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Inciting Joy: Essays
From Ross Gay, the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Delights, comes an intimate and electrifying collection of essays about the joy that comes from connection. “BRILLIANT.” —Ada Limón, U.S. poet laureate
In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author 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 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.
“A gift that’s meant to be shared . . . [This book] inspires us to look beyond the miseries of our era to envision a more welcoming future.”―The Washington Post
In these gorgeously written and timely pieces, prizewinning poet and author 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 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.
“A gift that’s meant to be shared . . . [This book] inspires us to look beyond the miseries of our era to envision a more welcoming future.”―The Washington Post
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 25, 2022
1185 people are currently reading
17088 people want to read
About the author
Ross Gay
33 books1,481 followersRoss Gay is an American poet, essayist, and professor who won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for his 2014 book Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, which was also a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry.
His honors include being a Cave Canem Workshop fellow and a Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Tuition Scholar, and he received a grant from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.
He is an associate professor of poetry at Indiana University and teaches in Drew University’s low-residency MFA program in poetry. He also serves on the board of the Bloomington Community Orchard.
His honors include being a Cave Canem Workshop fellow and a Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Tuition Scholar, and he received a grant from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.
He is an associate professor of poetry at Indiana University and teaches in Drew University’s low-residency MFA program in poetry. He also serves on the board of the Bloomington Community Orchard.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 996 reviews
May 27, 2023
I will read everything Ross Gay writes.
March 28, 2023
Turn on the television, listen to the news, current events. What do you find? Not many feel good stories to be had. Hard to find joy there, which is why, I grabbed this book. I also enjoy how this author writes. His prose is delightful.
Twelve stories that show it is possible to find joy if one looks. Even in the midst of crisis and he shows us where and how. In group activities, in talking, or listening instead of talking, sharing ideas. Joy is there if one only looks. This book is full of good things, something all of us could use.
Twelve stories that show it is possible to find joy if one looks. Even in the midst of crisis and he shows us where and how. In group activities, in talking, or listening instead of talking, sharing ideas. Joy is there if one only looks. This book is full of good things, something all of us could use.
November 7, 2022
4.5 stars
The power of community and the healing abilities of positive growth and shared love. Inciting Joy is a collection of "feel good" that I think is the perfect balm for those struggling in these times.
Sense of joy: ★★★★★
Flow of stories: ★★★★
Writing style: ★★★★
There are some books that are both shockingly simple to describe and yet so vastly large they feel impossible to shrink down into the purposes of a review. Inciting Joy is one of those reads.
Ross Gay's essays in this collection all have a central theme—joy, of course—but each feels layered, framed through a different quirk of the lens, and reliant on different modes to convey their message. Joy, like all emotions, is a complex and ever-changing thing.
Growth and green things are a prominent note in this collection. Ideas of life and growing are no strangers to joy.
More surprising to some might be the inclusion of grief and exploration of loss as a means to receive the sharper, more poignant pieces of joy and uplifting emotional resonance.
Beautiful, sharp, soft, and layered, Inciting Joy is a unique thumbprint on a world that often focuses on the sharp and critical. Sit down with Ross Gay for a while and feel some love. It'll help... I promise.
Thank you to Algonquin Books for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
Blog | Instagram
The power of community and the healing abilities of positive growth and shared love. Inciting Joy is a collection of "feel good" that I think is the perfect balm for those struggling in these times.
Sense of joy: ★★★★★
Flow of stories: ★★★★
Writing style: ★★★★
There are some books that are both shockingly simple to describe and yet so vastly large they feel impossible to shrink down into the purposes of a review. Inciting Joy is one of those reads.
Ross Gay's essays in this collection all have a central theme—joy, of course—but each feels layered, framed through a different quirk of the lens, and reliant on different modes to convey their message. Joy, like all emotions, is a complex and ever-changing thing.
Growth and green things are a prominent note in this collection. Ideas of life and growing are no strangers to joy.
More surprising to some might be the inclusion of grief and exploration of loss as a means to receive the sharper, more poignant pieces of joy and uplifting emotional resonance.
Beautiful, sharp, soft, and layered, Inciting Joy is a unique thumbprint on a world that often focuses on the sharp and critical. Sit down with Ross Gay for a while and feel some love. It'll help... I promise.
Thank you to Algonquin Books for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
Blog | Instagram
June 5, 2022
Gratitude, delight, and now joy. If Ross Gay spends the rest of his life writing about, cataloguing, reveling in, emotions...I will follow right along as he does so, and consider myself fortunate. These essays are longer than the small exercises in The Book of Delights, and I loved that. It gave him time to let a topic breathe, to meander around it, circle and expand his ideas in ways that I adored. It felt very much a companion to Hanif Abdurraqib's work. New life goal: See Hanif Abdurraqib and Ross Gay on a stage together, talking about their work. Book gods...make that happen?
December 19, 2022
I loved his last essay collection, The Book of Delights, so I was thrilled to receive this book. However, this did not incite any joy for me. It is getting rave reviews so I’m willing to admit I’m the problem. It’s me. Hi.
October 21, 2024
"My hunch is that joy, emerging from our common sorrow--which does not necessarily mean we have the same sorrows, but that we, in common, sorrow--might draw us together. It might depolarize us and de-atomize us enough that we can consider what, in common, we love."
In Ross Gay's collections of essays, he writes about what incites joy in him, because he knows that this joy is resistance.
One of the reasons he is able to cultivate such joy in his life is because he knows that "we," the "living," are interdependent.
Page 38:
"As the writers and ecological stewards Vandana Shiva and Robin Wall Kimmerer teach us, to be among the living, to be life, means to be in dependence, always and forever, whether you like it or not."
This is why Ross Gay is infuriated by the systems in our world that are prioritizing the power profit over the power of our interconnectedness.
He writes, "Now they pretend the earth they're destroying and doing everything in their power to keep destroying is broken, "inefficient," and that they have the technology to fix it, which they sell to the ones for whom the earth has been most destroyed, and, just a crazy guess here: it won't fix it. In fact, another crazy guess: it will make everything worse."
And if we continue to prioritize profit, this cycle of destruction will be endless.
Footnote on pg. 54:
"As Arundhati Roy asks, rhetorically, in her book Capitalism: A Ghost Story, "Do we need weapons to fight wars? Or do we need wars to create a market for weapons?"
Clearly, Ross Gay is not choosing "bliss over ignorance." He is doing quite the contrary. He knows that the only way he will survive this problematic world is by cultivating joy in his life. Gardening. Crying. Connecting with loved ones. Playing pick up basketball. And writing books like this.
In Ross Gay's collections of essays, he writes about what incites joy in him, because he knows that this joy is resistance.
One of the reasons he is able to cultivate such joy in his life is because he knows that "we," the "living," are interdependent.
Page 38:
"As the writers and ecological stewards Vandana Shiva and Robin Wall Kimmerer teach us, to be among the living, to be life, means to be in dependence, always and forever, whether you like it or not."
This is why Ross Gay is infuriated by the systems in our world that are prioritizing the power profit over the power of our interconnectedness.
He writes, "Now they pretend the earth they're destroying and doing everything in their power to keep destroying is broken, "inefficient," and that they have the technology to fix it, which they sell to the ones for whom the earth has been most destroyed, and, just a crazy guess here: it won't fix it. In fact, another crazy guess: it will make everything worse."
And if we continue to prioritize profit, this cycle of destruction will be endless.
Footnote on pg. 54:
"As Arundhati Roy asks, rhetorically, in her book Capitalism: A Ghost Story, "Do we need weapons to fight wars? Or do we need wars to create a market for weapons?"
Clearly, Ross Gay is not choosing "bliss over ignorance." He is doing quite the contrary. He knows that the only way he will survive this problematic world is by cultivating joy in his life. Gardening. Crying. Connecting with loved ones. Playing pick up basketball. And writing books like this.
October 14, 2022
Do you know the feeling when you come across a book at exactly the right time? If you have also found yourself feeling worn thin from the past few years, this book will be a balm. Having read and loved Gay's prior essay collection, The Book of Delights, I knew that he would not deal in platitudes. Instead, Gay offers a series of meditations on experiences and lenses to examine different aspects of joy. If you've already read The Book of Delights, you will recognize the thoughtful observations and celebration of the mundane and the minutiae which populate his newest collection of essays.
I was especially moved by his repeated return to community and connection as a site of care and a cornerstone of joy, through chapters on pickup basketball, gardening, and the Bloomington Community Orchard. I also appreciated the notion of joy as resistance against the abuses of power, as insurgency against mindless mandated conformity, as a refusal of that which will harm the community. The essay which analyzes Benito Cereno in the context of the abuses of the state is especially excellent.
Perhaps most compellingly, Gay deftly moves between the freedom in joy to the intimate relationship between joy and sorrow. Gay explores the latter relationship from multiple angles through the experience of the death of his father. I found these sections to be especially vulnerable and compassionate—solace I have been craving. It is a gorgeous read.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was especially moved by his repeated return to community and connection as a site of care and a cornerstone of joy, through chapters on pickup basketball, gardening, and the Bloomington Community Orchard. I also appreciated the notion of joy as resistance against the abuses of power, as insurgency against mindless mandated conformity, as a refusal of that which will harm the community. The essay which analyzes Benito Cereno in the context of the abuses of the state is especially excellent.
Perhaps most compellingly, Gay deftly moves between the freedom in joy to the intimate relationship between joy and sorrow. Gay explores the latter relationship from multiple angles through the experience of the death of his father. I found these sections to be especially vulnerable and compassionate—solace I have been craving. It is a gorgeous read.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
December 16, 2022
One of the worst books I have ever read. Rambling disjointed paragraphs with lengthy run on footnotes on every page. Nothing about this book incites joy. Half the time I didn’t even know what he was talking about.
November 16, 2022
I was very hopeful when asked to read Inciting Joy. I had not read anything by Ross Gay, and I was intrigued by the idea of a series of essays and I was in need of some heartwarming joy.
I did find an early essay about rekindling a relationship while caring for his sick father touching. Beyond that I struggled with the verbose writing style, and the intentionally bad ARC formatting did not help. Subsequently, I didn’t find a lot of joy in reading this book of essays. I am definitely an outlier reviewer on this book, but not every book is going to appeal to every reader.
I received an complimentary copy of this book from Algonquin Books in exchange for my honest review.
I did find an early essay about rekindling a relationship while caring for his sick father touching. Beyond that I struggled with the verbose writing style, and the intentionally bad ARC formatting did not help. Subsequently, I didn’t find a lot of joy in reading this book of essays. I am definitely an outlier reviewer on this book, but not every book is going to appeal to every reader.
I received an complimentary copy of this book from Algonquin Books in exchange for my honest review.
March 18, 2023
This book gave me a feeling that Gay describes "as thousands of birds taking flight in my chest, which means, I think, the long and beautiful breaking into something more than me."
January 9, 2024
Simply cannot get through anything Ross Gay writes without wanting to weep.
January 17, 2024
This book did nothing at all to ‘ incite joy’ for me .
I found it to be a self indulgent set of very personal essays about Ross Gay’s life, his relationship with his father and his political views and experiences.
Indeed, for me the title of the book was ironic as it actually made me sad and depressed reading it . The book title suggests it might give helpful hints and incites as to how to create more joy in your life, and in turn, joy in those around you, but the book title is grossly misleading. It made me sad that Ross Gay seemed to be using the guise of supporting those (who by nature of reading this book might be feeling vulnerable and in need of support) to sell a book .
Very disappointing..
I found it to be a self indulgent set of very personal essays about Ross Gay’s life, his relationship with his father and his political views and experiences.
Indeed, for me the title of the book was ironic as it actually made me sad and depressed reading it . The book title suggests it might give helpful hints and incites as to how to create more joy in your life, and in turn, joy in those around you, but the book title is grossly misleading. It made me sad that Ross Gay seemed to be using the guise of supporting those (who by nature of reading this book might be feeling vulnerable and in need of support) to sell a book .
Very disappointing..
November 24, 2022
I came across this book at the perfect time as I’ve been feeling a little burned out and this helped me invoke self-reflection. His collection of essays remind me to slow down, celebrate life, and remember that community and our connections with others is a cornerstone of joy
December 30, 2022
This is a series of essays, some of which I found more interesting than others. such as the one about gardening. However, there were extensive footnotes (some for a couple of pages) which disrupted the reading of the book and which I found distracting.
January 9, 2024
well !!! what can i say i loved these essays.
February 8, 2023
I felt like the essays were a bit random and I had trouble really finding meaning. Of course a few stuck out to me but I was overall disappointed.
December 22, 2022
I love Ross Gay and his project of joy. This was a slightly disappointing follow-up to the very delightful Book of Delights, however. This collection is not as focused as that prior book. And in its format, I found the interruptions and long footnotes distracting, almost as if he could not bother to collect his thoughts and so had to insert many rejoinders and asides to bring it all together. The essay on football and masculinity was the best, in my opinion, and further cemented my strong belief that football is unethical and resoundingly bad for human beings (as players, as spectators, as a culture).
December 19, 2022
On the whole an enjoyable and uplifting read. Gay is more political here than the title might suggest to you, which I appreciated but other readers may not. Genuinely lovely in many spots, but few that took me someplace I hadn't been or thought of before, and I did find those essays on subjects I haven't experienced (or at least not joyfully, aka sports) to be more difficult reads with less of a pay-off.
The essay on masculinity towards the end of the book is (in my highly subjective opinion as a woman) very worth reading on its own if you're not sure of the book as a whole.
The essay on masculinity towards the end of the book is (in my highly subjective opinion as a woman) very worth reading on its own if you're not sure of the book as a whole.
March 26, 2025
3.25.25. Reread.
10.28.22. Absolutely beautiful.
10.28.22. Absolutely beautiful.
February 6, 2024
absolutely stunning. requires reading. never have i enjoyed or have been grateful for reading a book as slowly as i read this one.
i am at a loss for words, so i’ll share the last thing that moved me:
“and to whom, wherever you are, I offer a hearty thanks: grief is the metabolization of change. Perhaps it's for this reason that the bodies of the grieving so often actually transform in the process of grieving—losing or gaining weight, suddenly wrinkling or taking on a tremor, water running from the eyes, hair going gray or white, memory different, dying. It is an emotional and bodily process that calls to question the ridiculous notion that ever the two are not one. This alert to the body and mind being one and the same (which is also called the heart) is one of the wisdoms the griever offers us, though it is ancillary to, or a subsidiary of, what perhaps is the first wisdom of grief, the one they bring back to us like fire, like the tablets: everything is connected.”
i am at a loss for words, so i’ll share the last thing that moved me:
“and to whom, wherever you are, I offer a hearty thanks: grief is the metabolization of change. Perhaps it's for this reason that the bodies of the grieving so often actually transform in the process of grieving—losing or gaining weight, suddenly wrinkling or taking on a tremor, water running from the eyes, hair going gray or white, memory different, dying. It is an emotional and bodily process that calls to question the ridiculous notion that ever the two are not one. This alert to the body and mind being one and the same (which is also called the heart) is one of the wisdoms the griever offers us, though it is ancillary to, or a subsidiary of, what perhaps is the first wisdom of grief, the one they bring back to us like fire, like the tablets: everything is connected.”
June 19, 2023
Really liked the portrayal of growth in these essays that call on memories, self-reflection and regret to reveal the other side of the lighthearted Ross Gay we see in his poetry nowadays. It goes a long way to demonstrate, as he writes in one line in "Grief Suite", that compassion is a muscle; it develops from exercise—being in use. He is transparent about three catalysts in his life that especially moved me: 1) the long and ever-present journey of his father's death and dying, 2) his role as a scholarship athlete who played his way through college, and the toxic masculinity that shaped and suppressed his playing career, rooted in misogyny; and 3) reconciling his neglect to step forward to comfort a despairing acquaintance (and ex-teammate) when they reached out to him, despite his own similar experiences, shortly before dying by suicide.
He also calls on his experiences in relationship therapy and the ways he has learned to be in relationship to others. I also appreciated his chapter "Dispatch from the Ruins" on the freedoms we allow students when we remove the tradition of formal grading.
He also calls on his experiences in relationship therapy and the ways he has learned to be in relationship to others. I also appreciated his chapter "Dispatch from the Ruins" on the freedoms we allow students when we remove the tradition of formal grading.
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May 13, 2025This book had truly beautiful passages that stopped me in my tracks and made me think. Should have done the audiobook though, because Gay loves himself some commas.
October 25, 2023
Every year in January or February, I read a book that I'm sure will be among my top 10 books for that year. I'm fairly sure that Inciting Joy is that book for 2023. I tried to slow down and savor Ross Gay's essays, but I started listening as soon as I downloaded the book and didn't want to put it down. Like any other book of essays, there were some that I didn't connect with as much as others, but that is because I don't have a lot of interest in skateboarding or basketball. But I listened to "Through My Tears I Saw" three times because this reflection on what was healed while caring for his father is one of the best I've read. In the remainder of the essays, Mr. Gay asks us to pay attention to what brings us together (like eating good food, dancing, and gardening) rather than focusing on our differences. Several reviewers have said they're not fond of the author's digressions, but I loved them as his curiosity always leads to more compelling writing about how joy is deepened by grief, fear, and loss.
December 26, 2023
This book is absolutely gorgeous and brilliant, one of my favorites of the year. Gay is a beautiful storyteller with so much poetic wisdom to offer, and with the ability to make you laugh, cry and reflect on your own life all in one page. I love the way he both humanizes the daily (sometimes mundane) parts of our lives while skillfully tying it to the bigger sociopolitical context.
May 11, 2023
sometimes a book crawls into ur silly little soul
April 16, 2024
Oh, My Heart
January 7, 2024
There’s an essay in here that made me into something I don’t quite yet understand - thank you Ross Gay
January 5, 2023
“Though I didn’t yet have the words for it, plantings that orchard—by which I mean, you know this by now, joining my labor to the labor by which it came to be—reminded me, or illuminated for me, a matrix of connection, of care, that exists not only in the here and now, but comes to us from the past and extends forward into the future. A rhizomatic care I so often forget to notice I am every second in the midst of.”
October 10, 2023
i love u long, run on sentences i love you joy within grief, grief within joy, i love u gratitude as burning monsanto seeds/gratitude as resistance, i love u footnotes that become pages, i love u ross gay
December 16, 2023
Energetic, lyrical writing that is both personal and political. I appreciated the sprawling sentences and multi-page footnotes. (I liked the fact that Gay was willing to break the rules in terms of what's expected and/or typical.)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 996 reviews