Gay, who has been a part of IU’s creative writing faculty since 2007, has several published works. “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” was selected for the National Book Awards Longlist for Poetry in September and has since moved to the shortlist, marking the final listing of the National Book Awards. A final ceremony will determine a winner for each category: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people’s literature.
The anthology, which Gay said he started working on in 2011, explores metaphors of gardens and orchards that discuss Earth, life and death and rebirth. He said he incorporates Bloomington in several of the poems, and the majority of the poems in the collection were written here.
According to the press release, Gay, a first year finalist, and five other finalists with whom he is acquainted were selected out of 221 submissions to attend the award ceremony.
Gay said he received the news of his placement the day before the public release of the finalists.
“It was totally surprising when I found out my book was on the longlist, then the shortlist,” Gay said. “They called me, and it was a really nice conversation.”
Adrian Matjeka, the Ruth Lilly professor and Poet in Residence at IU, said he has known Gay for 13 years. He said he’s kept up with Gay’s work since meeting him and long before Gay came to IU in 2012.
“It’s a huge deal for his book to be on the shortlist,” Matjeka said. “The NBAs are kind of like the poetry Oscars and anyone who gets as far as he has carries that prestigious recognition for the rest of their careers.”
Matjeka said he believes Gay, a “great representative, not only of poetry, but of Bloomington,” could win overall for the poetry category.
“Even if it doesn’t work out that way, he’s already won,” Matjeka said. “The book is beautiful. All of us in the IU-Bloomington community who value the arts have won, really.”
The winners will be announced Wednesday, Nov. 18, at the 66th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, according to the press release.
“I’ll be booking it to Pennsylvania after the ceremony to give a reading at a university in Pennsylvania,” Gay said. “I’ll be giving a few readings from Catalog as well as other works.”
He said he is also in the process of writing a nonfiction work that discusses his relationship with Earth, his family and imagination.
