The National Writers Series is pleased to partner with Interlochen Center for the Arts for An Evening with Ross Gay. NWS will livestream the event from Interlochen's Corson Auditorium. NWS and Interlochen Center for the Arts welcome Ross Gay who will discuss his latest book, Inciting Joy. Throughout the book, he explores how we can practice recognizing that connection, and also how we expand it. In an era when divisive voices take up so much air space, Inciting Joy offers a vital alternative: What might be possible if we turn our attention to what brings us together, to what we love? Full of energy, curiosity, and compassion, Inciting Joy is essential reading from one of our most brilliant writers. Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. He has released a new collection of essays, Inciting Joy. To ensure broad access to the transformative Interlochen experience, a portion of the proceeds from this event supports student scholarships. Guest Host Ari Mokdad is the National Writers Series new education director. She's a Detroit-born choreographer, creative writer, and passionate educator. Ari holds a Master of Arts in English from Wayne State University and three Bachelor of Arts degrees in dance, English and writing from Grand Valley State University. Ari will receive a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College and participate in the Centrum Artist Residency in 2022. She lives with her husband in Traverse City on the ancestral and unceded land of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Pottawatomie people, The People of the Three Fires.