KEYNOTE ADDRESS: INCITING JOY
with Ross Gay
Sunday, October 23rd | 6pm
In an era when divisive voices take up so much air space, Inciting Joy offers a vital alternative: What might be possible if we turn our attention to what brings us together, to what we love? In “We Kin” he thinks about the garden (especially around August, when the zucchini and tomatoes come on) as a laboratory of mutual aid; in “Share Your Bucket” he explores skateboarding’s reclamation of public space; he considers the costs of masculinity in “Grief Suite”; and in “Through My Tears I Saw,” he recognizes what was healed in caring for his father as he was dying.
Throughout his new book, prize-winning poet Ross Gay explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also, crucially, how we expand it. In the closing keynote for the Harrisburg Book Festival, Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life’s inevitable hardships. Full of energy, curiosity, and compassion, Inciting Joy is essential reading from one of our most brilliant writers.
This event is free and open to the public. All events will take place at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore. Seating is general admission; first come, first served. Registration, masks, and proof of vaccination are not required for this event. A public book signing will immediately follow the discussion. Purchasing an author’s new or previously published book from the Midtown Scholar Bookstore is required for entry to the signing line. (Additional copies of a book, purchased elsewhere, may also be signed if time permits). Sales receipt or proof of purchase will need to be presented to staff at the entrance to the signings.
About the Speaker
Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award.
His first collection of essays, The Book of Delights, was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller. His new collection of essays, Inciting Joy, will be released by Algonquin in October of 2022.