Content Description
The Kay Ryan papers contains correspondence, writings, artwork, photographs, personal and professional papers, poetry broadsides and other printed material, and audiovisual and computer media documenting the life and career of American poet Kay Ryan. The bulk of the collection consists of individual and collected poems, prose, notes, and journals, as well as correspondence between Ryan and her friends, family, colleagues, publishers, arts organizations such as the Poetry Foundation, and the Library of Congress. Notable correspondents include Billy Collins, Dana Gioia, Jane Hirshfield, David Lehman, Sarah Lindsay, Samuel Menashe, Rosalie Moore, and Atsuro Riley. Works represented in the collection include Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends, Strangely Marked Metal, and Say Uncle. Additionally included are records of grants and awards, letters to Ryan during her tenure as United States Poet Laureate (2008-2010), teaching materials, and memorabilia. The records span from 1945 to 2017, with the bulk of the material falling between 1973 and 2017.
Dates
- 1945 - 2017
- Majority of material found within 1973 - 2017
Creator
- Ryan, Kay (Author)
Language of Materials
In English
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Box 40 (computer media): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Box 41 (audiovisual media): Restricted fragile material. Reference copy may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Box 42 (student records): Restricted until 2085. For further information, consult appropriate curator.
Box 43 (legal, medical, and financial records): Restricted until 2035. For further information, consult appropriate curator.
Conditions Governing Use
The Kay Ryan Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, Inc., on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2018.
Arrangement
Organized into six series: I. Correspondence, 1973-2016. II. Writings, 1973-2017. III. Personal and Professional Papers, 1945-2017. IV. Visual Materials, 1983-2017. V. Printed Material, 1961-2016. VI. Computer and Audiovisual Media, 1994-2009.
Extent
34.34 Linear Feet ((43 boxes) + 13 art)
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The Kay Ryan papers contains correspondence, writings, artwork, photographs, personal and professional papers, poetry broadsides and other printed material, and audiovisual and computer media documenting the life and career of American poet Kay Ryan. The bulk of the collection consists of individual and collected poems, prose, notes, and journals, as well as correspondence between Ryan and her friends, family, colleagues, publishers, arts organizations such as the Poetry Foundation, and the Library of Congress. Notable correspondents include Billy Collins, Dana Gioia, Jane Hirshfield, David Lehman, Sarah Lindsay, Samuel Menashe, Rosalie Moore, and Atsuro Riley. Works represented in the collection include Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends, Strangely Marked Metal, and Say Uncle. Additionally included are records of grants and awards, letters to Ryan during her tenure as United States Poet Laureate (2008-2010), teaching materials, and memorabilia. The records span from 1945 to 2017, with the bulk of the material falling between 1973 and 2017.
Kay Ryan (1945-)
Kay Ryan is an American poet, writer and educator. She served as the sixteenth United States Poet Laureate (2008-2010) and won a Pulitzer Prize for her collection The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (2010).
Ryan was born on September 21, 1945 in San Jose, California and raised in the San Joaquin Valley. She received both a B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1967 and 1968, respectively. In 1971, she began teaching remedial English part-time at the College of Marin in Kentfield, California, which she would continue for over 30 years. Ryan is the author of nine books of poetry, beginning with her self-published debut, Dragon Acts to Dragon Ends (1983), and her first commercially published collection, Strangely Marked Metal (1985). Other works include Flamingo Watching (1994), Elephant Rocks (1996), Say Uncle (2000), The Niagara River (2005), Jam Jar Lifeboat and Other Novelties Exposed (2008), and Erratic Facts (2015). Ryan’s poetry has been featured in publications such as The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and The Yale Review, as well as numerous anthologies, including four volumes of The Best American Poetry. Ryan most recently published her first collection of essays, Synthesizing Gravity: Selected Prose (2020).
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Ryan’s awards include the National Humanities Medal, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Union League Poetry Prize, and three Pushcart Prizes. She has also been the recipient of fellowships from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Ingram Merrill Foundation. She served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2006 to 2013.
Since 1971, Ryan has lived in Marin County, California. She was married to the late Carol Adair, a fellow instructor at the College of Marin, who was her partner from 1978 until Adair's death in 2009.
Processing Information
Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit. Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing. This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- American literature
- American poetry -- 20th Century
- American poetry -- 21st century
- Audiovisual materials
- Authors, American -- 20th century
- Authors, American -- 21st century
- Born digital
- Broadsides
- College teachers -- United States
- Collins, Billy
- Diaries
- Drawings (visual works)
- Gioia, Dana
- LGBTQ resource
- Lehman, David, 1948-
- Lesbian authors -- United States
- Library of Congress
- Lindsay, Sarah, 1958-
- Menashe, Samuel, 1925-2011
- Moore, Rosalie, 1910-
- Notebooks
- Paintings (visual works)
- Photographs
- Poetry Foundation
- Poets -- United States
- Poets laureate -- United States
- Poets, American
- Riley, Atsuro
- Ryan, Kay
- Teachers -- United States
- Women poets -- United States
- Title
- Guide to the Kay Ryan Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- by Emma Gronbeck
- Date
- May 2021
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.