# Is "The Best of It: New and Selected Poems" by Kay Ryan a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan (Grove Press, 2010) is identified by: Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (Ryan was sixteenth US Poet Laureate). US Grove Press (2010) is the true first.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (Ryan was sixteenth US Poet Laureate)
- The Grove Press first edition (New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8021-1914-8) is a clothbound hardcover with dust jacket, paper over boards
- Confirm the first printing by the stated edition and number line on the copyright page
- Publisher imprint reads Grove Press
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Kay Ryan |
| Publisher | Grove Press |
| Year | 2010 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Poetry |
| Key point | Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (Ryan was sixteenth US Poet Laureate) |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (Ryan was sixteenth US Poet Laureate). The Grove Press first edition (New York, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8021-1914-8) is a clothbound hardcover with dust jacket, paper over boards. Confirm the first printing by the stated edition and number line on the copyright page.

## Is this the true first?
US Grove Press (2010) is the true first.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book club edition.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Best of It: New and Selected Poems* by Kay Ryan a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-best-of-it-new-and-selected-poems
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.