Poets & Writers Theater

“People talk about epigenetic trauma all the time. People don’t talk about epigenetic joy. There can’t be one and not the other.” In this event hosted by the DC Public Library and Loyalty Bookstores, Ross Gay reads from and discusses his new essay collection, Inciting Joy (Algonquin Books, 2022), with Clint Smith. A Q&A with Gay by Aimee Nezhukumatathil is featured in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“imagine his joy as the sun / wizarded forth those abundant sugars / and I plodded barefoot / and prayerful at the first ripe plum’s swell and blush,” reads Ross Gay from his poem “Burial” in this video featuring music by Mary Lattimore. The track is featured in an album called Dilate Your Heart, part of a yearlong release campaign celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of indie record label Jagjaguwar.

In this reading presented by the Kenyon Review, Shira Erlichman, Ross Gay, and Saeed Jones read poetry and present interdisciplinary work, as well as discuss their inspirations and writing processes in a discussion with the magazine’s editor Nicole Terez Dutton.

“I have so many questions of you, / for you are closer to me than anyone // has ever been, tumbling, as you are, this second, / through my heart’s every chamber,” reads Ross Gay from his poem “Poem to My Child, If Ever You Shall Be” in this video with music by Gia Margaret, a collaboration from a new Jagjaguwar album called Dilate Your Heart.

“I want so badly to rub the sponge of gratitude / over every last thing, including you,” reads Ross Gay from his poem “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” in this video set to the music of Bon Iver. This piece is featured in a new album called Dilate Your Heart, part of a yearlong release campaign celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of indie record label Jagjaguwar.

“No matter the pull toward brink. No / matter the florid, deep sleep awaits. / There is a time for everything.” Ada Limón reads “Sorrow Is Not My Name” by Ross Gay and shares why this poem means so much to her for this new video series “The Poem I Wish I Had Read,” created by the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College.

“When things shut down, I was immediately feeling like what I want to do is make stuff with other people,” says Ross Gay about life during the quarantine in this conversation with artist Arista Alanis for Vermont Studio Center’s Six Feet Apart video series. A Q&A with Aimee Nezhukumatathil by Gay appears in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Ross Gay reads from his forthcoming essay collection, The Book of Delights (Algonquin Books, 2019), at a 2017 reading in Washington, D.C. for the Field Office. Gay is featured in “Portraits of Inspiration” in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“A good bookstore is your friend.” Ross Gay reads his essay about his love for independent bookstores and how they are a “laboratory for our coming together” at one of his favorite places, the Book Corner in Bloomington, Indiana. Gay’s essay collection, The Book of Delights, is forthcoming from Algonquin Books in February.

“I know I can be long-winded sometimes. / I want so badly to rub the sponge of gratitude / over every last thing...” Ross Gay reads his poem “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” from his collection of the same name, published in 2015 by University of Pittsburgh Press, at the 2016 Split This Rock Poetry Festival in Washington, D.C.

“I’m making an argument with my body and the ground about our bodies and the ground.” At Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Ross Gay, author of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), discusses the implications of being a black poet who writes about flowers in a lecture entitled “A Book of Flowers.”

Ross Gay reads “To the Mulberry Tree” from his poetry collection Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), which is a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award.

"Listen, to everything." Ross Gay speaks with Furious Flower's Elizabeth Hoover about line breaks, gardening, and his advice to young writers. Gay's latest poetry collection, Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), is longlisted for the National Book Award.