Just found this out via MetaFilter, and I'm pretty excited. Although... not a lot of other folks around here who I could tell this to, or who would even care.

I first came across her work while in grad school, and it's still fun stuff for me to read. Her poetry is wonderfully compact, with rhymes packed uber-close to each other. And there's a denseness to her poems that makes it difficult and fun to try to pry apart. I've mentioned her on the blog a few times, and I hope you'll go and check some of her stuff out.

Kay Ryan, Billy Collins, and Ted Kooser - all poets I liked, and now all poet laureates. I wonder if Sharon Olds will be getting the title soon.