California-based Kay Ryan is in the midst of her second yearlong term as US Poet Laureate; New Yorker Billy Collins served a pair of terms earlier this decade. Both are wry and sly, wise and capacious, and deservedly beloved. The thought of the two of them onstage together, trading insights and verse, fills us with delight. Collins, winner of the 2005 Mark Twain Prize for Humor in Poetry, is the author of the anthologies Picnic, Lightning, Sailing Alone Around the Room, and Ballistics, among others. Ryan is the winner of the 2004 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Her books include Say Uncle and The Niagara River.
Presented in partnership with The Poetry Foundation.