to bring us back to earth and back to ourselves." --Electric Literature
"This beautifully curated anthology of 50 previously unpublished poems challenges preconceptions about 'nature poetry' as it meditates on humanity's relationship to the planet . . . This collection stands apart for the strength of its entries and the breadth of its superb meditations on a pressing theme." --Publishers Weekly
"Ada Limón commissioned some of the finest poets of our era to write to perhaps the most pressing issue of our time, in an anthology that is uniformly intimate, if diverse in subject matter.... This collection will speak to those who love contemporary poetry and those who don't yet realize they do, as well as all who care about our natural world, and our place within it.... This collection is superbly designed for multiple audiences: nature lovers, poetry mavens, casual readers, or even as a generative teaching tool." -- Mandana Chaffa, The Brooklyn Rail
"Nature is the unifying theme of this poetry anthology edited by current U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón, who was born and raised in Sonoma County. Each featured poet, including Joy Harjo, Paul Tran, Rigoberto González and more, is invited to tangle with their local landscape to produce previously unpublished work." --San Francisco Chronicle, "22 new works to energize your spring reading"
"Whatever you think 'nature poetry' is, you might be surprised by this collection. Each poet writes about their local landscape in new and sometimes unexpected ways, showcasing a diversity of methods with which to interact with the natural world. It's a slim but powerful volume of poetry that demands you slow down, stop, and immerse yourself in the natural world, if even just for a few minutes." -- BookRiot, "8 New Science Books to Look For in Early 2024"
"It's clear through her work--including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award--that Ada is connected to something higher, bigger, more ethereal in all that she notices, discovers, and shares. Yet it is exactly those same attributes that plant her so firmly in this physical plane, here on Earth. It's no surprise, then, that this kind of groundedness is at the heart of her latest book, a project that uplifts individual voices while creating authentic and profound unity. [. . .] Through her work, written and otherwise, Ada reminds us of everyday magic and the importance of connection." --Chicago Review of Books
"In a moment where many are reevaluating their relationship with the natural world, this collection of poems by 50 celebrated contemporary writers reflects on just that topic. Published in association with the Library of Congress, and edited by Ada Límon, the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, You Are Here challenges readers to rethink what they know about 'nature poetry, ' as both the poetic landscape and the literal landscape of the world are currently changing before our very eyes." --W Magazine
"The poems in this collection explore various facets of nature, from the beauty of the earth to the looming climate crisis [. . .] there's no better time to read this meditation on the world around us." --Washington Square News
"The expansive You Are Here surveys both the landscape of the natural world and the landscape of contemporary poetry. Pastoral witness neighbors environmental concern; established talents neighbor emerging voices; lakes and forests neighbor pools and cemeteries. Dear gardeners, bookworms, lumberjacks, cartographers, bird-watchers, scholars, students, poets, and general readers: You Are Here will leave you more attuned to the textures of countryside and country. Language and land become a capacious singularity in Ada Limón's superb compilation." --Terrance Hayes, author of American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
"The poets in this collection share the richness of their breathing. Rich with noticing, rich with longing, rich with grace, their breath--preserved in poems--become our breathing. The gift here is the true scale of our breath, an interspecies, planetary scale. The scale of gratitude. I am so glad you are here." --Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals
Ada Limón is the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States and the author of The Hurting Kind, a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is also the author of five other collections of poems, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and Bright Dead Things, which was named a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Award, and the picture book In Praise of Mystery based on the poem engraved on NASA's Europa Clipper. Limón is a MacArthur Fellow, the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was named a TIME Woman of the Year. Her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, and American Poetry Review. She lives in Glen Ellen, California.
Milkweed Editions
Pub Date: April 2, 2024
0.9" H x 8.6" L x 5.4" W
176 pages
Hardcover