Over the phone, Michael Ryan is calm and speaks in an engaging, honest and straightforward manner, much like the style he exhibits within his poetry.
For more than three decades, Ryan has written and released work that has been considered some of modern poetry’s best. His poems don’t hide from the reader. They plainly yet eloquently tell what Ryan has to convey.
In 2004, he released his award-winning book, New and Selected Poems, which not only contained selections from over his entire writing career, but also new gems to be read and enjoyed.
“The oldest poem in the book I wrote 38 years ago, it spans my whole life,” Ryan said.
Today the PSU Literary Arts Council brings Ryan, along with his wife and fellow poet Doreen Gildroy, to Portland State to read selections of their poetry.
Ryan will also give a speech on writing craft entitled “Grammar for Poets” earlier in the day when he visits PSU. Both events are free to attend.
When asked what he likes to write about, Ryan responds plainly, “The big ones. Love, sex, death, risk, emotional pain. The things everybody’s got to deal with.”
Over the years Ryan has managed to cover an eclectic spectrum of themes. With each book written, he offers new insightful work, not limiting himself to poetry, but also authoring a memoir and an autobiography.
“It may be true for most artists, I just do something until I can’t do it anymore. The way I procede is by not doing what I am tired of doing, and then something else seems to happen,” Ryan said.
He has taught at various universities, such as Princeton University, the University of Iowa, the University of Virginia and the University of California, Irvine, where he has been teaching since 1990. He has collected a variety of awards and fellowships.
Ryan and his wife often travel together to do readings. He said that poetry has become a sort of extra bond that their relationship has taken on–something that most marriages, perhaps, do not have.
As Ryan talks about his wife, the mannerisms in his speech still travel in his laid-back, straight-forward style, yet it is almost as if an extra sense of endearing warmth is added.
“There is no competition, I’m happier when something good happens for her as I am for when something good happens to me,” Ryan said. “Being married to another poet is an extra connection to that person. Probably no one else can understand the emotional connection I have to my writing.”
Ryan’s presentation, “Grammar for Poets,” will offer practical advice for writers.
“I am very interested in how sentences work. That’s a lifelong study for me” Ryan said. “The way the brain processes language is still not well understood…how sentences are structured for the reader and how they work. I think if language processing were better understood, it would have great implications for writing style.”
“Grammar for Poets”
Today at 1 p.m. in Smith Memorial Student Union, room 333FREE
Michael Ryan and Doreen Gildroy
Poetry readingToday at 7 p.m. in Smith Memorial Student Union, room 333FREE