Praise for The Hurting Kind'I can always rely on an Ada Limón poem to give me hope, but Limón's poems don't give us the kind of facile Hallmark hope; rather, her hope is hard-earned, even laced with grief or happiness . . . Limón is a master at making a simple idea (that of hindsight, seeing the bright side of things) askew. "And so I have/two brains now," she writes. "Two entirely different brains." Limón gives us two brains in her poems, too, revealing new ways to view the world' Victoria Chang, New York Times Magazine'In one of Ada Limón's early poems, she asks, "Shouldn't we make fire out of everyday things?" For the past 16 years, that's exactly what she's done. [She is] fearlessly confessional and technically brilliant' Washington Post'These poems home in on how grief makes us human . . . [Limón] reminds readers that we are nothing without connection. If you haven't read poetry in a while, this volume might be what you need to reconnect with the form' Los Angeles Times'Brilliant . . . Throughout is the trademark wonder, and blown-out perceptivity, underscoring Limón's clarion melancholy' San Francisco Chronicle'Limón responds in her poetry to what she identifies as an ecological imperative to re-describe our relationship to "nature" in a manner that isn't merely instrumental. The moving personal dramas that her poems detail can never be separated from the landscape in which they occur . . . Consequently, her poetry, which can feel so intimate and self-revealing, is almost constantly political at the same time . . . There are endless things to say about the articulate, complex emotional resonance of the poems in this book. Still, what Limón says about "a life" is true as well for her book: "You can't sum it up."' Forrest Gander, Brooklyn Rail

By far Limón's most self- and world-examining book, The Hurting Kind captures the hidden, marginal forces of kindness and suffering around us . . . a set of astoundingly moving poems in which the self becomes an inclusive vehicle for bridging the hurting gaps between generations, ideas and living things . . . If you only read one book this autumn, make it this one

I can always rely on an Ada Limon poem to give me hope, but Limon's poems don't give us the kind of facile Hallmark hope; rather, her hope is hard-earned, even laced with grief or happiness . . . Limon is a master at making a simple idea (that of hindsight, seeing the bright side of things) askew. "And so I have/two brains now," 'I can always rely on an Ada Limon poem to give me hope, but Limon's poems don't give us the kind of facile Hallmark hope; rather, her hope is hard-earned, even laced with grief or happiness . . . Limon is a master at making a simple idea (that of hindsight, seeing the bright side of things) askew. "And so I have/two brains now," she writes. "Two entirely different brains." Limon gives us two brains in her poems, too, revealing new ways to view the world - New York Times MagazineI can always rely on an Ada Limon poem to give me hope, but Limon's poems don't give us the kind of facile Hallmark hope; rather, her hope is hard-earned, even laced with grief or happiness . . . Limon is a master at making a simple idea (that of hindsight, seeing the bright side of things) askew. "And so I have/two brains now," 'I can always rely on an Ada Limon poem to give me hope, but Limon's poems don't give us the kind of facile Hallmark hope; rather, her hope is hard-earned, even laced with grief or happiness . . . Limon is a master at making a simple idea (that of hindsight, seeing the bright side of things) askew. "And so I have/two brains now," she writes. "Two entirely different brains." Limon gives us two brains in her poems, too, revealing new ways to view the world - New York Times MagazineI can always rely on an Ada Limon poem to give me hope, but Limon's poems don't give us the kind of facile Hallmark hope; rather, her hope is hard-earned, even laced with grief or happiness . . . Limon is a master at making a simple idea (that of hindsight, seeing the bright side of things) askew. "And so I have/two brains now," 'I can always rely on an Ada Limon poem to give me hope, but Limon's poems don't give us the kind of facile Hallmark hope; rather, her hope is hard-earned, even laced with grief or happiness . . . Limon is a master at making a simple idea (that of hindsight, seeing the bright side of things) askew. "And so I have/two brains now," she writes. "Two entirely different brains." Limon gives us two brains in her poems, too, revealing new ways to view the world - New York Times MagazineIn one of Ada Limon's early poems, she asks, "Shouldn't we make fire out of everyday things?" For the past 16 years, that's exactly what she's done. [She is] fearlessly confessional and technically brilliant - Washington Post