Praise for The Carrying
Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award
ALA Notable Book of 2018
Finalist for the 2019 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award
Limón has a novelistic knack for scene, and the narrative lyrics in this remarkable collection, her fifth, could stand as compressed stories about anxiety and the body.New York Times
Exquisite . . . Limón is always a careful witness, accurately recording the moment, rather than trying to transcend it. Evocative dreams and pivotal memories help make this collection a powerful example of how to carry the things that define us without being broken by them.Washington Post
[ In The Carrying] the National Book Award-nominated poet pens paeans to the worlds limitless capacity to astonish.O, The Oprah Magazine
Limón is a poet of ecstatic revelation. Her poetry feels fast, full of details, often playful, and driven by conversational voice. This book represents a powerful deepening of the poets perspective. . . . Its a book of deep wisdom and urgent vulnerability, driven by language that feels not only beautiful but permanent and powerfully wrought, like a mountain. It leads you to the beautiful bright mountaintop of language, then guides you gently down into the rocky valleys of a conscious human heart.Tracy K. Smith, Guardian
Masterful . . . A piercing look into the nature of pain and impermanence . . . It is a paean to nature itself, to the peace in knowing its both part of us and greater than usespecially when everything else in the world can seem like its falling apart.Buzzfeed
With each poem in her new collection, The Carrying, Limón counterbalances her most paralyzing fears with her ability to find small twinges of hope . . . Each poems is a widening lens of the world, an unburdening of the things we carry deep within ourselves.Paris Review
Merciful and beautiful . . . [ Limón] never hides behind words but reveals herself through themeven when the risk is overexposure. . . . This is as-the-crow-flies poetryit goes straight to the heart.Guardian
The Carrying is about the contradictory joys and burdens we all carry. . . . The societal connection between womanhood, motherhood and power is at the core of her work. . . . For Limón, carrying both the joys and sorrows of a child-free life is a testament to the human ability to exist with many things piled on our shoulders at once.PBS Newshour
Tender, illuminating . . . The anxiety of all of lifes realities permeates Limóns collection, which makes the work feel piercingly of the moment.San Francisco Chronicle
Limóns pitch-perfect fifth collection, The Carrying, is full of poems to savor and share . . . She writes with remarkable directness about the painful experiences normally packaged in euphemism and, in doing so, invites the readers to enter the world where abundant joy exists alongside and simultaneous to loss.Minneapolis Star Tribune
[ Limóns] new collection is her best yet, a much needed shot of if not hope, then perseverance amidst much uncertainty.NPR
The Carrying is one of [ Limóns] best. Even in poems about racism, misogyny, violence, and the darkness that often accompanies life, Limóns resiliency shines through.Bitch
For a book metered by grief, theres a lot of love herethat shouldnt come as a surprise, considering Limóns stylistic control and skill. . . . Limón is very good at pacing her poems to leave us satisfied but also curious. . . . One of the best books of the year.The Millions
Lyrical, tender, and knowing . . . Ada Limóns poetry connects the personal and the universal.Garden & Gun
With the knowing directness of a letter, Limóns poems speak to the marrow of our everyday condition . . . The Carrying is a vital collection for a noisy, brutal time. The power of Limóns unflinching examination of grief and loss is only surpassed by her love of beauty and compassion.BOMB Magazine
[ Limóns] poems come closer than any poems have to Annie Dillards essays . . . Shes that rarest of beasts, a poet who can take you by surprise.New Criterion
Deeply intimate . . . A poetry collection to help you make sense of the world right now . . . Its a spinning world that, increasingly, is turning to poetry like Limóns to make sense ofor, at least, to assuage the grief ofit all.Bustle
What drives her poemswhat makes her new collection, The Carrying, so moving and masterfulis her dexterity with voice and diction and her giftedness with metaphor. It is her deep wellspring of surprising and evocative images and her syntactic superpowers. Most of all, its her intellect and intelligence. The poems are keen reflections of a mind constantly at work, seeing and wondering and moving toward meaning but not always the meaning to which the poem and its reader thought they were headed.Poets & Writers
Limons new poems in The Carrying are like a winter gardensomber, full of grief and patience, suddenly visible lines from here to there. To watch a poet in full possession of her power tending the earth with this kind of care feels like an inspiration that comes with a chastened edge: time, they remind, is all we have.Literary Hub
All of Limóns books have found a home on my bookshelf, each volume a heartfelt reckoning of what it is be alive. In her collections, I find a grace that demonstrates her versatility and wisdom as well as a surrendering. She explains that the central question of her work is, How do we live in the world? Yet shes a poet as comfortable with questions as with answers.Guernica
[ Limón] might be the mom of Latinx poetry, and I mean that in the best way possible. . . . Limón is talented in a way thats both intimidating and inspiring, and is definitely a strong pillar of contemporary poetry.Book Riot
Wisely observant . . . Limóns poems personify the twinned-narrative of despair and tenacity that has become part of Americas current political and social reality. Indeed, The Carrying is a spark of courage in our dark and troubled times.PANK
Limóns work is a reminder that you can write poetry about big ideas.America
Exquisite poems about love, fertility, desire, this natural world we move through, the political climate, so much more.Roxane Gay, Goodreads
Superb. . . . Although the subject matter is often mournful, the endurance of nature also comes to light. Even though an individual may perish, there is consistency in the life cycles of bumblebees, dandelions, and race horsesall of which are examined with gorgeous language and imagery that makes Limóns collection hard to put down, even in the moments that cause a deep, sorrowful ache.Chicago Review of Books
This is the kind of poetry that strikes that rare balance: deftly crafted and profound but also completely accessible. The collection is about creation, death and everything in between, with so much attention to the thrumming world that just by reading it you become more aware, more in tune with the life around you.BookPage
Limón is one of the countrys finest poets. . . . Honest, lyrical observations on love, loneliness, life, death and all the mysteries in between. . . . She performs a near-miraculous feat in balancing razor-sharp imagery with deep ambivalence. . . . The Carrying beautifully conveys the power of poetry in an age that needs it most.Shelf Awareness
Limón teaches me that language can still surprise me. She shows me that the juxtaposition of words not previously joined can catch me off-guard, make me feel that shimmer of resonance, of curiosity.Signature
Gorgeous, thought-provoking . . . This fearless collection shows a poet that can appreciate lifes surprises.Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A stunning collection. . . . Limón writes movingly about finding the spectacular in the everyday. . . . A reverent, extraordinary take on the world. Dont miss this life-affirming collection.Library Journal (starred review)
A master of examining themes from unexpected angles, Limón rotates her topics in kaleidoscopic turns. . . . Page after page, this proves to be a startling and tender, magnificent collection.Booklist
Extraordinary . . . You realize that you witnessed something mesmerizing.Foreword Reviews
In her dazzling, precise, transformative collection, The Carrying, Ada Limón offers us meditations on mortality, womanhood, the body, and that which grows in the earth, all the while slyly positing: How we should treat each other in this precarious life? Like humans, is her answer. Like humans.Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins
It is no wonder that Ada Limons wonderful new book, The Carrying, is full of goldfinches and strawberries and dandelions and hostas and, as she writes, all good things that come from the ground. Its also no wonder that its full of the life that death makes. And the living that dying is. For this book is a garden. And like a garden, it will nourish you. It will feed you.Ross Gay
In her powerful new collection, Ada Limón asks: What if, instead of carrying // a child, I am supposed to carry grief? And later: isnt there still something singing? To which I say: yes. In these poems, joy and longing and grief sing with a music thatregardless of what I am burdened or blessed to carrymakes me want to live passionately and fully in the difficult world. The Carrying is a gift.Natasha Trethewey
