Poet Ross Gay on his new book and finding joy in sorrow [cnn.com]

Carey Sipp 10/26/229:00 AM

By Leah Asmelash, Photo: Natasha Komoda/Algonquin Books, CNN Style, October 25, 2022

In the last two years, it seems like everyone has been searching for joy.

From the success of shows like Apple TV+'s uber-positive "Ted Lasso" to dance albums like Beyoncé's "Renaissance," to books like Aimee Nezhukumatathil's "World of Wonders" -- the call to look beyond sorrow is ubiquitous.

Poet Ross Gay explores these questions -- What incites joy? And what does joy incite? -- in his new book, "Inciting Joy," an essay collection released Tuesday.

Written over the course of the pandemic, Gay ponders joy, defining it less as the absence of sorrow and rather as our response to it. Joy, he argues, has everything to do with our suffering and our sorrow; in fact, it emerges from it.

[Please click here to read more.]

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