“Ross Gay Interview” by David Naimon (2021)

The literary journal Tin House has a podcast called “Between the Covers,” which is hosted by David Naimon. In February 2021, Naimon interviewed Ross Gay about Be Holding, and this is the transcript. While a majority of the interview is about the creation of Be Holding, Gay also discusses Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude and some misconceptions about his reputation as a “delightful” poet, or as Naimon notes “The Poet of Joy.” Using “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” as a reference, he points out that the “poem […] ends with the child of my dream saying, ‘‘The end is near and it’s sooner than we think.” He mentions that joy is a complicated emotion that most often goes hand and hand with loss.

“Ross Gay: Interview—Be Holding, Gratitude, Delights” by Nadia Colburn (2021)

Poet and essayist Nadia Colburn interviews “writers, activists, visionaries, change makers, who help us come into a more aligned story, people who both tell the truth and light the way forward with compassion, courage, and appreciation.” In this interview with Gay, she discusses his childhood in suburban Philadelphia, his relationship with sports, gardening, and how the title for Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude came to be. He explains how he thought of the title of the book first then wrote the poem with the book’s title in mind. In his focus in the book—and the poem—Gay says he “was fully cognizant of the ways that kind of enthusiasm and just wild beloving of what ought to be beloved is not always taken care of.”

“Ross Gay Interviewed” by Nicole Sealy (2016)

In this interview for the National Book Foundation, Sealy asks Gay about several processes regarding Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude. Besides noting his influences, Gay also talks about using the form of the ode and elegy in the book: “I think of the ode and the elegy to be always deeply entwined, whether explicitly or not. Because, you know, odes and elegies are ultimately love poems.” He and Sealy also discuss gardening, revision, and what joy and gratitude mean for him. In regard to “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude,” he notes that he “toyed with the idea of making it a book-length poem of gratitude, but it didn’t quite get there. Then I thought (and maybe I’ll do this) I might just keep stretching it out […] You know, the life-long Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude.”