'The Book Of Delights': How Ross Gay Fds Joy In Small Thgs : Co Swch : NPR

Contents:

• HOW ROSS GAY FDS JOY IN THE SMALLT OF 'DELIGHTS'
• THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS: POET AND GARNER ROSS GAY’S YEARLONG EXPERIMENT WILLFUL GLADNS
• ENRE: ROSS GAY WR 'THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS'

HOW ROSS GAY FDS JOY IN THE SMALLT OF 'DELIGHTS'

To me, this mak him more believable and mak the act of fdg light more attaable for the rt of more I read, the more I loved Ross Gay and this book. Thank you to Ross Gay for this betifully llected set of stori and thoughts. Brief ntent visible, double tap to read full ntent visible, double tap to read brief Gay is the thor of The Book of Delights, a genre-fyg book of says, and three books of poetry: Agast Which, Brgg the Shovel Down, and Catalog of Unabashed Gratu.

Gay, an award-wng poet, knows the value of formal nstrat: his experienc of ‘light, ’ rerd daily for a year, vary wily but yield revealg patterns through sights about everythg om nature and the body to race and masculy. Gay’s optimism is as easy as is improbable, his ‘heart og like a pigeon ntled on a wdowsill where the spik sted off.

THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS: POET AND GARNER ROSS GAY’S YEARLONG EXPERIMENT WILLFUL GLADNS

” —Bra Pickgs, Favore Books of 2019 “Ross Gay’s poems are ltle celebratns of joy, and this book of mi-says—each centerg around a particular 'light, ’ om sleepg your cloth to plantg tomato seedlgs to the nod of greetg between the only two black people a room—is a pure balm for your soul.

ENRE: ROSS GAY WR 'THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS'

Pick up, read for ten mut (start anywhere, really), put down, and you’ll fd that the lights of Gay’s world illumate the lights of yours, that his wonr is ntag and has ed you to epen your own. "—GQ “The shock of Gay’s wrg...

I want to say that Gay’s wrg is magil bee that’s the way feels when I read . Llg magic unrcuts Gay’s craft, the effort that go to producg lerature that feels as fluent and faiar as a chat wh a close iend. Gay’s loose-limbed sentenc diagram his light, partakg numero asis—some as paragraph-long parenthetils—and equally numero asis wh asis, as well as nted subordate cls that are the purview of timate nversatn, not wrten prose.

They are cls and asis which, as Gay wr them, you feel his hand on your arm, you feel him lean toward you, nspiratorially or simply to emphasize his meang. Gay, who is the wner of the NBCC Award for Poetry, is here to provi jt that, wh says celebratg everythg om air quot to ndy wrappers to pickup basketball gam.

It’s hard to read Gay and not to be won over.

About the Author Ross Gay is the thor of The Book of Delights, a genre-fyg book of says, and four books of poetry, cludg his most recent, Be Holdg, is a love song to legendary basketball player Juli Ervg—known as Dr. Gay is a foundg edor, wh Karissa Chen and Patrick Rosal, of the onle sports magaze “Some Call Ball’. ” A foundg board member of the Bloomgton Communy Orchard, a non-prof, ee-u-for-all food jtice and joy project, Gay has received fellowships om Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Wrer’s Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundatn.

Today, we're stg down wh the wrer Ross Gay.

So many thgs light Ross Gay: handma fy srv and loerg, the joy of rryg a heavy bag between two people, paw paws and even weeds. This summer, I reread yet aga and found myself medatg on a sire Gay had voiced: wantg to be softer a world so ready to sharpen and to make hard. So, a recent terview, I talked to Gay about that sire, as well as the role of joy daily life, the difficulty of allowg yourself to be moved, and why he thks 's important to e the word "love.

Gay, an award-wng poet, knows the value of formal nstrat: his experienc of 'light, ' rerd daily for a year, vary wily but yield revealg patterns through sights about everythg om nature and the body to race and masculy. Gay's optimism is as easy as is improbable, his 'heart og like a pigeon ntled on a wdowsill where the spik sted off.

" --Bra Pickgs, Favore Books of 2019 "Ross Gay's poems are ltle celebratns of joy, and this book of mi-says--each centerg around a particular 'light, ' om sleepg your cloth to plantg tomato seedlgs to the nod of greetg between the only two black people a room--is a pure balm for your soul. Pick up, read for ten mut (start anywhere, really), put down, and you'll fd that the lights of Gay's world illumate the lights of yours, that his wonr is ntag and has ed you to epen your own.

" --GQ "The shock of Gay's wrg...

I want to say that Gay's wrg is magil bee that's the way feels when I read . Llg magic unrcuts Gay's craft, the effort that go to producg lerature that feels as fluent and faiar as a chat wh a close iend.

Gay's loose-limbed sentenc diagram his light, partakg numero asis--some as paragraph-long parenthetils--and equally numero asis wh asis, as well as nted subordate cls that are the purview of timate nversatn, not wrten prose. It's hard to read Gay and not to be won over. " Ross Gay is the New York Tim btsellg thor of The Book of Delights: Essays and four books of poetry.

Gay has received fellowships om Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Wrer's Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundatn. Ross Gay is the New York Tim btsellg thor of the say llectns The Book of Delights and Incg Joy and four books of poetry. Gay is a foundg board member of the Bloomgton Communy Orchard, a non-prof, ee-u-for-all food jtice and joy project and has received fellowships om Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Wrer’s Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundatn.

Tell me your name and what is that you do - or jt how you would troduce GAY: Yeah, my name is Ross Gay and, you know, I wre (lghter) (Lghter) Yeah, that's (Lghter) I That's Ross Gay. Once you sort of admted that you thought somethg was betiful, you've also admted that you're moveable, which I thk also is an admissn that you have This episo of LIFE KIT, a nversatn wh Poet Ross Gay on the role of joy daily life, the difficulty of allowg yourself to be moved, and why he thks 's important to e the word Ross, what do joy look like to you? GAY: I'm wrg about joy, you know, and - the thg is, I'm not exactly sure what joy is.

(LAUGHTER)GAY: You know, I was seeg this all the time. "GAY: (Lghter) And I'm jt gog to read the, like, sort of last b of.. (LAUGHTER)GAY:..

GAY: Yeah, good qutn.

(LAUGHTER)GAY: It is - you know, is kd of - is so big, you know? "(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)GAY: But like, actually, you know, for the heart to get bigger, there's breakg happeng, you know. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)CALA: That's wrer Ross Gay.

And that is what poet Ross Gay do ll them as he picks up, a century and a civilizatnal failure later, where Hse left off wh The Book of Delights (public library) — his yearlong experiment learng to notice, amid a world that so readily giv reasons to spair, the daily wellsprgs of light, or what Wenll Berry, his geo se for light as a untercultural force of ristance, lled the elemental pleasur “to which a man had to be acutely and tritely attentive, or he uld not have them at all. Ross Gay his beloved muny garn.

Each day, begng on his forty-send birthday and endg on his forty-third, Gay posed one miature say — “sayett, ” he lls them, that lovely poet’s way of leaveng meang wh makhift language — about a particular light enuntered that day, swirled around his nscns to extract s maximum sweetns.

And so we learn, as passengers on Gay’s lightcraft, that is not jt a matter of payg attentn, but of takg attentn, of liberately shiftg , of divertg the glygen that pumps our spair mcle and clench the fist snng for danger, for that selfsame glygen is need to pump our light mcle and open the palm to hold joy. To be sure, this pacy for drkg the glor everythgns of the world is rooted regnizg the immense and improbable elemental light of one’s own existence — the nsequence of what Gay lls “the many thoand — ln! (Gay is as much a poet as he is a voted garner, though perhaps as Ey Dickson well knew, the two are but a sgle occupatn.