MacArthur fellows receive a grant of $800,000 over five years to spend however they want. Fellows are nominated and endorsed by their peers and communities through an often yearslong process that the foundation oversees. They do not apply and are never officially interviewed for the fellowship before it’s awarded.
One of the recipients this year is a California native who has adopted Kentucky as her home.
As poet laureate, Ada Limon commissioned an anthology of poems, “You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World,” to be published in April and also arranged for historic poems to be installed at seven national parks. Her work will also be emblazoned on a spacecraft NASA is sending to Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Speaking with WUKY’s Accents podcast, Limon said she’s a writer who doesn’t like being hemmed in by labels and boundaries.
"You that we go into poetry to resist summation," she said. "We go into poetry out curiosity, wonder, and expansiveness."
The MacArthur grant will offer her new avenues to explore as she begins her second term as the country's poet laureate.
Other genius grant recipients this year include a scientist who studies the airborne transmission of diseases, a legal scholar examining global migration, and a master hula dancer and cultural preservationist, among many others.
