Reading List
Ada Limón
American Poet and 24th US Poet Laureate
Ada Limón, born in 1976 and raised in Sonoma, California, is an American poet. She was named the 24th United States Poet Laureate in 2022, the first Latina to hold the post, and was reappointed for a second term in 2023. Her collection Bright Dead Things was a National Book Award finalist, and The Carrying won the National Book Critics Circle Award. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020. Her picks here, from a Year in Reading essay for The Millions, include Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend, Tommy Orange’s There There, Kiese Laymon’s Heavy and Tracy K. Smith’s Wade in the Water.
Eye Level
by Jenny Xie · 2018 · Literature
“Eye Level by Jenny Xie is a high wire act that deserves attention.” — via Article, December 2018
American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
by Terrance Hayes · 2018 · Literature
“Terrance Hayes's American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin is a triumph” — via Article, December 2018
Wade in the Water
by Tracy K. Smith · 2018 · Literature
“Tracy K. Smith's Wade in the Water was breathtaking.” — via Article, December 2018
Heart Berries
A Memoir
by Terese Marie Mailhot · Memoir
“Terese Marie Mailhot's Heart Berries was brutal and stunning and honest in a way that felt necessary.” — via Article, December 2018
Air Traffic
by Gregory Pardlo · 2018 · Memoir
“Of course Gregory Pardlo's Air Traffic was exceptionally well written and gave us a deep look into toxic masculinity and the pitfalls of the ego.” — via Article, December 2018
Heavy
An American Memoir
by Kiese Laymon · 2019 · Memoir
“I read a few surprisingly good memoirs this year and my favorites would have to be Heavy by Kiese Laymon for the way it surrenders to self-incrimination and how the book is truly a love letter to both his mother and himself.” — via Article, December 2018
There There
by Tommy Orange
“Tommy Orange's There There had me deeply disturbed and enthralled, not only for the characters and cultural veracity, but because I think he's an incredible master of time.” — via Article, December 2018
The Friend
by Sigrid Nunez · 2019 · Fiction
“Sigrid Nunez's The Friend really blew me away for numerous reasons, but I was struck by the sheer power of her sentences, her eviscerating eye, and how she was able to meld both canine and human grief in a way that left me devastated.” — via Article, December 2018
