Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil: Week of Oct. 4, 2020

Thursday, Oct. 8, 7 p.m.: Live from Prairie Lights, a reading and conversation

Tuesday, Oct. 6, 8 p.m.: Writers@Grinnell Webex roundtable.

This roundtable event is an informal conversation open only to members of the Grinnell College community. Details (link) to come via email.

Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry:

• Against Which
• Bringing the Shovel Down
• Be Holding
• Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award

His new poem, Be Holding, will be released from the University of Pittsburgh Press in September of 2020. His collection of essays, The Book of Delights, was released by Algonquin Books in 2019. Ross is also the co-author, with Aimee Nezhukumatathil, of the chapbook “Lace and Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens,” in addition to being co-author, with Rosechard Wehrenberg, of the chapbook, “River.” He is a founding editor, with Karissa Chen and Patrick Rosal, of the online sports magazine Some Call it Ballin’, in addition to being an editor with the chapbook presses Q Avenue and Ledge Mule Press. Ross is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. He also works on The Tenderness Project with Shayla Lawson and Essence London. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Ross teaches at Indiana University.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of four books of poetry: Oceanic; Lucky Fish, winner of the Hoffer Grand Prize for Prose and Independent Books; At the Drive-In Volcano; and Miracle Fruit. With Ross Gay, she co-authored Lace & Pyrite, a chapbook of nature poems (Organic Weapon Arts). Her most recent publication is the highly anticipated World of Wonders, her first book of essays. The former poetry editor of Orion magazine, her poems have appeared in the Best American Poetry series, American Poetry Review, New England Review, Poetry, Ploughshares,and Tin House. Awards for her writing include an NEA Fellowship in poetry and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship. She is professor of English and creative writing in the MFA program of the University of Mississippi.