In Case Anyone Asks: My stories, thoughts and theories at 60

by Kay Ryan

Kay Ryan lives in Sacramento with her husband, Joe, and their 5-year-old golden doodle, Poppy. This book was created as a safe place to put the memories, stories and theories the author is downloading from her brain to clear space on the soon-to-be 60 year-old mental hard drive. This book doesnÕt have plot or character development, which means, the author says, that you can open it anywhere, read a few pages and then go about your business. Note from the This book is a gift from my heart to my family, friends and anyone else who might read it. And, although some stories , including the one about baked potatoes and gratitude for Thanksgiving dinner were intentionally omitted, there is probably still ample evidence within these pages to prove the kidsÕ claim that their Mom was (and still is) certifiably odd.

96 pages, Paperback

Published July 26, 2009

About the author

Born in California in 1945 and acknowledged as one of the most original voices in the contemporary landscape, Kay Ryan is the author of several books of poetry, including Flamingo Watching (2006), The Niagara River (2005), and Say Uncle (2000). Her book The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (2010) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Ryan's tightly compressed, rhythmically dense poetry is often compared to that of Emily Dickinson and Marianne Moore; however, Ryan’s often barbed wit and unique facility with “recombinant” rhyme has earned her the status of one of the great living American poets, and led to her appointment as U.S. Poet Laureate in 2008. She held the position for two terms, using the appointment to champion community colleges like the one in Marin County, California where she and her partner Carol Adair taught for over thirty years. In an interview with the Washington City Paper at the end of tenure, Ryan called herself a “whistle-blower” who “advocated for much underpraised and underfunded community colleges across the nation.”

Ryan’s surprising laureateship capped years of outsider-status in the poetry world. Her quizzical, philosophical, often mordant poetry is a product of years of thought. Ryan has said that her poems do not start with imagery or sound, but rather develop “the way an oyster does, with an aggravation.” Critic Meghan O’Rourke has written of her work: “Each poem twists around and back upon its argument like a river retracing its path; they are didactic in spirit, but a bedrock wit supports them.” “Sharks’ Teeth” displays that meandering approach to her subject matter, which, Ryan says, “gives my poems a coolness. I can touch things that are very hot because I’ve given them some distance.”

Kay Ryan is the recipient of several major awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She has received the Union League Poetry Prize and the Maurice English Poetry Award, as well as the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Since 2006 she has served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.