Author ross gay
Ross Gay
Ross Gay was born on August 1, , in Youngstown, Ohio. He received a BA in English and art from Lafayette College, an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, and a PhD in English from Temple University.
Gay is the author of four collections of poetry: Be Holding (University of Pittsburgh Press, ); Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press, ), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Award; Bringing the Shovel Down (University of Pittsburgh Press, ); and Against Which (Cavankerry Press, ).
Gay is also the author of the essay collections The Book of (More) Delights (Algonquin Books, ); Inciting Joy (Algonquin Books, ); and The Novel of Delights (Algonquin Books, ). He is a founding editor, with Karissa Chen and Patrick Rosal, of the online sports magazine Some Call it Ballin&#;, and an editor of the chapbook presses Q Avenue and Ledge Mule Press.
Gay&#;s honors include fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writers&#; Conference, and the John S
ROSS GAY
I think we can start by talking about how Bringing the Shovel Down maybe had a wider lens and was more overtly political compared to the fresh book. Catalog seems more jubilant, more interested in conclusion moments of grace, even when it acknowledges the tumult.
Yeah, you understand I feel appreciate part of it comes from the fact that I felt really content to be done with Bringing the Shovel Down. I was very joyful to have written it and very glad to include wrapped it up. There is an intense sort of brutality that sort of weaves through that book. It followed an arc, tracked a transformation through self-interrogation, into looking at one’s self and others with more loving, compassionate eyes. Some of those poems are brutal to read out deafening. I often touch nauseous and overcome after reading them.
I bet.
So getting to Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, after finishing the second book, I just felt fancy I wanted to write about stuff that I adore. And I was totally reading Neruda’s odes.
Yeah, the book is filled with odes.
Exactly, exactly. Those poems written to things appreciate buttoning my shirt,
Ross Gay Interviewed by Nicole Sealey
This past summer I asked Ross Gay about his obsession. To which he replied, “…my obsession is my garden. It’s a wild time of year back there, and I’ve designed it, and continue to design it, both meticulously and carelessly. Or with a benign of faith or something.” This, I imagine, also describes Gay’s writing process. Wild. Meticulous. But always with a kind of faith—or something. Gay’s most recent collection, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, asks, just as any good sermon worth its salt asks: What is dark be illumined and what is low, raised and supported.
Ross Gay is the creator of three books of poetry:Against Which, Bringing the Shovel Down and, most recently, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. He teaches at the University of Indiana at Bloomington, where he is also a gardener and member of the food justice organization, Bloomington Community Orchard.
Nicole Sealey: Is poetry and gardening related?
Ross Gay: Gardening and poetry feel very closely related. I mean, besides both being something you serve at and can be be
Department of English
Ross Gay
he/him/his
Professor, English
Education
- Ph.D, Temple University, 06'
- MFA, Sarah Lawrence College, 98'
- BA, Lafayette College, 96'
About Ross Gay
Ross Gay is the creator of three books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Catalog was also a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The Radcliffe Institute, Civitella Ranieri, and Cave Canem, among others.
His collection of essays, The Book of Delights, is forthcoming from Algonquin in February, He&#;s at operate on a book-length essay about gardens, land, race, nation and the imagination, called This Black Earth. Also! He writes about sports, music, art and other stuff he loves.
Collaborate!