On Friday evening, the Center For Faith and Life (CFL) Main Hall was filled with the sounds of joyful conversation and reflection. Community members, Luther students, and visiting writers enjoyed an engaging evening with author and poet Ross Gay. His lecture, “Inciting Joy”, was part of the Elwin D. and Helen Farwell Distinguished Lecture Series and the Luther College Writers’ Festival.
Gay is the author of six books: two essay collections and four books of poetry. His most recent book of essays shares a title with the lecture: “Inciting Joy”. His works have received several awards, including the National Book Critics Circle award in 2015 for “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” and the PEN American Literary Jean Stein award for “Be Holding”.
As the title implies, the evening’s lecture and discussion included themes of joy. Gay also discussed themes such as community and connection and spoke about his beloved hobby of gardening. Gay read aloud some of his poems, including “Burial”, which is a reflection on the passing and burial of his father. He also read several of his essays from “The Book of Delights” and “The Book of (More) Delights”, which explore small moments of gladness in his day-to-day encounters. Later in the program, Gay offered advice for developing writers.
“Honor, be loving, and [be] excited about who inspires you,” Gay said. “Study what you love.”
Professor of English Amy Weldon, co-director of the Luther College Writers’ Festival, offered an introduction at the event. During the lecture, Weldon also served as the moderator.
Attendee Amy Webb (‘24) enjoyed spending a Friday evening with Gay and highlighted his ability to switch between genres as being one of her biggest takeaways from the lecture.
“His comparison of poetry writing and other genres to basketball, since he was a basketball player, was really cool,” Webb said. “His analogy was very interesting.”
Webb also felt inspired by Gay’s work, particularly by his essay collection “The Book of Delights”. “The Book of Delights” consists of 102 short essays, which Gay refers to as “delights”. Many of these “delights” are short episodes in Gay’s life that brought him happiness. Gay also shared that each day, he dedicated about 30 minutes to writing one of these episodes.
“I’m inspired by ‘The Book of Delights’ in terms of him writing every day for 30 minutes,” Webb said. “That made me start thinking about, you know, maybe making my own little delight vignettes. It seems like such a mindful exercise.”
An audience question and answer session with Gay as well as a book signing followed the lecture. Ellie Van Fleet (‘24) had the chance to meet Gay after attending the lecture, and felt encouraged by his words.
“Ross Gay is one of those people who make you feel a little more hopeful about the state of the world,” Van Fleet said. “Listening to him read and just chat was a lovely experience, and getting to meet him afterwards was something I’ll never forget.”
