ABOUT ROSS
Ross Gay is interested in joy.
Ross Gay wants to understand joy.
Ross Gay is curious about joy.
Ross Gay studies joy.
Something like that.
~
Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry, Ross has released three collections of essays—The Book of Delights was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller; Inciting Joy was released in 2022, and his newest collection, The Book of (More) Delights was released in September of 2023.
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Bio
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High Resolution Book Covers
Photographs
Click on each photo for a link to a high resolution version. All photos by Natasha Komoda.
INTERVIEWS & CONVERSATIONS
Listen
Episode 11: Ross Gay & Margaret Renkl, The Wild Story Podcast (04/2024)
Volume 2, Number 124 - Ross Gay, The Musical Innertube (01/2024)
Delight and Joy Are Survival Mechanisms and Acts of Resistance, Ten Percent Happier (09/2023)
Episode 339: Ross Gay, Kirkus Reviews Podcast (09/2023)
Podcast Interview, Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden
Ep. 83: Ross Gay, Faculty Series – Indiana University Bloomington
Finding ‘(More) Delights’ with Ross Gay, KQED Forum (09/2023)
Poet and essayist Ross Gay on why you don’t need to be an optimist to incite joy, Claremont McKenna’s The Student Life (09/2023)
Four years after the release of his runaway bestseller “The Book of Delights,” Gay is still finding joy in the world around him, Shondaland (09/2023)
More Delights with Ross Gay, Black Joy, reckon (09/2023)
Ross Gay on Finding Everyday Delight, WHYY (09/2023)
Ross Gay’s The Book of (More) Delights, Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour (09/2023)
Ross Gay on How We Can Change, Sentence By Sentence, WFIU: Inner States (09/2023)
Conversation with Montse Andrée Carty, Musings with the Artist (09/2023)
Stitches and everyday joy , Iowa Public Radio (09/2023)
The language of grief, with writers Ross Gay and Chloe Honum, KCRW Life Examined (09/2023)
Ross Gay on inciting joy while dining with sorrow, NPR (02/2023)
Inviting Sorrow in for Tea, Tricycle Magazine podcast (04/2023)
How to Incite Joy with Ross Gay, The One You Feed podcast (04/2023)
Joy, with Ross Gay, Fireside podcast (04/2023)
“That Notebook Might Be Magic”: A Conversation With Ross Gay, On The Same Page podcast (03/2023)
Exploring the Transformative Power of Writing and Vulnerability with Ross Gay, Think Unbroken podcast (03/2023)
Ross Gay on Inciting Joy Inner States (10/2022)
"GERMINATE", The Clever Creature Podcast (08/2021)
"Words to Set You Free," CodeSwitch, NPR (07/2021)
The Sewanee Review podcast (05/2021)
Ross Gay on "Dilate Your Heart," WNYC (04/2021)
"Poet Ross Gay focuses on everyday delights," Oregon Public Broadcasting (04/2021)
Interview with The Creative Independent (02/2021)
"2021 Is A Mess. Here’s How To Stay Positive," WBEZ's Nerdette Podcast (01/2021)
Between The Covers (01/ 2021)
"The Growing Edge Podcast" (11/2020)
"The Book of Delights," Living on Earth (02/2020)
"Ep. 73: Ross Gay — Attending to the Love That Surrounds Us," Think, Act, Be Podcast (01/2020)
This American Life, NPR (01/2020)
Poets & Writers Podcast (12/2019)
"365 Days Of Delight: A Poet's Guide To Finding Joy," Wisconsin Public Radio (10/2019)
"Tending Joy and Practicing Delight," On Being (07/2019)
"Episode 39: Delight in the Unexpected," Science of Happiness podcast, Greater Good Magazine (04/2019)
"Fully Booked" podcast with Kirkus Reviews (04/2019)
"Episode 25," Commonplace Interview (04/2019)
"Poet Ross Gay finds delight even in difficult times," Minnesota Public Radio (03/2019)
NPR All Things Considered (02/2019)
Interview with Superstition Review (11/2017)
Words on a Wire Interview with Ross Gay (07/2017)
Interview with Kaveh Akbar for DiveDapper (11/2015)
"Poet and Professor Ross Gay," Profiles (02/2014)
"Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil Discuss Gardens and Collaborative Poetry," Orion Magazine (02/2014)
"Natural Poetry," Living on Earth (06/2010)
Read
Ross Gay Stays Connected With Internet Reprieves and Foraged Apples to Share, Vanity Fair (10/2023)
Ross Gay Answers the Orion Questionnaire, Orion Magazine
The Framework of These Delights: 5 Questions with Ross Gay Author of The Book of (More) Delights, Barnes & Noble Reads (09/2023)
Another Dose of Delight From a Writer Who Finds Wonder in His Backyard, New York Times (09/2023)
Limitless Delights, Tricycle Magazine (12/2023)
Beholding Black Life: A Conversation with Ross Gay, Frank Guridy, & Deborah Paredez (06/2022)
Interview with Nadia Colburn (12/2021)
Interview with Brooklyn Poets (11/2021)
"An Interview with Ross Gay," Sunlight Press (11/2020)
Delightful Observation: An Interview With Ross Gay, Writers Digest (6/2020)
Interview with Shelf Awareness (02/2019)
An interview with On The Record, WYPR (02/2019)
Interview with The Rumpus (02/2019)
Interview with The Writer Mag (06/2019)
"The Terrible and the Beautiful," Los Angeles Review of Books (11/2016)
"A Garden of Gratitude," The Christian Century (07/2016)
"Theorizing Delight: An Interview with Ross Gay," The Common (05/2019)
"Poet Ross Gay is on a roll: He talks gardens and gratitude," Los Angeles Times (02/2016)
"Dinnerview: Ross Gay," Entropy (12/2015)
"Wild Love: Ross Gay on the connections between gardening and poetry," The Poetry Foundation (10/2015)
The PEN Ten with Ross Gay, Interview with Nicole Sealy (07/2015)
Interview with The Rumpus (03/2015)
Interview with Barely South Review (Winter, 2015)
Interview with Todd Davis, Interdisciplinary Literary Studies (2013)
Interview with Indiana University (2013)
Interview with Brian Brodeur at How a Poem Happens (03/2011)