Roxane Gay a “bad feminist” takes on sexism, racism, and body prejudice

Roxane Gay, born in 1974 in Omaha, Nebraska, to a family of Haitian descent, is an American professor, author, editor, and commentator. She began writing essays as a teenager; her writing was sparked by having survived a sexual assault at age twelve. Her higher education was interrupted by a relationship, but she returned to school and went on to receive a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and a PhD in rhetoric and communication from Michigan Technological University. She began her academic career teaching English at Eastern Illinois University; while there, she was a contributing editor for Bluestem magazine, founded Tiny Hardcore Press, and started to produce short stories, essays, and novels. Her fiction and nonfiction explore a variety of issues and challenges relating to race, gender, and sexual identity, and also delve into privilege, body image, and the immigrant experience.

Gay’s fiction…