Book of Delights - The Poetry Shop

Book of Delights

$19.99
Sale price  $19.99 Regular price 
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Book of Delights - The Poetry Shop

Algonquin Books

Book of Delights

$19.99
Sale price  $19.99 Regular price 
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As Heard on NPR's This American Life: The New York Times bestselling book that celebrates ordinary delights in the world around us by one of America's most original and observant writers and the author of Inciting Joy, award-winning poet Ross Gay. Pre-order The Book of (More) Delights now, too!

"Ross Gay's eye lands upon wonder at every turn, bolstering my belief in the countless small miracles that surround us." --Tracy K. Smith, Pulitzer Prize winner and U.S. Poet Laureate

The winner of the National Book Critics Award for Poetry offers up a spirited collection of short lyrical essays, written daily over a tumultuous year, reminding us of the purpose and pleasure of praising, extolling, and celebrating ordinary wonders.

In The Book of Delights, one of today's most original literary voices offers up a genre-defying volume of lyric essays written over one tumultuous year. The first nonfiction book from award-winning poet Ross Gay is a record of the small joys we often overlook in our busy lives. Among Gay's funny, poetic, philosophical delights: a friend's unabashed use of air quotes, cradling a tomato seedling aboard an airplane, the silent nod of acknowledgment between the only two black people in a room. But Gay never dismisses the complexities, even the terrors, of living in America as a black man or the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture or the loss of those he loves. More than anything else, though, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world-his garden, the flowers peeking out of the sidewalk, the hypnotic movements of a praying mantis.

The Book of Delights is about our shared bonds, and the rewards that come from a life closely observed. These remarkable pieces serve as a powerful and necessary reminder that we can, and should, stake out a space in our lives for delight.

Book Details

Publisher:
Algonquin Books
ISBN:
9781643753287
Binding:
Paperback
Pages:
288
Authors:
Ross Gay
Published Date:
2022-08-16
Language:
English

About Ross Gay

A professor of English at Indiana University Bloomington, Ross Gay was born in Youngstown, Ohio. He holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a PhD from Temple University. His debut collection, Against Which (CavanKerry Press, 2006), was followed by Bringing the Shovel Down (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011) and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. His essay collection The Book of Delights (Algonquin, 2019) was a New York Times bestseller. He is a founding member of the Bloomington Community Orchard.

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