VISITING WRITERS SERIES: ROSS GAY
Presented by Visiting Writers Series
Ross Gay is the author of three books: Against Which (2006); Bringing the Shovel Down (2011); and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Catalog was also a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry, the Ohioana Book Award, the Balcones Poetry Prize, the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award, and it was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.

Gay is the co-author, with Aimee Nezhukumatathil, of the chapbook “Lace and Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens,” in addition to being co-author, with Richard Wehrenberg, Jr., of the chapbook “River.” He is a founding editor, with Karissa Chen and Patrick Rosal, of the online sports magazine Some Call it Ballin’, and also serves as an editor with the chapbook presses Q Avenue and Ledge Mule Press.

He is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. Gay has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He teaches at Indiana University.

This event is free and open to the public.
VISITING WRITERS SERIES
The Vivian S. Delbrook Visiting Writers Series at Butler University regularly hosts public readings and Q & A sessions with some of the most influential people in contemporary literature. Not only have authors like Toni Morrison, Billy Collins, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Gwendolyn Brooks, Nick Hornby, Margaret Atwood, Allen Ginsberg and Amy Tan shared their work with the Indianapolis community, but they have interacted directly with undergraduate and graduate students in Butler’s English classes and MFA program.

Students can also choose to take a 300-level English course that features the work of authors in the Visiting Writers Series. Students in this course are invited to join English faculty in a private dinner given for each writer when he or she visits the campus as well as introduce the writers at the public readings.

The program is coordinated by the Department of English and offers an average of 12 events each year, all of which are free and open to Butler students as well as the Indianapolis community, making the Butler University Visiting Writers Series the largest and most comprehensive of its kind.

To make special arrangements for school groups, book clubs, and community organizations, call 317-940-9861.

The Visiting Writers Series appreciates the generous support of the NEH Ayres Fund and the Vivian S. Delbrook Fund.