In a live episode recorded at the Lit Youngstown Fall Literary Festival, Ross Gay and Alison Stine discuss joy, trash, the art of writing quickly and without pressure, novel drafting, revision, writerly obsessions, creating art in a burning world, and, of course, why we must bring each other French fries. 

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 is also the author of three collections of essays: The Book of Delights,  Inciting Joy, and, most recently, The Book of (More) Delights. Photo credit: Natasha Komoda.

Alison Stine is the author of the novel Trashlands, which was longlisted for the 2022 Reading the West Book Award, a finalist for the Ohioana Book Award, and longlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. Her first novel, Road Out of Winter, won the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award. Her next novel, Dust, is forthcoming in 2024. She is also the author of three poetry collections and a novella.

This conversation was recorded before a live audience at Youngstown State University on October 21, 2023 at the Lit Youngstown Fall Literary Festival.

Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and a transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email [email protected] (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.