Inciting Joy: Essays

"BRILLIANT." --Ada Limón, U.S. poet laureate

An intimate and electrifying collection of essays from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights.

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2022

In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author Ross Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life's inevitable hardships. Throughout Inciting Joy, he explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also, crucially, how we can expand it.

In "We Kin," Gay thinks about the garden (es­pecially around August, when the zucchini and tomatoes come in) as a laboratory of mutual aid; in "Share Your Bucket," he explores skateboard­ing's reclamation of public spaces; 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.

In an era when divisive voices take up so much airspace, Inciting Joy offers a vital alternative: What might be possible if we turn our attention to what brings us together, to what we love?

Taking a clear-eyed look at injustice, political polarization, and the destruction of the natural world, Gay shows us how we might resist, how the study of joy might lead us to a wild, unpredictable, transgressive, and unboundaried solidarity. In fact, it just might help us survive.

Author: Ross Gay
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 10/25/2022
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.60w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781643753041

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/18/2022
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2022
Booklist 09/01/2022 pg. 22
Library Journal 10/01/2022 pg. 141
Shelf Awareness 10/21/2022