ROSS GAY was born on August 1, 1974 in Youngstown, Ohio. He received a BA in English/Art from Lafayette College, an MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, and a PhD in English from Temple University. He is the author of three collections of poetry: Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), winner of the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and finalist for the 2015 National Book Award, the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2015 NAACP Image Awards, all in poetry categories; Bringing the Shovel Down (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011), and Against Which (Cavankerry Press, 2006). Gay 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. His honors include fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference and the Guggenheim Foundation. He currently teaches at Indiana University and in Drew University’s Low-Residency MFA Program.
Ross Gay
This Year's Festival Lineup includes:
Together we’ll work on your poems inside and out, in our hands-on line-by-line discussion of three poems by each participant. To shape our conversation and study, submit two one-page poems and be ready to write a ... Read more >
The focus of this workshop will be on revision: how can we acquire the tools we need to revise our poems on our own? Many aspiring and even experienced poets find it challenging to revise ... Read more >
Every writer has their strengths, but we often tend to over-rely on what we already know we do well. In this workshop, we will focus on how to create a balance of tension in poems. ... Read more >
This workshop will focus on the revision process. We’ll discuss various revision strategies that will help us tighten our poems, but also explore revision as a process that allows us to imagine other possibilities for ... Read more >
In this workshop we will explore how poems need not end with an ascendant or descendent gesture to be as haunting and powerful as a poem that affirms the human condition and assures us that ... Read more >
All poetry is conventional and all convention exists in public spaces and in history. This workshop will take these truths to be fundamental to free verse poetry and, drawing from them, will examine the various ... Read more >
Participants will discuss how the poet is handling content – the decisions that have been made in terms of diction, form, pacing, syntax, etc. with a mind to coming up with useful ideas for revision. ... Read more >
In this generative workshop, we will be writing and revising poems of delight, celebration, and grief, paying special attention to tone of voice. Tone is often defined as an author’s attitude toward her subject, but ... Read more >
This year’s Thomas Lux Memorial Reading and Special Interview Event will feature a one-on-one interview of Gregory Orr by Laure-Anne Bosselaar to be followed by a Q&A session with the poet on Tuesday, ... Read more >
Descriptions of 2021 Poet-at-Large Brian Turner’s virtual high school performances and a special evening event with this distinguished poet are forthcoming. Read more >