Ross Gay Anthologies books in order

Reading order

American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time (2018) was Tracy K. Smith’s selection as US Poet Laureate, an anthology she put together for Graywolf Press to gather poems that spoke to American experience across the preceding decades. Gay’s inclusion alongside other prominent American poets reflects his standing in the poetry community at the time.

They Said (2018), edited by Simone Muench and Dean Rader for Black Lawrence Press, is an anthology of collaborative writing across multiple genres — poetry, hybrid work, prose — that placed Gay in a context focused on the process of co-authored or responsive creation. Breaking into Blossom (2025), edited by Luke Hankins and Nomi Stone for Texas Review Press, gathers poems chosen for their extraordinary endings, placing Gay alongside poets including Kaveh Akbar, Jericho Brown, Anne Carson, and Louise Glück.