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Roxane Gay

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Roxane Gay
Reading at Fall for the Book, 2014
Reading at Fall for the Book, 2014
Born (1974-10-15) October 15, 1974 (age 49)
Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
OccupationProfessor, writer
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPhillips Exeter Academy
Michigan Technological University
GenresNovel, short story, criticism
Website
roxanegay.com

Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974)[1][2] is an American writer, professor, editor and commentator.[3][4] She is an associate professor of English at Purdue University, contributing opinion writer at The New York Times,[5] founder of Tiny Hardcore Press, essays editor for The Rumpus, and co-editor of PANK, a nonprofit literary arts collective.[6][7]

She is perhaps best known as the writer of The New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist (2014). She is also the author of the short story collection Ayiti (2011), the novel An Untamed State (2014), the short story collection Difficult Women (2017), and the memoir Hunger (2017).[8]

Early life and education

Gay was born in Omaha, Nebraska,[2] to a family of Haitian descent.[9] She attended high school at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.[10]

Gay began her undergraduate studies at Yale University but dropped out in her junior year to pursue a relationship in Arizona.[11][12] She completed her undergraduate degree in Nebraska and also earned an MA with an emphasis in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.[13] In 2010, Gay received a PhD in Rhetoric and Technical Communication from Michigan Technological University;[14] her dissertation was entitled Subverting the Subject Position: Toward a New Discourse About Students as Writers and Engineering Students as Technical Communicators. Ann Brandy served as her dissertation advisor.[15]

Career

After completing her Ph.D., Gay began her academic teaching career in the fall 2010 at Eastern Illinois University,[16] where she was assistant professor of English. While at EIU, in addition to her teaching duties, she was a contributing editor for Bluestem magazine[17] and she also founded Tiny Hardcore Press. Gay worked at Eastern Illinois University until the end of the 2013-2014 academic year, taking a job in August 2014 at Purdue University as associate professor of creative writing.[6]

Gay published a short story collection Ayiti (2011), then two books in 2014: the novel An Untamed State and the essay collection Bad Feminist (2014),[8] leading one Time Magazine reviewer to declare, "Let this be the year of Roxane Gay."[18] The review noted of her inclusive style: "Gay’s writing is simple and direct, but never cold or sterile. She directly confronts complex issues of identity and privilege, but it’s always accessible and insightful."[18]

An Untamed State

Main article: An Untamed State

In 2014, Gay published her debut novel, An Untamed State, a psychological thriller that centres around Mireille Duval Jameson, a Haitian-American woman who is kidnapped for ransom. The novel explores the interconnected themes of race, privilege, sexual violence, family, and the immigrant experience.[19] An Untamed State is often referred to as a fairy tale because of its structure and style, especially in reference to the opening sentence, "Once upon a time, in a far-off land, I was kidnapped by a gang of fearless yet terrified young men with so much impossible hope beating inside their bodies it burned their very skin and strengthened their will right through their bones," and the author's exploration of the American dream and courtship of Mireille's parents.[19][20][21]

The novel received critical acclaim from various mainstream outlets with The Guardian calling it "a breathtaking debut novel"[21] and the Washington Post crediting it as "a smart, searing novel."[22]

Bad Feminist

Main article: Bad Feminist

Gay's collection of essays, Bad Feminist, was released in 2014 to widespread acclaim; it addresses both cultural and political issues, and became a New York Times best-seller.[23] A Time magazine reviewer dubbed Bad Feminist "a manual on how to be human" and called Gay the "gift that keeps on giving."[24] In a 2014 interview with the magazine, Gay explained her role as a feminist and how it has influenced her writing: "In each of these essays, I’m very much trying to show how feminism influences my life for better or worse. It just shows what it’s like to move through the world as a woman. It’s not even about feminism per se, it’s about humanity and empathy."[24]

In The Guardian, critic Kira Cochrane offered a similar assessment, "While online discourse is often characterised by extreme, polarised opinions, her writing is distinct for being subtle and discursive, with an ability to see around corners, to recognise other points of view while carefully advancing her own. In print, on Twitter and in person, Gay has the voice of the friend you call first for advice, calm and sane as well as funny, someone who has seen a lot and takes no prisoners."[13]

A group of feminist scholars and activists analyzed Gay's Bad Feminist for "Short Takes: Provocations on Public Feminism," an initiative of the feminist journal Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.[25]

Difficult Women

Main article: Difficult Women (book)

In 2017, Gay published a short story collection called Difficult Women.[26][27][28]

Hunger

Main article: Hunger (memoir)

Gay's book, Hunger, was released in June 2017.[29] Hunger is a memoir about Gay's experience with weight, body image, and building a positive relationship with food. In an interview with Elite Daily, Gay described this book as a testimony of "what it’s like to live in a world that tried to discipline unruly bodies."[30]

Other projects

Gay was the editor of The Butter, an online feminist writing site and sister site to The Toast, from November 2014-August 2015.[31] The Butter featured writing on a wide variety of subjects, including disability, literature, family, music, among others.[32] The Butter ceased publishing in August 2015 with Gay stating she was "simply stretched too thin."[32]

In July 2016, Gay and poet Yona Harvey were announced as writers for Marvel Comics' World of Wakanda, a spin-off from the company's Black Panther title,[33] making them the first black women to be lead writers for Marvel.[34]

Gay was featured in a five-minute segment of This American Life on June 17, 2016, talking about her body, and how she is perceived as a fat person.[35]

Gay has a forthcoming book, How to Be Heard, originally set to be published in 2018 by TED Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. However, in January 2017 Gay announced she was pulling the book from Simon & Schuster due to her objections to alt-right journalist Milo Yiannopoulos receiving a book deal from another Simon & Schuster imprint.[36]

She also edited the book Girl Crush: Women's Erotic Fantasies.[37] In addition to her regular contributions to Salon and the now defunct HTMLGiant,[38] her writing has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, West Branch, Virginia Quarterly Review, NOON, Bookforum, Time, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation and The New York Times Book Review.[39]

Roxane Gay was featured in the 2016 book In the Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs. [40]

Themes

Much of Gay's written work deals with the analysis and deconstruction of feminist and racial issues through the lens of her personal experiences with race, gender identity, and sexuality.[14]

Personal life

Gay began writing essays as a teenager;[41] her work has been greatly influenced by a sexual assault she experienced at age 12.[13]

Gay is openly bisexual.[42]

Works and publications

Fiction
  • Gay, Roxane (2011). Ayiti. New York/Oregon: Artistically Declined Press. ISBN 978-1-450-77671-4. OCLC 776999100.
  • Gay, Roxane (2014). An Untamed State. New York: Black Cat / Grove Atlantic. ISBN 9780802122513. OCLC 903123484.
  • Gay, Roxane (2017). Difficult Women. New York: Grove Atlantic. ISBN 978-0-802-12539-2. OCLC 957223378.
Non-fiction
Selected short fiction
Other selected works

References

  1. ^ "Roxane Gay". Freedom from Religion Foundation.
  2. ^ a b Gay, Roxane. "Once, I Was Pretty". freerangenonfiction.com. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  3. ^ "Roxane Gay". Salon.com. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
  4. ^ Halle, Steve (March 29, 2012). "Roxane Gay to Visit Bloomington-Normal/ISU on April 17". WordPress.com. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved December 3, 2013.
  5. ^ Gay, Roxane (August 21, 2016). "Nate Parker and the Limits of Empathy". The New York Times. Retrieved August 26, 2016.
  6. ^ a b Higgins, Jim (May 23, 2014). "Talking with 'An Untamed State' author Roxane Gay". The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  7. ^ "About". PANK. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  8. ^ a b "About | Roxane Gay". Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  9. ^ Gregory, Alice (October 10, 2014). "Daphne Merkin's "The Fame Lunches" and Roxane Gay's "Bad Feminist"". The New York Times. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  10. ^ John Freeman (Summer 2014). "Roxane Gay". Bomb.
  11. ^ McArdle, Molly (February 22, 2017). "The Rise of Roxane Gay". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  12. ^ Chenery, Susan (January 17, 2015). "Roxane Gay, the Bad Feminist as Role Model". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  13. ^ a b c d Cochrane, Kira (August 2, 2014). "Roxane Gay: Meet the Bad Feminist". The Guardian. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  14. ^ a b "Roxane Gay". Purdue College of Liberal Arts. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  15. ^ "Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports". Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  16. ^ "2010-2011 Undergraduate Catalog" (PDF). Eastern Illinois University. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  17. ^ "Masthead". English Department, Eastern Illinois University. Archived from the original on April 30, 2014. Retrieved April 12, 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ a b Feeney, Nolan (May 7, 2014). "Roxane Gay's Riveting Debut Novel An Untamed State". Time. Retrieved April 10, 2016.
  19. ^ a b Bass, Holly (May 9, 2014). "'An Untamed State,' by Roxane Gay". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  20. ^ Bass, Holly (May 9, 2014). "'An Untamed State,' by Roxane Gay". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  21. ^ a b Locke, Attica (January 7, 2015). "An Untamed State by Roxane Gay review – 'an unflinching portrayal of sexual and spiritual violence'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  22. ^ Charles, Ron; Charles, Ron (May 27, 2014). "'An Untamed State,' by Roxane Gay". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  23. ^ "Bad Feminist | Roxane Gay". www.roxanegay.com. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  24. ^ a b c Feeney, Nolan (August 5, 2014). "Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist Is a "Manual on How to Be a Human"". Time. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  25. ^ "Short Takes: Provocations on Public Feminism. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  26. ^ French, Agatha (May 11, 2017). "Roxane Gay and Randa Jarrar talk Twitter, 'Difficult Women' and kink in L.A." Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  27. ^ Newman, Sandra (February 10, 2017). "Difficult Women by Roxane Gay review – bold feminist stories". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  28. ^ "Roxane Gay's new book 'Difficult Women' proves her power". Los Angeles Times. January 12, 2017. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved June 22, 2017.
  29. ^ Christian Holub, "Roxane Gay announces Difficult Women, delays Hunger", Entertainment Weekly, June 17, 2016.
  30. ^ "I Want Your Job: Roxane Gay, Author Of 'Bad Feminist'". Elite Daily. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  31. ^ Gay, Roxane (November 17, 2014). "The Butter: FAQs". The Toast. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  32. ^ a b Gay, Roxane (August 28, 2015). "A Buttery Farewell". The Toast. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
  33. ^ Gustines, George Gene (July 22, 2016). "Marvel's World of Wakanda Will Spotlight Women, on the Page and Behind It". The New York Times. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  34. ^ Blay, Zeba (July 29, 2016). "Roxane Gay Is The Lead Writer Of A Marvel Comic. Here's Why That's Huge". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
  35. ^ "589: Tell Me I'm Fat". This American Life. June 17, 2016. Retrieved July 6, 2016. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  36. ^ Gay, Roxane. "Roxane Gay pulls book from Simon & Schuster over Milo Yiannopoulos deal". Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  37. ^ "Roxane Gay". Amazon.com. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  38. ^ "Roxane Gay – HTMLGIANT". htmlgiant.com.
  39. ^ "Posts by Roxane Gay". Rumpus Magazine. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  40. ^ Bonney, Grace (2016). In the Company of Women. New York, NY: Workman Publishing Co. p. 85. ISBN 9781579655976.
  41. ^ Tietzel, Nina (June 4, 2015). "Roxane Gay: Writer and self-proclaimed 'bad feminist' talks truth and fiction". ABC. Retrieved June 5, 2015.
  42. ^ Roxane Gay (October 11, 2015). "Twitter". Mobile.twitter.com. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  43. ^ Waldman, Katy. "It Is Good to Be a "Bad" Feminist". Slate. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
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