Ross Gay’s book of poetry, “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude,” was a National Book Award Finalist in 2015 — one of several accolades the author has earned.
So did he always know he wanted to be a poet?
That was the first question posed to Gay during the Hopkinsville Big Read kickoff Thursday evening at the Alhambra Theatre.
“No, not at all. I wanted to be a football player,” Gay said. “… I wasn’t like a school kid at all.”
Gay said he went to college to play football and was close to failing out of school when things turned around for him academically. It happened because of the example of one poet.
- HOPKINSVILLE BIG READ: Calendar of Events
“I got introduced to a poet named Amiri Baraka in American literature class, and then I started reading and writing in a very serious way,” he said. “But before that … it didn’t occur to me that [poetry] would be a thing I would do.”
Gay, who resides in Bloomington, Indiana, is a professor at Indiana University and teaches in the low residency MFA poetry program at Drew University.
Gay helped kick off the ninth Big Read in Hopkinsville in a way that no previous Big Read had started — with the author of the featured work present to answer questions and sign copies of his work. He also read selections from “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude,” and a Big Read mural inspired by the book was dedicated to Gay at Hopkinsville Brewing Co.
Francene Gilmer, executive director of the Christian County Literacy Council, served as moderator during Gay’s question-and-answer session. Gilmer encouraged audience members to go home and read some of Gay’s essays on the Literary Hub website. She recommended the essay titled, “Ross Gay finds delight in nourishing need, adult braces, and kissing a very small dog one million times.”
Free copies of “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” were given to the first 100 audience members at the Alhambra. In all, about 500 books will be distributed in the community, including at schools, through a Planters Bank sponsorship.
Big Read events will continue through mid-November. Following the theme of gratitude in Gay’s poetry, a dozen large message boards will be displayed around town for residents to record what makes them grateful.
This year’s Big Read is supported through a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which is matched by local contributions and in-kind donations. Several community partners, including Hoptown Chronicle, also sponsor Big Read events.
Margaret Prim, executive director of the Pennyroyal Arts Council, noted recently that having a Big Read author present for local events hasn’t been an option until recently. For several years, the NEA’s approved list of Big Read books was almost entirely from the classics, meaning books written by authors who are now deceased. But the focus has shifted in recent years to more current works like Gay’s poetry.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
