Ada Limón's "The Carrying" wins the 2019 National Book Critic Circle Award...

and I am fixing to bust about it. The Carrying has brought beautiful Big Feels to people all over the world.

Ada and I met in grad school at NYU like this: I was in the women’s locker room at the gym. I had just put on my bathing suit, swim cap and nose plug, and was about to walk out the door to the swimming pool—suddenly Ada, also in s bathing suit and swim cap, hopped in front of me and said, “No! That’s not the door to the pool!” In my memory of this, her voice is high and fast, like a cartoon chipmunk. It turns out I was about to walk onto the men’s basketball court, right in the middle of a game. That was the first, but not the last, time Ada saved my life. Lala, you’re my Wonder Woman.