About the Author

Roxane Gay is the author of the essay collection Bad Feminist, which was a New York Times bestseller; the novel An Untamed State, a finalist for the Dayton Peace Prize; the memoir Hunger, which was a New York Times bestseller and received a National Book Critics Circle citation; and the short story collections Difficult Women and Ayiti. A contributing opinion writer to the New York Times, she has also written for Time, McSweeney's, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Rumpus, Bookforum, and Salon. Her fiction has also been selected for The Best American Short Stories 2012, The Best American Mystery Stories 2014, and other anthologies. She is the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She lives in Lafayette, Indiana, and sometimes Los Angeles.

Reviews

Praise for Bad Feminist: "A strikingly fresh cultural critic."--Ron Charles, Washington Post
"[Gay is] hilarious. But she also confronts more difficult issues of race, sexual assault, body image, and the immigrant experience. She makes herself vulnerable and it's refreshing."--Tanvi Misra, Atlantic, The Best Book I Read This Year
"Powerful. . . . fierce. . . . Gay has a vivid, telegraphic writing style, which serves her well. Repetitive and recursive, it propels the reader forward with unstoppable force."--Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers
"Her spare prose, written with a raw grace, heightens the emotional resonance of her story, making each observation sharper, each revelation more riveting. . . . It is a thing of raw beauty."--USA Today
"A work of staggering honesty . . . . Poignantly told."--New Republic
"Hunger is Gay at her most lacerating and probing. . . . Anyone familiar with
Gay's books or tweets knows she also wields a dagger-sharp wit."
--Boston Globe
"A heart-rending debut memoir from the outspoken feminist and essayist. . . . An intense, unsparingly honest portrait of childhood crisis and its enduring aftermath."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A work of exceptional courage by a writer of exceptional talent."--Shelf Awareness (starred review)
"Bracingly vivid. . . . Remarkable. . . . Undestroyed, unruly, unfettered, Ms. Gay, live your life. We are all better for having you do so in the same ferociously honest fashion that you have written this book."--Los Angeles Times
"Displays bravery, resilience, and naked honesty from the first to last page. . . . Stunning . . . essential reading."--Library Journal (starred review)
"It is a deeply honest witness, often heartbreaking, and always breathtaking. . . . Gay is one of our most vital essayists and critics."--Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Luminous. . . . intellectually rigorous and deeply moving."--The New York Times Book Review
"Roxane Gay is the brilliant girl-next-door: your best friend and your sharpest critic. . . . She is by turns provocative, chilling, hilarious; she is also required reading."--People
"Searing."--Miami Herald
"Searing, smart, readable. . . . "Hunger," like Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me," interrogates the fortunes of black bodies in public spaces. . . . Nothing seems gratuitous; a lot seems brave. There is an incantatory element of repetition to "Hunger" The very short chapters scallop over the reader like waves."--Newsday
"The book's short, sharp chapters come alive in vivid personal anecdotes. . . . And on nearly every page, Gay's raw, powerful prose plants a flag, facing down decades of shame and self-loathing by reclaiming the body she never should have had to lose."--Entertainment Weekly
"This is the book to read this summer . . . she's such a compelling mind . . . . Anyone who has a body should read this book."--Isaac Fitzgerald on the Today show
"This raw and graceful memoir digs deeply into what it means to be comfortable in one's body. Gay denies that hers is a story of "triumph," but readers will be hard pressed to find a better word."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Wrenching, deeply moving. . . a memoir that's so brave, so raw, it feels as if [Gay]'s entrusting you with her soul."--Seattle Times