Lesbian Kay
Ryan Named Poet Laureate

Kay Ryan has been named the country's poet laureate, the New York Times reported Thursday.

"I so didn't want to be a poet," Ryan told the Times of her career beginnings. "I came from sort of a self-contained people who didn't believe in public exposure, and public investigation of the heart was rather repugnant to me."

Ryan "couldn't resist," however, and can now add the prestigious position of poet laureate to her catalog of literary achievements, including awards from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

According to the Times, Ryan has published six books of poetry and her work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Review of Books. She is replacing 2007-2008 poet laureate Charles Simic. (The Advocate)