Poet laureate headlines Vegas Valley Book Festival

By Joe Brown

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009 | 2 a.m.

You might say she is America’s next top poet. Kay Ryan, the United States poet laureate, will make her first appearance in Nevada on Thursday night, when she reads from her work at the Fifth Street School to open the annual Vegas Valley Book Festival.

Words worth

According to the Library of Congress, the poet laureate “serves as the nation’s official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans.” The poet is officially appointed by the librarian of Congress, currently James H. Billington, in consultation with former appointees, the current laureate and distinguished poetry critics. The laureate receives a $35,000 stipend, gives an annual lecture and reading of his or her poetry and usually introduces poets in the Library’s annual poetry series.

Names

In 1937 Joseph Auslander was appointed official consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress; the title was changed in 1985 to poet laureate consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. Ryan is the 16th U.S. poet laureate; the first was Robert Penn Warren (1986-87); the five most recent poet laureates were: Charles Simic (2007-08), Donald Hall (2006-07), Ted Kooser (2004-06), Louise Gluck (2003-04) and Billy Collins (2001-03). Other poets who received the honor include Elizabeth Bishop, William Carlos Williams, James Dickey and Rita Dove.

Reluctant poet

The daughter of an oil-well driller and prospector, Ryan, 64, was born in San Jose, Calif., and grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. “I so didn’t want to be a poet,” Ryan told The New York Times. “I came from sort of a self-contained people who didn’t believe in public exposure, and public investigation of the heart was rather repugnant to me.” In another interview, Ryan said she writes every morning, in longhand. “I write in bed, and so one of the real torments of the laureateship is having to put clothes on so often.”

Ryan has written six books of poetry, “Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends” (1983), “Strangely Marked Metal” (1985), “Flamingo Watching” (1994), “Elephant Rocks” (1996), “Say Uncle” (2000) and “The Niagara River” (2005). Her partner of 30 years, English teacher Carol Adair, died this year. They were married in 2004 at San Francisco City Hall.

Poetry perks

There are some benefits to being a poet laureate. “I was at a festival recently at Yosemite, and I was standing in line to use the bathroom,” Ryan told The Washington Post. “And the people said, You go first! And I said, ‘Oh I couldn’t possibly.’ They said, ‘You must!’ There was quite a line, and I said, ‘This is great!’ And then at the reading, I said: Auden said that poetry makes nothing happen, but that’s not true — I got cuts in the bathroom line. But it is a little odd.”

In her own words

Poetry, Ryan has said, is an intensely personal experience for both writer and reader. “Poems are transmissions from the depths of whoever wrote them to the depths of the reader. To a greater extent than with any other kind of reading, the reader of a poem is making that poem, is inhabiting those words in the most personal sort of way. That doesn’t mean that you read a poem and make it whatever you want it to be, but that it’s operating so deeply in you, that it is the most special kind of reading.”