We've had the great good fortune to interview most of the U.S. Poets Laureate and Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winners over the past 15 years or so -- from Donald Hall to Rita Dove, Gwendolyn Brooks to Robert Hass, to name just a wonderful four -- but few have given us the pleasure we got from meeting and talking with Kay Ryan when she was in Chicago in the spring of 2004 to receive the Lilly Prize (and a check for $100,000!) from The Poetry Foundation, publishers of Poetry magazine.
Last week Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced that Kay Ryan (left) would become the next U.S. Poet Laureate, the 16th in the modern numbering and titling of the position.
We're not reproducing any of her poems here just now -- rights issues, etc. (We hope that Marin Independent Journal photog Alan Dep won't mind us using his lovely portrait here -- it is so much finer than other available images.) But we'll tell you that you should seek them out and that they won't take long to read -- the first time. Brief in terms of word count, they are packed tightly like gemstones. Avoiding highfalutin language, they still go deep. Quick across the eyes, they last in the mind.
We're rebroadcasting (and streaming) that 2004 interview, as well as a recording of Kay Ryan reading her poems with guitarist-composer Reed Maxson, tonight on 98.7WFMT and wfmt.com from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. Chicago time. As of tomorrow/Tuesday you'll be able to stream it or download it at a podcast right here (see The Sound from Here over there on the right) or at wfmt.com.
On Sunday's NPR Weekend All Things Considered the abysmal interviewer blurted out "But you teach remedial English at a [community] college in Northern California." Kay Ryan nearly jumped: "Why do you say 'But'?!" "Well it just seems that a poet of yr stature, teaching remedial English . . . . " "I think it's distinguished work. They know what they want. And they're there to get it."
We think Mr. Billington has made, to use Kay Ryan's turn, a distinguished choice and we look forward to watching, listening to, and reading what she does when she moves into her Washington, D.C. office in the fall.
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