The poet Kay Ryan’s own essays on literature—recently published in
Synthesizing Gravity: Selected Prose—are so deliriously good, so in excess of usefulness, that they’re often on their way to poetry. Whether Ryan is expressing enthusiasm (Annie Dillard “could get high C out of a potato”) or skepticism (a conference panel on The Creative Writer as Teacher “looks like the Last Supper but just with water glasses”), her essays frequently draw on her quizzical-lyrical gifts. The seemingly lightweight keeps turning lightly weighty.
