Quick, name America’s poet laureate. Those of you who knew it’s Kay Ryan will surely be on hand November 5 when she gives the opening keynote speech for the Vegas Valley Book Festival. Those of you who answered, “Uh, is it that man from Nantucket?” should also go; in fact, you should sit together, near the front.

An even bigger catch for the festival, also announced this week, is closing speaker E.L. Doctorow (November 8). His novels include Ragtime and Billy Bathgate; his newest, Homer and Langley, is out in September. How big a catch is he? Enough to elicit above-average boilerplate from Carol Harter, president of the sponsoring Black Mountain Institute: “Doctorow ... is profoundly interested in American life, history and its ambiguities. He delves into our collective past from a variety of imaginative perspectives ...” Profound; ambiguities; delving. Word.