Derek Sheffield

Introduction The most recent book by Ross Gay is The Book of (More) Delights (Algonquin Books, 2023), the collection that occasioned this interview. His first Book of Delights was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller.

Turn Up the Ocean: Poems by Tony Hoagland Graywolf Press | 2022 | 83 pages Hi, Derek! Thank you for having this conversation with me about Tony Hoagland’s latest collection of poems, Turn Up the Ocean. I’d like to begin with a favorite poem of mine from an earlier collection because I think it shows the evolution of Tony’s thought process and how his themes continue and expand in this new book.

A poem by Derek Sheffield. From the print edition Like Tweet Print Subscribe Donate Now A life of bending low to drop a seed and pat it home, of striding back and forth to hoe and water and wait. The rows run straight as ever as Uncle’s prized corn grows in the same squared ground since before I was born. What do they mean? Those sun-struck afternoons after church we gathered in the grass beside his rows to talk and sing and scoop buttery kernels steaming onto plates.