Inciting Joy: Essays

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 , 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, offers a vital alternative: 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.”―