Ross Gay is an American poet, essayist, and professor whose work deals with the intricate human experiences of joy and sorrow. Ranging in subject matter from gardening to Black joy to basketball, Gay's poetry is infused with a musicality that swells and gathers. He 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. His first collection of essays, The Book of Delights, was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller. His new collection of essays, Inciting Joy, was released by Algonquin in October of 2022.
Gay has said that he is "interested in the full, weird, complex, surprising, tender humanity of [his] life, our lives," and this appears in both his subject matter and form ("The Writer's Life"). Often writing with a syntax that mimics everyday thought or speech, Gay's poems engage with the reader in a provocative way. In Be Holding, an ode to the basketball legend Julius Erving (Dr. J.), he writes "we in here talking / about the reaching // that makes falling flight." There is a clear call for collective responsibility towards each other and to the earth, and to fully embrace all the complex facets of the human experience.
Ross Gay is a prolific young writer that gained prominence in the poetic circles of America. He published several books and recently started teaching at the University of Indiana. He is further known for his outspoken opinions on social...
"A Small Needful Fact" is one of Ross Gay's most well-known poems. It was originally published by the poetry organization Split This Rock in 2015, and was shared widely across social media. Responding to the murder of Eric Garner at the hands of...
