Poets & Writers Theater

In this interview for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Roxane Gay talks about how the word feminism has been defined through the centuries, the work included in her new anthology, The Portable Feminist Reader (Penguin Classics, 2025), and writing a romance novel with Channing Tatum.

“Writing without purpose just becomes aimless words on the page,” says Roxane Gay offering advice on where to begin when starting a new piece of writing in this excerpt from a Skillshare class.

“Lorde is a towering figure in the world of letters,” says Roxane Gay in this 92Y virtual event celebrating the publication of The Selected Works of Audre Lorde (Norton, 2020), which Gay edited. Joining Gay to discuss and read Lorde’s poetry and prose are Mahogany L. Browne, Saeed Jones, and Porsha Olayiwola.

“I’ve always found that the things I find the most intimidating end up being the most intellectually satisfying.” At the Louisiana Literature Festival in 2019, Roxane Gay speaks about what moved her to write Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (Harper, 2017), and begins her reading with a piece about loving Mister Rogers.

Roxane Gay reads part of “The Illusion of Safety/The Safety of Illusion” from her essay collection, Bad Feminist (Harper Perennial, 2014). Her debut memoir, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body (Harper, 2017), is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

“I think that the biggest thing people need to embrace is discomfort.” At the 92nd Street Y, Roxane Gay reads from her short story collection Difficult Women (Grove Press, 2017) and discusses topics from writing and feminism to Channing Tatum with poet Saeed Jones.

“You have to believe that however flawed you are, you have a right to narrate this world as you see it and as you move through it.” Roxane Gay shares some of her thoughts on current race issues and her experiences as a feminist writer of color for an interview with Colorlines. Gay’s new story collection, Difficult Women (Grove Press, 2017), is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

"You can't be an activist or a writer or a public figure all day long, and I just have to be myself." Roxane Gay, author of the best-selling essay collection, Bad Feminist (Harper Perennial, 2014), talks about Twitter, adapting her novel, An Untamed State (Grove/Atlantic, 2014), to film, and the unexpected pressures of literary fame at the 2016 AWP conference and book fair in Los Angeles.

“Halfway between you and me is a long ways away, but there is a small town where we will not be seen, where we will hide in plain sight, where we will be strangers until we are not.” In this video from 2015, the Loft Literary Center and BUST Magazine presents Roxane Gay, who reads tweets and from her short story, “Do You Have a Place for Me?”

Author Roxane Gay, who is profiled in the May/June issue of the magazine, and her editor at Grove/Atlantic, Amy Hundley, chat about Gay's new novel, An Untamed State, about a Haitian American woman who is kidnapped, her wealthy father unwilling to pay the ransom.