Inciting Joy Audiobook By Ross Gay cover art

Inciting Joy

Essays

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Inciting Joy

By: Ross Gay
Narrated by: Ross Gay
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From New York Times bestselling author Ross Gay comes a "brilliant" intimate and electrifying collection of essays about the joy that comes from connection (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.

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.

In an era when divisive voices take up so much airspace, Inciting Joy offers a vital alternative: What might be possible if we turn our attention to what brings us together, to what we love?

©2022 Ross Gay (P)2022 Algonquin Books Essays Inspiring

Critic reviews

“Stunning…Gay’s curiosity is present on every page and his precise yet playful prose sparkles…This resonant, vivid meditation shouldn’t be missed.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Ross Gay is as insightful and lyrical as an essayist as he is as a poet. His essays are as trenchant as they are moving, finding in the minutiae of life the grand themes of human existence.”—Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of War is Force that Gives us Meaning and America: The Farewell Tour

“This is instantly one of my favorite books ever. A wondering-aloud to which I will be returning often, and a brilliant manifesto making a case for joy as a thing which is as complex and rigorous as it is lovely and free. In that sneaky way Ross Gay has of lovingly disarming you before getting you to dwell in rooms of your heart you’d left vacant, Inciting Joy uses its titular emotion as a window into sorrow and rage, into gifts and loss, into the tricky business of being alive.”—Eve L. Ewing, author of Ghosts in The Schoolyard, Electric Arches, and Marvel Comic’s Ironheart series
Profound Insights • Powerful Writing • Beautiful Narration • Unique Perspective • Inspiring Message • Poetic Delivery
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Amazing….I know the connection between grief and joy. I’m so appreciative of how you presented everything with such great care.

Delicate

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In sharing the moments of his life where their seemed no joy to be had… only sorrow, I saw much alignment with my own experiences. Thank you Ross Gay for shining light on the other side.

Joy and tears

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It was perfect. I will read anything he writes. Beautiful thoughts and stories. Inspiring for years to come.

Real humanity

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profoundly important and impactful, this will be a book I recommend to everyone i know

absolute must listen

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I am speechless and grateful and will so miss listening to this amazing voice everywhere I drive—until Ross Gay releases his next book.

the best

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I could tell from the first chapter that I will listen to this book again and again. It is so beautifully crafted and filled with wisdom that is relatable no matter who you are. It made me pay attention to how I live my life and those in it. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Outstanding

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Deeply honest, powerful, and insightful writing once again from Ross Gay.
I’m glad he has been narrating his own books. It’s like listening to an long time friend speaking truths I need and want to hear.

Powerful, deeply felt, joy.

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Ross is not talking about your surface joy...no, this is a call to incite the joy that includes ALL of us, the joy that is really is RIGHT THERE if only we don't remain so damn committed to the systems of oppression. His writing is all at once funny, heartening, delightful AND sobering.

REAL joy

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This should be mandatory listening for every human that interacts with other humans. We are one another.

Brilliance

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Ross Gay is amazing. Kind hearted, imperfect and honest. His writing and narration inspire hope while laying bare some of the most difficult truths of our time on this planet. Beautifully poetic essays that, as trite as it sounds, made me laugh and cry.

Beautifully told truths

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