ROSS GAY is the author of Inciting Joy: Essays, The Book of Delights: Essays, and four books of poetry: Against Which, Bringing the Shovel Down, Be Holding, and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. He 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 Richard Wehrenberg Jr., of the chapbook River. Gay has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is also a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a nonprofit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project.