Growing up on a Spokane Indian Reservation, Sherman Alexie absorbed both the Coeur d'Alene tribal storytelling and the American television cultures. He talked about his plays, novels and poetry when we visited him in Washington state.
Kay
Ryan came into office as an "unlikely" poet laureate, living a quiet
life in California, working on her verse. Now in her second term, she's decided
on a project to share with the nation.
"The
great paradox of poetry is it's the smallest unit of language you can make that
releases the greatest number of readings," says Heather McHugh, a 2009 MacArthur
Fellow.