Our current and former U.S. Poets Laureate keep showing up in the news, thanks to the power of their writing and their work in the position.
On Monday, October 21st, 2024, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced that both Joy Harjo and Juan Felipe Herrera were recipients of the 2022 National Humanities Medal. On this day, both were honored guests at the White House for the National Arts and Humanities reception, overseen by the First Couple, and both—along with 2022 and 2023 recipients such as Levar Burton, Roz Chast, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Jon Meacham and Aaron Sorkin—received their medals. Congratulations to them both on this honor.
The National Endowment for the Arts also had big laureate-related news recently: Ada Limón’s laureate project anthology, “You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World,” was recently announced as part of its “Big Read” initiative! This year’s initiative theme is “Our Nature: How Our Physical Environment Can Lead Us to Seek Hope, Courage, and Connection,” and it features 22 books—including Limón’s anthology and Joy Harjo’s poetry collection “An American Sunrise.”
Limón is having another media moment herself, thanks the launch of the NASA Europa Clipper with her poem “In Praise of Mystery” etched on one of its vault plates. Around the launch and the publication of the poem in a picture book featuring illustrations by Peter Sís, Limón has done a number of wide-ranging interviews in publications such as ELLE and Kirkus Reviews. USA Today featured the laureate as part of their new series “The Essentials,” in which “celebrities share what fuels their lives, whether it’s at home, on the set or on the road.” The New York Times Book Review writer and editor Elizabeth Egan traveled down to Cape Canaveral with Limón and other Library staff to cover the Europa Clipper launch (and Ada’s laureateship overall) for an extensive profile—just published today.
Speaking of the launch, Ada followed up with the Library’s Brett Zongker about her experience. She said:
I was overwhelmed by how much force, how much teamwork and energy, thought and imagination, went into that singular moment. Watching the spacecraft launch, I kept thinking my words were some small part of its journey and it overwhelmed me. It almost didn’t feel real, until I watched it disappear. Then, my first feeling was how much I hoped the whole journey would be safe, that my poem might keep the spacecraft and its scientific instruments safe.
We are so proud of the laureates. We hope you join us in celebrating their achievements!