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:
“Imitation, conscious imitation, is one of the great methods, perhaps the method of learning to write,” said Theodore Roethke. In this workshop we’ll consider a variety of contemporary poems that demonstrate specific aspects of the ... Read more >
Many poets find it challenging to revise their work without the help of a workshop group or mentor. This inter-active workshop will focus on how can we acquire the tools we need to revise poems ... Read more >
This workshop will consider the conscious and unconscious choices writers face regarding the structures and strategies of their poems. We will look closely at the way poems are made and organized and the manners in ... Read more >
In this workshop we will consider the ways that reading or writing a poem might be an act of resuscitation. An awakening of one’s “sight,” mind and questions. We will read the work of writers ... Read more >
How does a poem surprise its readers? How does a shift in direction cause a poem to resonate in an evocative manner? How do we move beyond our initial subject matter to produce unexpected revelations? ... Read more >
Poetry is often accused of being a flighty and ephemeral art, but even the most impalpable of materials can yield dynamic poems when we ground them in the real world. Language is rooted in the ... Read more >
Voice partakes of a dynamic conversation across history, languages, cultures, and traditions. Yet few notions in poetry today prove as lively, elusive, and contested as voice. Whether we think of voice as a metaphor for ... Read more >
Why do some poems seem to arrive on the page with a life of their own, while others refuse to breathe no matter how much we revise them? Often the answer lies in the relationship ... Read more >
How to get out of the way, invite the imagination, and surprise yourself. Our workshop will be looking for ways to invite a power that won’t be commanded, to improve our poetic luck, change our ... Read more >
For the first time, the festival will feature a Poet At Large. The role of the Poet At Large will be to appear for a special evening reading on Friday, January 25th, as well as ... Read more >
The festival welcomes Sharon Olds who returns to the festival as our Special Guest and to deliver the annual Thomas Lux Memorial Reading. Read more >