U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s next book will be an anthology of poems inspired by the natural world, the Library of Congress announced in a news release.
Milkweed Editions will publish You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World next spring. “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,” the press says of the collection.
The collection is part of Limón’s project as Poet Laureate, also called “You Are Here.” The initiative will also see national parks in the U.S.— including Great Smoky Mountains, Everglades and Redwood—host picnic table-based installations featuring historic American poems.
The anthology will feature poets including former U.S. Laureate Joy Harjo, Jericho Brown, Diane Seuss, Victoria Chang and Rigoberto González.
“I want to champion the ways reading and writing poetry can situate us in the natural world,” Limón said in a statement. “Never has it been more urgent to feel a sense of reciprocity with our environment, and poetry’s alchemical mix of attention, silence, and rhythm gives us a reciprocal way of experiencing nature—of communing with the natural world through breath and presence.”
You Are Here is scheduled for publication on April 2.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
