I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the news that Kay Ryan has been chosen as the next Poet Laureate of the U.S. — and if you read a few of her poems (here are six in a New York Times Web Extra), you’ll find yourself smiling, too.

from The New York Times:
“Kay Ryan, Outsider With Sly Style, Named Poet Laureate”
by Patricia Cohen
“When Kay Ryan was a student at the University of California, Los Angeles, the poetry club rejected her application; she was perhaps too much of a loner, she recalls. Now Ms. Ryan is being inducted into one of the most elite poetry clubs around. She is to be named the country’s poet laureate.... Known for her sly, compact poems that revel in wordplay and internal rhymes, Ms. Ryan has won a carriage full of poetry prizes for her funny and philosophical work.”

from The San Francisco Chronicle:
“Poet Laureate of the United States: Kay Ryan
Poems that turn ordinary things grand
Fairfax poet's original voice draws notice and highest honors”
by Heidi Benson
“‘I usually do a lot of idle woolgathering, punctuated with bicycle riding and a certain amount of cooking,’ she said, holding the phone to her ear while buttering toast. ‘This will flip daily life upside down.’... Wit and understatement - applied to the quiddities of daily living - are key to Ryan’s poetry...”

Despite all her accolades and awards, Ryan is most definitely a loner, an outsider in the world of po-biz and writing workshops — witness her 2005 essay for Poetry magazine, “I Go to AWP.” But she’s also most definitely engaged in the public interactions of language, having taught remedial writing to community college students for 30 years. She’s a wonderful, witty poet whose poems are like pebbles dropped into a still pond, rippling out far beyond their small circumferences.

Related resources:
Poets Laureate, a brief history
Poets Laureate of the U.S.A., a Net-annotated list

Our profiles of recent U.S. Poet Laureates
Charles Simic (2007-2008)
Donald Hall (2006-2007)
Ted Kooser (2004-2006)
Louise Glück (2003-2004)
Stanley Kunitz (2000-2001)
Robert Pinsky (1997-2000)

We are still awaiting notice of the June IBPC winners chosen by Patricia Smith, and of course the July winners chosen by Tony Barnstone won’t be announced until after the end of the month — but in the meantime we have word from judge Kelly Cherry, who was asked to choose the IBPC Poem of the Year from among all the poems that were awarded first, second, or third place from April 2007 through March 2008. Hurrahs for our Forum poet Guy Kettelhack, whose poem “Bird Painter” received honorable mention in this annual best-of-the-best competition! We’ve added Kelly Cherry’s commentary to the winning poems:

• First Place: “Bad Weather,” by Dale McLain
• Second Place: “A Second Look at Creation,” by Sergio Lima Facchini
• Third Place: “The Man Next Door According to His Pockets,” by Adam Elgar
• Honorable Mention: “Bird Painter,” by Guy Kettelhack
• Honorable Mention: “Spring Dance,” by Brenda Levy Tate
• Honorable Mention: “Carol for the Brokenhearted,” by Brenda Levy Tate

In the meantime, please remember it’s up to you to keep the IBPC nominations coming! Whenever you see a great poem posted on our Forum, no matter where it is, come on over to the InterBoard Poetry Competition folder and nominate it! And be sure to notify the poet whose work you are putting forward, so that he or she can post the required permission and information before Poetry Guide Margy Snyder selects next month’s entries.

Related resources:
About the IBPC
Requirements for IBPC nominees
Anthology of the monthly IBPC winning poems
Archive of poems entered in the IBPC from our Poetry Forum
July - September judge, Tony Barnstone