Research Guides: Roxane Gay: Biography

Roxane Gay (Born October 15, 1974)

Roxane Gay is the best thing to come out of Nebraska since the 1971 Cornhuskers football team. A pop culture fiend with a feminist streak, a woman who listens to hardcore rap but still calls out Chris Brown for his misogyny, she is a walking set of contradictions and refuses to apologize for them. “I contain multitudes,” she says cheerfully, when demonstrating a bit of identity negative capability. Over the past decade, Gay has proven just how much she contains. Her essays about film, politics, sports, and books for Salon.com, the Rumpus and the Virginia Quarterly have poured out at an astonishing rate. They have proven that not only does contemporary culture still need a tireless beat cop when it comes to thinking about women’s issues and how we talk about race and racial difference: but that our patrolwoman ought to be enormously funny. Continue . . .

Source: Freeman, John. “Roxane Gay.” Bomb, no. 128, Summer 2014, pp. 102–108. From Literary Reference Center Plus database.

Book Collection

Resources

Roxane Gay Official Website Roxane Gay’s writing appears 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, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects.
Roxane Gay on clothes in the workplace: 'I have never been good at dressing like a woman' High heels, stockings and makeup – employers have long dictated the appearance of female employees. In an extract from a new book, the writer and commentator talks about finding comfort and confidence through her clothes.
Roxane Gay: ‘My body is a cage of my own making’ Strangers remove food from her shopping trolley, humiliate her in the gym and refuse to sit next to her on planes. How did size get to be such a big deal?
ROXANE GAY The Story of My Body An excerpted from the book "Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body," by Roxane Gay, is presented.
Roxane Gay: SOMETHING TO SAY With hundreds of bylines and a growing bookshelf to her name, Roxane Gay has become a mainstay in our written cultural conversation. Learn how she found her voice across genres and forms—and her best advice for pursuing success on your own terms.
Poem: Losing It The poem "Losing It" by Roxane Gay is presented. First Line: When I was nineteen I wrote a poem called “Tears,” which should; Last Line: I can’t wait to lose myself in their poetry, to become suffused.
Poem: Little Babies The article presents the poem "Little Babies," by Roxane Gay. First Line: She has a tic that is like but not quite Tourette's. She likes to repeat the phrase; Last Line: door. He liked that. Photographic evidence is available.
The Price of Black Ambition In this essay the author reflects on achieving success as a black female author in the U.S. Topics include the author's books "An Untamed State" and "Bad Feminist," her sense of ambition, and expresses her views regarding the celebration of Black History Month in the U.S. Other topics include writer Ta-Nehisi Coates' essay about U.S. President Barack Obama, the author's experience with race and higher education, and her career as a professor at Purdue University.
Roxane Gay becomes first Black woman to write for Marvel. The article focuses on Roxane Gay, the first Black female writer in the Marvel comic universe wherein Gay creates illustrative cover art in the story lines of the comics.

From Films On Demand Database:

Roxane Gay As a quiet child of Haitian immigrants, Roxane Gay transcended all expectations and became a leading voice in the modern feminist movement with her essay collection, Bad Feminist. But how did she transform a painful childhood into a powerful battle cry and a successful career that would end up helping women around the world? Distributed by PBS Distribution.