Lace & Pyrite

Lace & Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens

Originally published by Organic Weapon Arts in 2014, Lace & Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens captures seasonal changes and life unfolding from the perspective of two gardens: Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil. What began as an unprompted poem correspondence between the two poets in the late July swelter of 2011 blossomed into a beautiful collection of epistolary poetry. 

This reprint of Lace & Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens by Get Fresh Books Publishing comprises all of its original poetry and includes an interview published by The Margins titled, "Our Wholeness, Our Togetherness: A Conversation with Aimee Nezhukumatathil & Ross Gay." 

Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His New York Times best-selling collection of essays, The Book of Delights, was released by Algonquin Books in 2019. Ross is a founding board member of the Bloomington Community Orchard, a non-profit, free-fruit-for-all food justice and joy project. He also works on The Tenderness Project with Shayla Lawson and Essence London. He has received fellowships from Cave Canem, the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Ross teaches at Indiana University. 

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the New York Times best-selling author of WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, & OTHER ASTONISHMENTS, finalist for the Kirkus Prize in non-fiction, and recently named the Barnes and Noble Book of the Year. She is also the author of four books of poetry, and is poetry editor of SIERRA, the national magazine of the Sierra Club. Awards for her writing include a fellowship from the Mississippi Arts Council, Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for poetry, National Endowment of the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Her writing has appeared in NYTimes Magazine, ESPN Magazine, and twice in Best American Poetry. She is professor of English and Creative Writing in the University of Mississippi's MFA program.