Former poet laureate Ada Limón says artists must band together during 'dangerous times'

During her three years as the 24th poet laureate, Ada Limón said her travels around the United States taught her just how many poets the country has.

Limón said people would approach her during appearances to tell her they wrote poems regularly in a journal, or on a full moon or with their children.

“They might not be publishing poems, they might not even be sharing poems, but there are many people that are secret poets,” Limón said.

Limón's term, which ended in April, included writing a poem engraved on a spacecraft on its way to Jupiter's moon Europa and spearheading a program placing poems at seven national parks. Her new book, “Startlement: New and Selected Poems” comes out Sept. 30.

Limon said selecting the works to include in her collection was difficult because she usually approaches her books as though they're one poem. The author said she had to decide how to build a new poem out of these collected works.

“It was more difficult than I thought,” Limón said. “And once I really sat down and did it and listened to the poems and tried to figure out which poem wanted to have this new life, it shifted.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Limón spoke about her time as poet laureate, her new book and her concerns about the current political environment's impact on the arts. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

LIMÓN: I love that you bring this up because just today I was having such a difficult moment with my phone. I wanted to post something about a recent reading I did in Yosemite, and then of course because I did that, I was then bound to the phone. ... I was again in this complicated relationship with what should be a tool, and then suddenly felt like my boss.

So I think that my job as a poet is to not lose the amazement, not lose the wonderment at the world. So I find myself often having to put devices away, having to be delighted when I am out of range, if you will, and really start noticing the strangeness of the world. But it’s not just in nature. Human beings are bizarre. Our existence is bizarre. How we relate to one another provides an endless amount of terror and amusement. ... And if I’m doing my job, being in a body noticing, there is no end to poems that can be written about that.

LIMÓN: I think that, like everyone I know, this new administration has shifted our moral center in a way that feels drastic and evident. The biggest thing for me personally was that the Trump administration let go of Dr. Carla Hayden unceremoniously. She was serving her 10-year term as the Librarian of Congress, doing a remarkable job opening the Library of Congress up to the people in a way that had never been open before. She named it “the people’s library” and her firing, I think, was really emblematic of the trouble that is here and the trouble that’s coming.

LIMÓN: The poet laureate is technically an employee of the library. We’re not funded by the U.S. government directly. It’s through the library and it’s through a donation. So because of that, we’re asked not to speak about policy, just like anyone who worked for the federal government, whether you were a park ranger or you were a librarian. That being said, there was nothing that happened directly to me as a result of the new administration, aside from the firing of Dr. Carla Hayden.

The other thing that I will say was momentous was that my project, “You are Here: Poetry in the Parks and Poetry in the Natural World,” was meant to go into every single national park. And we began with seven, we unveiled these beautiful poems, and it was such an incredible experience. And it was meant to continue. And because of funding issues and because of the new administration’s sort of attack on national parks, that program is now on pause.

LIMÓN: I think these are dangerous times. I think that as artists we really have to hold true to what we believe in. We have to maintain our moral center even as funding resources dry up and even as we are asked to toe the line, if you will, so I think it’s really important to remember who we are and however it is that we move in the world — whether it’s the activist poets that are doing remarkable work or whether it’s someone who’s quietly writing in order to save themselves ... and I’m seeing that even in my own work, how I protect myself, how I find my courage, how I find my strength, how we rely on one another.

I think it’s really important to gather right now. I think it’s really important to remember where our power comes from and however we use our art. However we use our voices or our ears or our paintings, our bodies, whatever it is that we do to make this work, the art, the work of life, I think we need to keep doing it and we need to make sure that we aren’t losing sight of the soul.

LIMÓN: I am morally opposed to the use of AI, particularly for the creation of art. I think that if we are to use artificial intelligence for anything, it should be used to address the climate crisis. I think it should be used for medicine, I think it should be used to help save the planet and I don't think it should be used for art or for essays or for cognitive thinking.

I think we are in grave danger of losing critical thought and I know I've said “danger” a few times in this interview. But I feel it. And I think we should be really open to the possibility that AI has been a mistake. I also think we should be open to the fact that what is it in us that creates something and asks it to make art? I feel it's because we're asking it if it has a soul. I think every time we see something that is made, we know it doesn't.

LIMÓN: I am writing prose about my life. I just moved back to my hometown, and I actually bought my childhood home. So it is really bringing up a lot of ideas about time, ideas about identity, how we find where we belong. I'm writing about that and seeing where that takes me.

Ada Limón, 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, poses in Sonoma County, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Ada Limón, 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, poses in Sonoma County, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Ada Limón, 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, poses in Sonoma County, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Ada Limón, 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, poses with a copy of her book "Startlement" in Sonoma County, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Ada Limón, 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, poses in Sonoma County, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Police in Ohio's capital city said Wednesday that they have gathered enough evidence to link a man charged in the double homicide of his ex-wife and her husband in their Columbus home last month to the killings.

Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant said in an Associated Press interview that authorities now believe Michael David McKee, 39, a vascular surgeon who was living in Chicago, was the person seen walking down a dark alley near Monique and Spencer Tepe's home in video footage from the night of the murders. His vehicle has also been identified traveling near the house, and a firearm found in his Illinois residence also traced to evidence at the scene, she said.

An attorney representing McKee could not be identified through court listings.

His arrest Saturday capped off nearly two weeks of speculation surrounding the mysterious killings that attracted national attention. No obvious signs of forced entry were found at the Tepes’ home. Police also said no weapon was found there, and murder-suicide was not suspected. Further, nothing was stolen, and the couple’s two young children and their dog were left unharmed in the home.

“What we can tell you is that we have evidence linking the vehicle that he was driving to the crime scene. We also have evidence of him coming and going in that particular vehicle,” Bryant told the AP. “What I can also share with you is that there were multiple firearms taken from the property of McKee, and one of those firearms did match preliminarily from a NIBIN (ballistic) hit back to this actual homicide.”

Bryant said that the department wants the public to keep the tips coming. Investigators were able to follow up on every phone call, email and private tip shared from the community to the department and some of that information allowed them to gather enough evidence to make an arrest, she said.

That work culminated in the apprehension of McKee in Rockford, Illinois, where the hospital where he worked — OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center — has said it is cooperating with the investigation. He has been charged with premeditated aggravated murder in the shooting deaths. Monique Tepe, who divorced McKee in 2017, was 39. Her husband, a dentist whose absence from work that morning prompted the first call to police, was 37.

McKee waived his right to an extradition hearing on Monday during an appearance in the 17th Judicial Circuit Court in Winnebago County, Illinois, where he remains in jail. Bryant said officials are working out details of his return to Ohio, with no exact arrival date set. His next hearing in Winnebago County is scheduled for Jan. 23.

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said Wednesday that the city doesn't prioritize high-profile cases any more than others, noting that the city's closure rate on criminal cases exceeds the national average. The city also celebrated in 2025 its lowest level of homicides and violent crime since 2007, Ginther said.

“Every case matters. Ones that receive national attention, and those that don’t,” he told the AP. “Every family deserves closure and for folks to be held accountable, and the rest of the community deserves to be safe when dangerous people are taken off the street.”

Ginther said it is vital for central Ohioans to continue to grieve with the Tepes' family, which includes two young children, and loved ones, as they cope with “such an unimaginable loss.”

“I want our community to wrap our arms around this family and these children for years to come,” he said.

This undated booking photo provided by the Winnebago County Sheriff's Office Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, shows Michael David McKee, who was charged in the killing of his ex-wife, Monique Tepe, and her husband Spencer Tepe at their Columbus, Ohio, home on Dec. 30, 2025. (Winnebago County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Spencer and Monique Tepe's home in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos)

This image taken from video shows Michael David McKee walking into the courtroom on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Rockford, Ill. (WIFR News/Pool Photo via AP)