A dozen years ago Kay Ryan was a little known poet teaching remedial English at a community college.  Today Ryan is widely considered one of the finest poets writing in the English language. Praised in The New Yorker, and New York Times, interviewed by Charlie Rose and Garrison Keillor, Ryan has gone from outsider artist to Cultural celebrity.  Currently serving in her second term as U.S. Poet Laureate, Ryan is the author of seven books of poetry, including The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (2010).

The Washington Ideas Roundtable Series is made possible with the generous support of Michelle Smith and the Robert H. Smith Family Foundation.  By invitation only.