California poet Kay Ryan has been selected to serve as U. S. Poet Laureate for 2008-2009. She becomes the sixteenth poet laureate.
On 17 July 2008, James Billington, Librarian of Congress, announced the appointment of California poet, Kay Ryan, to the U. S. Poet Laureateship for the coming year. She will begin her duties in September.
From the Library of Congress Web site: “Ryan was born in 1945 in San Jose, Calif., and grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. Her father was an oil well driller and sometime-prospector. She received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles. Since 1971, Ryan has lived in Marin County.”
For more about Kay Ryan, please see “Kay Ryan: New Poet Laureate.”
