July 17, 2008

Remedial-English Instructor at College in California Is Named Poet Laureate of U.S.

Kay Ryan, a 62-year-old poet who has taught remedial English at the College of Marin, in Kentfield, Calif., for 30 years, will be the nation’s new poet laureate. James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress, made the announcement today.

“Kay Ryan is a distinctive and original voice within the rich variety of contemporary American poetry,” Mr. Billington said. “She writes easily understandable short poems on improbable subjects. Within her compact compositions there are many surprises in rhyme and rhythm and in sly wit pointing to subtle wisdom.”

Her fellow poet J.D. McClatchy has compared her work to Eric Satie’s miniatures or Joseph Cornell’s boxes. Here, for instance, is her take on that old saw about the other shoe:

Oh if it were
only the other
shoe hanging
in space before
joining its mate.

Ms. Ryan was born in San Jose, Calif., and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles. She has been a resident of Marin County since 1971. In a 2004 interview, she told the Christian Science Monitor that “I have tried to live very quietly, so I could be happy.”

A profile in today’s New York Times and another in The Washington Post describe the long and winding road — much of it traveled on a mountain bike — by which Ms. Ryan arrived at literary success.

At UCLA, according to the Post, “the poems she submitted were judged not to meet the poetry club’s standards. She ‘leaped away, mortally stung,’ and afterward ‘stayed pretty remote from the joining business.’” She has never taken a creative-writing class, and she was close to 40 before she began to find places to publish her work.

The new poet laureate will take up her duties this fall. “I thought I might take it upon myself to prevent all bad poetry from being published during my reign,” she told the Post when asked if she had any agenda. —Jennifer Howard

Comments

1. AAAHHH, just what we need the final arbiter of good and bad poetry.

   — gl    Jul 17, 12:01 PM    #

2. There is good poetry?

   — Tessier-Ashpool    Jul 17, 12:15 PM    #

3. Uh, I’ve taught poetry for 20 yrs and I don’t get that one there…nope, sorry….she may be a good poet but I don’t think that was such a good example to share…

   — prof    Jul 17, 12:16 PM    #

4. I hope this is obvious: Ryan’s comment to the Post about preventing bad poetry from being published while she’s laureate was a joke. You can rest easy, GL.

   — Jennifer Howard    Jul 17, 12:34 PM    #

5. Another example of PhD snobbery. “Remedial” starting the title. For shame.

   — jl    Jul 17, 02:22 PM    #

6. Interesting point, JL. “Remedial” is the term used by the LOC in their announcement. I don’t know if Ryan or the College of Marin would call it that.

   — Jennifer Howard    Jul 17, 02:46 PM    #

7. I hope she sticks it to all the institutional snobs that sleep with one another for the sake of getting their crap poetry and fiction published. Snub the calls to “speak” at the major universities’ engagements, Ms. Ryan. Take your art on the road and into the homes of real people. Become the next Don West!

   — Former West Virginian    Jul 17, 02:57 PM    #

8. #8 – Nice to know class bigotry is alive and well in higher ed.

   — Say no to class bigots    Jul 17, 03:02 PM    #

9. Congratulations to the poet laureate: It’s quite an accomplishment. Commenters 1-7: it’s nice to know that snubbing and jealosy are alive and well in higher ed.

   — Disappointed    Jul 17, 03:29 PM    #

10. Perhaps Ms. Ryan’s first new work could be titled “Irony” and then maybe, just maybe, some of these sensitive souls would understand the concepts of humor and gentle sarcasm…

    — Christine    Jul 17, 03:57 PM    #

11. No one has asked what could be worse than the other shoe dropping? Perhaps our poet laureate has greater earthly or esoteric troubles on her mind than the opinions of higher education professionals waxing nobility.

    — Erika Goodkin    Jul 17, 04:31 PM    #

12. What’s wrong with “remedial”? Better to call it what it is than to label it with a euphemism like “developmental”. All courses are supposed to develop. Only some are remedial.

    — Renae    Jul 17, 04:58 PM    #

13. It’s tough in the trenches. Congratulations, Kay, and may your Muses and your students keep smiling!

    — Hnaef    Jul 17, 05:08 PM    #

14. Can’t say that I am
    Just dyin’
    For another verse
    From the estimable
    Ryan.

    — Phil Schwartz    Jul 17, 05:47 PM    #

15. If one had any need for further evidence that most academics are insufferable twits, one could point them to most of the comments made in response to this article. Perhaps more surprising are the occasional signs of intelligent, gracious life in that wasteland: poor things, like flowers poking through the cracks in a treeless suburban sidewalk.

    — Who Knew    Jul 18, 07:45 AM    #

16. I am sure that Kay is a fine teacher. A fine poet, she is not. I know that we can do much better than this.

    — dream    Jul 18, 08:12 AM    #

17. Oh, Mr. McClatchy, please do not compare Ms. Ryan’s poems to Erik Satie’s works. He was a genius and a true artist. Ryan’s poems remind me of poems my 11th-graders turned in…cute, but vacuous.

    — SatieDefender    Jul 18, 08:18 AM    #

18. I’m no judge of poetry, but maybe she could teach some remedial English in that big White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. I’m not so worried about the condition of poetry in America, but the slaughtering of the English language that occurs at the White House every day . . . . Now THAT is something that needs attention.

    — Choirguy    Jul 18, 08:37 AM    #

19. Ha! #19. I can hear it now: “And youuuu get a gold sticker George for being Dick’s little helper!!! Suupppper!! Now, let’s work on our word for the week: n-u-c-l-e-a-r.”

    — Duuhh...    Jul 18, 08:46 AM    #

20. Ah, #16, your comments are further buttressed by the “insufferable twit” comments from #17 and #18. Vacuous snobbery reigns!

    — rec    Jul 18, 08:58 AM    #

21. I’ve never heard of Kay Ryan and I’m going look for some of her poetry in a library

    — Reb    Jul 18, 09:26 AM    #

22. Hey! We’ve got four of them at our library and three of them published by Grove Press and one Copper Canyon

    — Reb    Jul 18, 09:29 AM    #

23. rec, there is nothing snobbish about defending Satie for those of us who actually know who he was.

    — SatieDefender    Jul 18, 09:49 AM    #

24. #3: You worry me. You’ve been teaching poetry for 20 years and don’t get this poem? It’s quite smart and smartly crafted, and apparently flying (or dangling) above the heads of some of its readers here!

    — Alfie    Jul 18, 09:52 AM    #

25. Meow. I hear a lot of professional jealousy flying through this thread.

    — Deborah    Jul 18, 10:10 AM    #

26. On the use of “remedial”: the CHE was just going for a dramatic contrast between what Ryan teaches and her being tapped as poet laureate. Kind of a Cinderella thing. The CHE should be above such cheap journalistic effects, but. . . In any case, it does reveal persistent negative attitudes toward less well prepared students. It’s the CHE’s attitude, not Ryan’s.

    — Dave    Jul 18, 10:30 AM    #

27. #24 I know Satie very well. What purpose does it serve to disrespect someone’s work? I don’t think Satie needs your defense. His work stands on its own.
    Oo, oo, me….. I know stuff….. and its better than your stuff. Petty.

    — composer    Jul 18, 10:45 AM    #

28. I got to #10 and finally read something nice. I see the rest of you (up to 10) did not forget to take your ugly pills today. Be nice. It’s Friday.

    — Mary Ann    Jul 18, 10:45 AM    #

29. Major props also to the person who is going out to get more of Ryan’s poetry rather than basing an opinion, pro or con, on one five-liner.

    Of course, many of the above are not expressing an opinion. They are just bored with summer and looking for a little action.

    — jim    Jul 18, 11:10 AM    #

30. Really, all this bitterness over poems and Satie (whoever that is) is very unhealthy. Relax people!

    — DittoNice    Jul 18, 11:10 AM    #

31. I don’t know Kay Rayn’s work very well, but she seems to enjoy turning cliches inside out. Very refreshing. More info at the Academy of America Poets web site: http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/352

    — CatherineR    Jul 18, 11:13 AM    #

32. Ryan’s poems are “accessible,” and in these days of little reading by the vast majority of the population, I suppose we can’t ask for more, though perhaps we should.

    — Curious    Jul 18, 12:05 PM    #

33. Oughtta be a law: you can comment about the article, but not about the comments.

    — richard    Jul 18, 12:41 PM    #

34. Wait a minute, we can sleep with someone to get published?

    More seriously, I hope you read more than one poem before judging the lady as a poet. And in any case, tastes in poetry do differ widely.

    — bta    Jul 18, 12:45 PM    #

35. and she’s a part-time “temp,” too, and thus not even listed in the C/Marin faculty directory, so the voracious intellectual twits will have a hard time finding her.

    — SandyB    Jul 18, 06:25 PM    #

36. 2 Comments:
    -Refreshing to see recognition of a poet who isn’t one of the ~30 poets that get published on name alone.
    -The Poet Laureate position isn’t always about quality. It’s a small subsidized position that allows the laureate start of few pet projects.
    —-
    Thank you. Please resume the quibbles about taste.

    — Aaron    Jul 19, 11:23 AM    #

37. Kay Ryan is this century’s Emily Dickinson. She is the best choice for PL, at least in the last 20 years.

    — Arthur Cleaver    Jul 21, 03:30 PM    #

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