We have spent countless hours focused on manners, education, the perils of drugs. Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture She gave and continues to give many female survivors of sexual abuse a gift, reminding them that they are not alone on their journey to recovery. The courage it took to write this book is unimaginable. In Hunger, Gay shares the horrific sexual trauma she experienced at age twelve and how it changed the trajectory of her life and her relationship to her body. And most women know this, that we are supposed to disappear, but it’s something that needs to be said, loudly, over and over again, so that we can resist surrendering to what is expected of us. We should be seen and not heard, and if we are seen, we should be pleasing to men, acceptable to society. This is what most girls are taught - that we should be slender and small. Gay writes about these subjects in relation to herself with humor and clarity. This New York Times bestseller is a collection of essays spanning a wide range of topics that include politics and feminism. I cannot and will not deny the importance and absolute necessity of feminism. No matter what issues I have with feminism, I am a feminist. Her perfect life from the past is juxtaposed with her brutal existence in the present day and she struggles to get back to the person she once was. Mireille endures unthinkable violence while being held captive. Mireille assumes her father will quickly pay ransom, but instead he is resistant to this idea. Her life appears to be perfect until the day she is kidnapped by a violent group of men while vacationing in Port au Prince. There are three Haitis-the country Americans know and the country Haitians know and the country I thought I knew.Īn Untamed State is Roxane Gay’s debut novel and it tells the story of Mireille Duval Jameson, a successful attorney in Miami and the daughter of one of Haiti’s wealthiest men.
The kingdom desperately needs their help and Ayo and Aneka must figure out how to balance the kingdom’s needs and the love they have for each other. The two women have both been recruited to be a part of the Dora Milaje, a prestigious cadre of soldiers trained to defend the crown of Wakanda. It is a love story about two Midnight Angels, Ayo and Aneka.
Gay co-wrote the first book in this series with Ta-Nehisi Coates and it takes place in the kingdom of Wakanda. I’m focusing on what I’ve been asked to do, which is to tell the story of the Dora Milaje. It is overwhelming and also pretty frustrating because this is 2016 and there are many Black women and other Women of Color who are working in comics. I didn’t realize I would be the first Black woman writer at Marvel. The subjects of the stories are varied and even though the collection is compact, it is powerful in its succinctness. The stories explore a range of experiences about Haitians in their native Haiti and the diaspora experience. This compact collection was Gay’s writing debut and is comprised of what I would think of as short shorts. It was just a border between two geographies of grief. This beautifully written collection makes you look, even when you don’t want to, at the realities and experiences of a wide cross section of women. There are two inseparable twin sisters, a grief stricken mother, a stripper, a wealthy suburban housewife, and an engineer. Not only are the stories about a range of experiences, but the characters in each story stand out individually. There is loss, unthinkable abuse, and complicated relationships and marriages. The stories explore a range of different women’s experiences. Gay’s quote about Difficult Women captures the essence of this short story collection. I think women are oftentimes termed ‘difficult’ when we want too much, when we ask for too much, when we think too highly of ourselves, or have any kind of standards…I wanted to play with this idea that women are difficult, when in reality it’s generally the people around them who are the difficult ones. I have also included a quote from Gay before each book description to give you an idea of her voice and her politics.
The title of this post definitely refers to the body of writing Roxane Gay has created, but it also refers to the emotional work that is required when reading either her fiction or nonfiction. Today, I want to honor all of the books written by Roxane Gay.
She did not become my hero until I saw her interviewed by Trevor Noah about the publication of her book Hunger. Difficult Women was the first book I read and I was both entranced and awed by her writing. Roxane Gay is one of my heroes. I first discovered her short fiction on a trip to Portland while I was browsing in Powell’s Books.