On this Literary Friendships event, host Garrison Keillor shares the stage with poets Dana Gioia and Kay Ryan. Both being California poets with working-class origins, the two became good friends.

Gioia is chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, worked as a business executive for many years, eventually becoming vice president of General Foods, before turning to literature full time. He is author of three books of poetry, the controversial bestseller Can Poetry Matter? Essays on Poetry and American Culture and Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the End of Print Culture.

Ryan is author of five collections of poetry, including Say Uncle. After years of being ignored by the poetry establishment, she won one of its most prestigious prizes: the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Gioia published the first essay on Ryan's poetry. When he and his family moved to California, he sent her a postcard saying he hoped they'd cross paths.