A 1965 graduate of Antelope Valley College has been appointed by the Library of Congress as the 16th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry for 2008-09.
Kay Ryan, known as Kay Pedersen during her years at AVC, is now a basic skills English instructor at College of Marin, where she has taught more than 30 years.
Ryan joins distinguished poets such as Charles Simic, Louise Gluck, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky and Robert Hass in the role of Poet Laureate.
Ryan is a native of San Jose who spent part of her life in the Antelope Valley. She was living in Rosamond upon her graduation from Antelope Valley High School in 1963. That fall, she enrolled as a full-time student at AVC.
During her sophomore year at the college, she served as publicity commissioner for the student government.
After graduating with an Associate in Arts degree from AVC, she transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
According to the Library of Congress, Ryan limited her professional responsibilities to the part-time teaching of remedial English at the College of Marin in Kentfield, thus leaving much of her life free for "a lot of mountain bike riding plus the idle maunderings poets feed upon."
For more information, view the Library of Congress Web site: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate_current.html
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