Ross Gay (Natasha Komoda)
A while back, Ross Gay was trying to write a book that was going to make him an expert. It was a book that would, as he put it, “get him on the shows.” It wasn’t very fun. And then he read David Shields’ How Literature Saved My Life, where Shields wonders about himself and literature through short, playful entries. Reading that book gave Ross permission “to be writing stuff that felt fascinating not only because it was interesting subject matter, but because it was the unfolding understanding of who I might be” (and, by extension, who any of us might be.
This week on Inner States, Ross Gay and I talk about his latest book, The Book of (More) Delights – it drops on Tuesday! – about his relationship to that most basic unit of writing – the sentence – about digression, and how part of being an adult is accepting that people don’t always understand why they do things. Ourselves included.
Inner States is produced and edited by me, Alex Chambers, with support from Violet Baron, Eoban Binder, Jillian Blackburn, Mark Chilla, Avi Forrest, LuAnn Johnson, Sam Schemenauer, Jay Upshaw, Payton Whaley, and Kayte Young. Our Executive Producer is Eric Bolstridge.
Our theme song is by Amy Oelsner and Justin Vollmar. We have additional music from the artists at Universal Production Music.