Ross Gay, born in 1974, is an American writer and professor, and considered by many to be one of America’s leading poets. Gay was born in Ohio but soon relocated to Pennsylvania, where he stayed until graduating from Lafayette College with a BA. He then moved on to receive an MFA from Sarah Lawrence and a PhD from Temple University.
Gay has never strayed far from the college campus environment (and who can blame him?), first teaching at Lafayette College, then Montclair State University in New Jersey, finally landing at Indiana University in Bloomington. He has taught poetry, art, and literature. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Aside from teaching, of course, he has also been writing. Gay has published three books and won two major awards, including a National Book Critics Circle Award for his most recent book of poetry Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude. This most recent collection was also awarded the Ohioana Book Award, the Balcones Poetry Prize, the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, and nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
And further still, as so many great poets are, Gay is involved in his community — literary and otherwise. He is an editor for chapbook presses Ledge Mule Press and Q Avenue, and he is a founding editor for the online sports magazine Some Call it Ballin’. On the altruistic side of things, Gay is also a founding board member of the Bloomington Family Orchard, a non-profit organization centered around a community-run orchard with the goal of providing free fruit for everyone, a “justice and joy” project.
Click here to read some of Gay’s work.
Ross Gay is coming to CSU!
He will be reading as part of the Creative Writing Reading series.
April 26, 7:30 PM —Ross Gay
(Cherokee Ballroom, LSC)
All readings in this series are free and open to the public.