The Southern Review of Books interviews Ada Limón

Ada Limón, author of Luck Wreck, was recently interviewed by the Southern Review of Books on the 15th Anniversary Edition of the collection, its significance in 2021, and the process of writing grief. A delight to read, their conversation touches on the function of poetry in the face of crisis:

I don’t often know how to talk about the overwhelming oppressive fears of global climate change or the fact that our soil is almost completely devoid of nutrients. I don’t know how to talk about racial injustice as a whole. These large, massive things, you know? But I do know how to talk about the smallest moment and how it is filled with all of that.

I think I’m still interested in that idea of how we can praise and recognize grief. How can we have that capacity to hold all those things at once – to hold that small good thing and to hold the terrible truth? And I think this book was philosophically a paradigm shift for me because it kind of showed that this is going to be how I live my life. And recognizing that capacity is essential to living in a way that feels authentic with who I am, that it’s not a surrender to the sadness even though sometimes you have to do that.

Autumn House is very grateful to Justin Evans at the Southern Review of Books for sitting down with Ada and generating such insightful conversation! Read the full interview here.