Roxane Gay facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Roxane Gay
Gay in 2014
Born	(1974-10-15) October 15, 1974 (age 50) Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Occupation	Professor, writer
Education	Yale University Norwich University (BA) University of Nebraska–Lincoln (MA) Michigan Technological University (PhD)
Genres	Novel, short story, criticism
Spouse	Debbie Millman ​ (m. 2020)​
Relatives	Claudine Gay (cousin)
Scientific career
Fields	Communication studies
Thesis	Subverting the subject position: toward a new discourse about students as writers and engineering students as technical communicators (2010)
Doctoral advisor	Ann Brady

Roxane Gay (born October 15, 1974) is an American writer, professor, and social commentator. She is famous for her best-selling collection of essays, Bad Feminist (2014). She has also written the novel An Untamed State (2014) and the memoir Hunger (2017).

Gay is a professor at Rutgers University. She has also taught at other universities like Purdue University and Yale University. She is a contributing writer for The New York Times and has started her own publishing projects.

Early Life and Education

Roxane Gay was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on October 15, 1974. Her parents are of Haitian descent, and she often visited family in Haiti during the summers. She attended a private high school called Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.

Gay started writing essays when she was a teenager. Much of her early writing was shaped by a difficult and traumatic experience she had in her childhood.

After high school, Gay studied at several universities. She earned her undergraduate degree from Norwich University. She then received a master's degree from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In 2010, she earned a PhD from Michigan Technological University.

Career as a Writer and Professor

After earning her PhD, Gay began her career as a professor in 2010 at Eastern Illinois University. She later became an associate professor at Purdue University. In 2022, she joined Rutgers University as the Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies, a special professorship.

In 2014, Gay published two major books: the novel An Untamed State and the essay collection Bad Feminist. Bad Feminist became a New York Times best-seller and made her famous around the world. A reviewer for Time magazine said her writing is "simple and direct, but never cold or sterile."

In 2021, Gay started her own book publishing line, called Roxane Gay Books, to help publish new writers.

Major Books and Projects

An Untamed State

An Untamed State was Gay's first novel, published in 2014. The story is about a Haitian-American woman named Mireille who is kidnapped. The book explores important ideas like family, privilege, and the immigrant experience. Many people say the book feels like a fairy tale because of its style and its opening line: "Once upon a time, in a far-off land, I was kidnapped..."

Gay being interviewed in 2015

Bad Feminist

Gay's 2014 collection of essays, Bad Feminist, was a huge success. In the book, she writes about politics and culture in a way that many people found relatable. She explores what it means to be a feminist today.

In an interview, Gay said the book 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." Critics praised the book for being smart, funny, and thoughtful.

World of Wakanda

In 2016, Gay became one of the first Black women to be a lead writer for Marvel Comics. She co-wrote a comic book series called World of Wakanda, which was a spin-off of the popular Black Panther series.

The comic told the story of Aneka and Ayo, two women who were members of the Dora Milaje, the Black Panther's special guards. The series was praised for featuring LGBT characters. It was canceled in 2017 after six issues were published.

Difficult Women

In 2017, Gay published Difficult Women, a collection of short stories. The book tells the stories of different women whose lives are not what society considers "normal." Each story follows a character as she deals with a challenging experience or something that makes her different.

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

Gay's memoir, Hunger, was released in 2017. In this very personal book, she writes about her experiences with weight, body image, and food. She connects these struggles to a traumatic event from her childhood.

Gay wrote about what it is like to live in a world that often judges people for their size. The book was praised by critics for being "ferociously honest" and "vulnerable." She hoped the book would help people understand that people in larger bodies deserve to be treated with dignity.

Personal Life

Gay is married to artist and writer Debbie Millman. They eloped in 2020. In January 2018, Gay shared that she had undergone a type of weight-loss surgery. She is 6 feet 3 inches tall.

Awards and Honors

Roxane Gay has received many awards for her writing. In 2020, the website Queerty named her one of its 50 heroes for her work in supporting equality.

Published Works

Fiction

• Ayiti (2011)
• An Untamed State (2014)
• Difficult Women (2017)
• The Banks (2019)

Nonfiction

• Bad Feminist (2014)
• Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (2017)
• Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business (2022)

See also

In Spanish: Roxane Gay para niños