1

THE VOICE
OF A
GENERATION
ROXANE GAY HAS BEEN WRITING FOR
THE MAJORITY OF HER LIFE—AND SHE’S
JUST GETTING STARTED

ROXANE GAY STARTED WRITING when she was only four years old. Even
though she’s never released those childhood stories, it wouldn’t be surprising
if they held the same strength, humor, darkness, and wisdom that’s become
synonymous with her work.
To date, she has authored five critically acclaimed books—a memoir
(Hunger), a collection of essays (Bad Feminist), two collections of short stories
(Ayiti, Difficult Women), and a novel (An Untamed State). She is a contributing
opinion writer for The New York Times, and her fiction has appeared in the
likes of Harper’s Bazaar, McSweeney’s, Tin House, and Oxford American. She
has edited multiple anthologies, including Best American Short Stories 2018
and the bestselling Not That Bad. She is both the first Guggenheim Fellow and
the first Black woman to write a Marvel comic book (Black Panther: World of
Wakanda). In 2021, she launched The Audacity, a newsletter that includes a
book club, features Roxane’s writing, and showcases emerging writers.
Regardless of the genre, though, Roxane’s work is consistent: It usually
centers on women, and it’s often about various shapes and forms of trauma.
Another consistency—her voice is always evolving. For Roxane, writing is a
way of contributing to the political climate and saying something meaning-

2
ful while also being herself. “I’m never going to run for
office,” she quips. “My past is filthy.”
There’s a wryness when she says things like this—you
can hear a wink in her voice even though she means
business. This dichotomy—or, moreover, how she has
been able to use it—makes her writing all the more
poignant. It also belies her background in argumentation
(she holds a PhD in Rhetoric and Technical Communica-
tion from Michigan Technological University), which in-
fluences the way she writes essays and cultural critiques
(she also holds a master’s degree in Creative Writing
3
from the University of Nebraska).
Roxane is a first-generation American born in Oma-
ha, Nebraska, to parents originally from Port-au-Prince,
Haiti. For many years, they were the only Black family in
their neighborhood. The Haitian community there was
also small, and this is partly what led Roxane to a life
of writing: the double-outsider status of not only being
Black, but also being Haitian. Since then, she’s realized
that learning to straddle multiple worlds was an asset.
Roxane’s writing moves between academia and Hol-
lywood, from comic books to literary fiction, the Real

Housewives franchise to the Fast and Furious films, all
with ease. There’s no world she won’t inhabit, at least for
a little while.
Today, she’s most known for her feminist writing—
particularly her focus on violence toward women and the
way fictional representations of that violence normal-
ize or excuse it. While she’s one of the most prominent
figures in contemporary feminist discourse, she never
imagined being a spokesperson. Frankly, it makes her
uncomfortable. “If people look up to me,” she says, “I
hope they’re looking up to me only because I’m taller, not
“If people look up to me,
I hope they're looking up
to me only because
I'm taller, not because
they have elevated me in an
unnecessary way.”
Roxane
because they have elevated me in an unnecessary way.”
If she’s the only voice in the discussion, that feels—to
her—like a failure. One of Roxane’s goals is to continu-
ously lower down the ladder so that more female writers
from diverse backgrounds can climb up. She wants to
open more doors, too, not block the entryways of doors
through which she’s already walked. Throughout her
career, Roxane has also noticed an absence of Black
women in teaching roles, especially at the college level.
(She has served as a professor at Eastern Illinois Univer-
sity, Purdue University in Indiana, and Yale University in
Connecticut.) This has made her all the more conscious
of her responsibility. She considers herself an underrep-
resented voice that has infiltrated the mainstream.
In doing so, she has poked holes in many reduction-
ist narratives. Roxane’s commitment to breaking down
archetypes (the “feminist” in Bad Feminist, the “difficult
woman” in Difficult Women) lies in pointing out the
specificity of these women’s interactions with the world.
Often, these interactions are funny, moving, or horrif-
ic—sometimes, they are all of these things at once. “As
a Black woman, as a Black queer woman,” she told The
Guardian, “specificity is incredibly important, because
4
diverse experiences are rarely seen in literature.”
Even with her many years of formal education, though,
books have often been Roxane’s best teachers. Writers
like Alice Walker, Zadie Smith, Edith Wharton, Toni
Morrison, and Audre Lorde helped Roxane find her voice.
And she continues to return to the books she’s loved over
time, only to learn about entirely new aspects of who she
has become—or who she is becoming.
Writing might not immediately change the world—or
ever undo the countless injustices—but authors like
Morrison and Walker make people feel seen, heard,
understood. Roxane’s work does the same. She believes
in creating from a perspective with intention. She values
challenging established ideas and striving to change
5
minds. And she knows a thing or two about the business
of writing, from the basics of freelancing for magazines
and websites to finding a literary agent and signing a
major book deal.
Roxane wants to pass along all of this knowledge to
you through concise, pragmatic, and clear-eyed les-
sons. She’ll be the first to admit: She doesn’t have all
the answers. But she hopes that her insights, gleaned
from more than a decade as a professional writer, will
inform and inspire others to harness their own voice, to
do the work, and, eventually, to put their stories out into
the world. “It’s not that you have to know what kind of
change you want to create,” she says. “It’s that you have
to have a sense of purpose.”
THE BADDEST
FEMINIST
WRITING FOR SOCIAL CHANGE OFTEN MEANS BEING A CONTRARIAN. FOLLOW
ROXANE’S LEAD AND GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO DELVE INTO THE
NUANCES OF A PREVAILING NARRATIVE—OR EVEN PROPOSE A NEW ONE
IN HER BESTSELLING
2014 essay collection, Bad
Feminist, Roxane took the
“feminist” label and ripped
it apart. Then she played
with it, rearranged it, and ul-
timately created a definition
that worked for her—one
that’s filled with paradoxes.
“I was able to reconcile my
relationship with femi-
nism,” Roxane says, “while
acknowledging the way I
might be inconsistent with
feminist ideology. I might be
a bad feminist, but at least
I’m a feminist.”
In doing so, she was
forced to confront all of the
misguided notions about
feminism she’d previous-
ly held or encountered
throughout her life. In turn,
Roxane’s book asks: What
does it mean to be a com-
mitted feminist who also
wants to grind to rap music
and sing along to Robin
Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”?
To begrudge tropes about
“likable women” but want,
desperately, to be liked? To
understand the problematic
sexual politics of reality
dating shows but to keep
watching them anyway?
Bad Feminist gave women
a way to talk about it all—to
enjoy things that were “bad
for feminism”—and then
provided a model for how to
critique those same things.
For Roxane, it seemed like
the only way to embrace
herself as a feminist and be
herself at the same time.
Liking things that are consid-
ered “antifeminist” was only
one of the roadblocks. There
was also the way in which
feminism excluded her, an
insensitivity toward issues
of race—areas where white
feminism continues to fail.
She was not inclined toward
feminism until it included her.
Roxane’s ideas about in-
tersectional feminism—how
race, religion, sexual orien-
tation, and other elements of
personal identity might affect
the ways women experience
traditional gender discrim-
ination—have continued
to evolve. Today, she’s even
more interested in account-
ability. “Let’s start to think
about the consequences of
our choices,” she says.
Now considered a seminal
text, Bad Feminist points to
“I was able to larger truths about modern
reconcile my life: We don’t exist in abso-
relationship with lutes, specificity of perspec-
tive matters, and discourse
feminism while remains a tool for progress,
acknowledging as long as we use it intelli-
the way I might gently and responsibly. In
be inconsistent examining various contradic-
with feminist tions and gray areas, Roxane
ideology.” has helped us better navigate
the world without feeling be-
Roxane holden to expectations that
are unrealistic or rooted in
experiences that simply don’t
apply. How will your work
allow others to do the same?
6
SO FUNNY
I FORGOT
TO LAUGH
EXPLORING THE UNIQUE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMEDY AND TRAGEDY

7
H OW D O YO U R E AC H YO U R R E A D E R S who don’t want to feel uncomfortable? the story). Comedy allows a character to
For Roxane, the answer is often remarkably simple: Make them laugh. To be sure, voice an injustice or a difficult truth in a
wit can be an empowering technique for you, as well as a strategy to win your way that’s palatable for the reader. Humor
readers over in a tactful way. It creates common ground—it unifies. Unfortunately, is the spoonful of sugar that makes the
humor is sometimes dismissed as a cheap device or, worse, a hindrance to convey- medicine go down.
ing large, important points. (As the award-winning fiction writer and essayist Lorrie
WRITING PROMPT
Moore once said, “There is that prejudice against humor as somehow mucking up
the seriousness of your endeavor.”) But humor is an essential tool in Roxane’s writ- 1. Using this humor tool, write a fight
ing toolbox, and you might find it to be an essential tool in yours, too. scene or breakup script in which the
Well-executed humor rarely undermines any drama that might emerge in your person speaking only pokes fun at
writing—in fact, it underscores it. When comedy and tragedy dovetail in a story, it themselves.
makes the context sadder and the dialogue funnier. (See: Shakespeare, Nora Eph-
ron, the story “North Country” from Roxane’s collection Difficult Women.) A witty 2. Write five gentle roast jokes about
writer gains a certain amount of control, too, by retelling their own story in their yourself or someone close to you. (A
own way—especially if that story is a traumatic one. With humor, you convince your roast joke is a form of humor in which a
reader that your viewpoint is the valid one. But because they’re laughing, they don’t specific individual—the guest of honor—
realize they’re being convinced. They only think they’re being entertained. is subjected to jokes at his or her own
If you’ve never experimented with writing in a tragicomic way, give it a whirl expense.) For example: “I love relaxing so
with this writing prompt: Choose a place where you lived at a time when you went much, I’d get laundry done more often if I
through a lot. It could be where you grew up, but it doesn’t have to be. Use nostalgia just added Tide to a Jacuzzi.”
and memory to drive an essay rife with both humor and pain.
Once you try that, explore even more humor devices and writing prompts below.
Disparity
PUT IT INTO PRACTICE Disparity makes us laugh because it
plays with our expectations—we find a
joke or an aspect of a story funny when
Specificity Grace Paley’s short story “Faith in a Tree,” it catches us off guard. An easy way to
the protagonist says she did something create disparity is to combine two things
Specificity is central to the comedic that was “against her mother’s socialist that don’t normally go together, whether
voice. A dog with a chew toy isn’t funny, will.” The well-known phrase is “against it’s an image (a tough-looking dog in a
but a dog with a chew toy shaped like the so-and-so’s will,” but Paley revitalizes the tutu) or a new combination of words.
president of the United States might be, cliché by making it specific to her child-
depending on the context. The magni- hood. All she had to do was add one word. WRITING PROMPT

fication of odd details can be a way to
distract from the central pain of a story—
a narrator focusing on the funny dog
in the corner of the room can tell a joke
about the dog, as opposed to explaining
the details of her broken marriage. And
yet, the narrator’s preoccupation with the
dog (as opposed to the broken marriage)
simultaneously makes her pain even
more apparent to the reader and easier
to swallow.
WRITING PROMPT
Using this humor tool, describe a room
(the one that you’re sitting in or one in
your imagination) with as much speci-
ficity as possible. What does the rug feel
like beneath your feet? Does the art on
the walls remind you of someone you
know? How does the room smell? How
does the light look coming through the
window? Does the whole ambience give
you a specific feeling? If so, what?
Revitalizing Cliché
You can find humor in a well-known
phrase by making it new—just modify the
phrase by a word or two. For example, in
WRITING PROMPT
Using this humor tool, make a list of
popular clichés and revitalize them.
(For example: “The apple doesn’t fall far
from the tree” might become “The apple
doesn’t fall far from the tree—except in
this case, when the apple fell onto some-
body else’s lawn.” A few clichés to get you
started: “I lost track of time”; “Don’t put
all your eggs in one basket”; “Time heals
all wounds”; “We’re not laughing at you,
we’re laughing with you.”
Self-Deprecation
Joking has always been a good cover
for not joking. Under the guise of humor,
you can say difficult, unsafe, or even
unspeakable things—things you might
have been too afraid to say otherwise.
This is especially true for jokes about
yourself! It’s easier for a character to say
she’s unhappy in her marriage—and
funnier, too—if she makes a joke to her
husband about how difficult she is to get
along with (if you’re a nonfiction writer,
try this technique by being harder on
yourself than you are on anyone else in
Using this humor tool, come up with a
few disparate images (like the tough-
looking dog in a tutu). Use one of those
images to inspire a 500-word story.
Exaggeration
If you say “I could sleep for a week”
when you’re tired, we know that isn’t liter-
ally true. A weeklong nap would be wor-
risome; someone would call a doctor to
come see you. But comedy can develop
from this very thing, turning the volume
way up on an otherwise normal idea or
image. Was the man’s mustache bushy,
or was it so bushy it looked like it could
crawl right off his face? This sort of exag-
geration is also a key element of meta-
phor and simile: We know a mustache
can’t literally crawl, but it’s the image’s
impossibility that makes us laugh.
WRITING PROMPT
Using this humor tool, describe a
member of your family as if you were
seeing them for the first time.

8
MINING YOUR LIFE
FOR INSPIRATION
YOUR EXPERIENCES CAN LEAD TO COMPELLING CHARACTERS

WONDERING WHETHER A CHARACTER you’ve writ- PUT IT INTO PRACTICE

ten has the kind of depth you see in Roxane’s work? Is
the character believable—so fully realized, it seems like
they could walk right off the page? Or does the charac- IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR SOME INSPIRATION FOR
ter read flat, like nobody you’ve ever known in real life? CREATING YOUR OWN CHARACTERS, IT MIGHT HELP
TO TAKE A PAGE FROM YOUR ACTUAL LIFE. HERE
A cast of robust and individual characters can help you
ARE A FEW WRITING PROMPTS TO GET YOU STARTED
with your writerly mission of being relatable to a lot of
people. But how do you make each one of them come
alive on the page? Here are a few pointers: My Mother She dictory qualities. Have you
Never,My Father ever tried to describe those
Tell us what your characters look like with closest to you in only a few
He Never words? It feels impossible
a single unusual detail.
because, well, humans are
The color of a character’s eyes or hair are facts that Write a list of all the things complicated. Write out a
won’t necessarily define a character memorably. Look your parental figure(s) didn’t list of the people in your
for the unique details about that person. Are their nails do. The list should include life—relatives, lovers, sib-
bitten? Do they cut their own hair (and badly)? Are their both large events and minor lings, exes, friends. Can
details—negative and posi- you identify any paradoxes
teeth perfect? Are their eyebrows over-tweezed?
tive, trivial and painful. that might describe that
person?
Describe your characters through their actions. EXAMPLE
How do they move in the world? If they’re running, My Mother: she never EXAMPLE
how do they run? How do they stand? Where do they go made me feel bad about my While my brother hates
in a crowded room at a party? Are they messy eaters? body violence, he loves hockey.
How do they speak to children? Would they ever pet a While my mother acted
My Father: he never came
strange dog? What would they order in a restaurant? Do to a soccer game when I was very cheerful, she
they cross their legs every time they sit down? Use an growing up often cried.
old glove to pump gas into their car because of a fear of While my best friend
germs? Do they knock on wood? is very afraid of public
speaking, she loves
While This, doing karaoke.
Show us who a character is through the use of dialogue.
Also That
Dialogue can reveal so much about a character. Do
they ask a lot of questions? Do they complain about A great way to create com-
everything? Use too many adjectives? Ramble? Cut plicated characters is by Oh,the Places
other characters off when they speak? Use demanding examining the paradoxical I’ve Been
phrases? Say as little as possible? Repeat themselves? things in your own life—the
people, situations, and A city, suburb, town, or
ideas that embody contra- other location can become

9
a primary character in your
writing just as easily as
a person. To explore this
idea, set a 10-minute timer
and write out a list of all the
places you’ve been, being
as specific as possible. You
can start out broad and
narrow it down. For example,
Indonesia > Bali > Ubud >
soccer field. After the timer
dings, go back through your
list and write an emotion
next to each location. Don’t
overthink it; just write down
the first feeling that comes
to mind.
EXAMPLE
Massachusetts > Boston >
Boston University >
melancholy, nostalgic
I Wish
I Would’ve
Think of the relationships
in your life, both close and
distant. Do you have any
regrets that spring to mind?
This can be a great place
to access moments of situa-
tional conflict. What do you
wish you would have said
to a teacher who made you
feel small? To a companion
who needed your attention
when you were too distract-
ed to notice? To somebody
who’s gone now? In this
prompt, write down what you
wish you would’ve said or
done, using as many exam-
ples as you can brainstorm.
EXAMPLE
My friend, Ellie: I wish
I didn’t repeat the story
she told me in confidence.
My student, Corey:
I wish I would’ve read his
poetry a little bit closer.
Writing
About Pop
Culture
WHEN IT COMES TO WRITING about
pop culture, Roxane doesn’t believe in
guilty pleasures: “If it gives me pleasure,
I don’t need to feel guilt.” A great ques-
tion to ask yourself while brainstorming
ideas for an essay might be why do I
(and so many other people) enjoy this
thing I’m criticizing? And, moreover,
what does that say about society at
large? Because there’s so much to learn
about our culture—what we value—
through the media we consume.
What, even, is criticism?
First, know this: Criticism isn’t nec-
essarily negative. Sometimes it’s just a
means of analyzing a piece of media,
writing, culture, or a political event. You
do this by weighing the information at
hand and taking an inventory of the
pros and cons. That means working out
what you think about something, then
dissecting it, based on your opinion and
the evidence you’ve gathered. (Note:
This isn’t a recap or summary; criticism
adds commentary and context.) You can
learn a lot about the form by reading the
work of expert pundits, like Zadie Smith,
Susan Sontag, David Sedaris, Morgan
Jerkins, Hilton Als, Esmé Weijun Wang,
and, of course, Roxane.
We need a multitude of voices critiqu-
ing pop culture: Everyone has a different
point of view, and every perspective can
lead to a different argument. But balanc-
ing that with self-awareness is key; you
don’t have to write about everything that
crosses your path. Maybe you’re an ex-
pert on The Bachelor or fantasy football
and can offer a distinct, incisive com-
ment that’s missing from the existing
narrative. “You don’t have to be a Swiss
Army knife,” Roxane says. “Sometimes
you just want to be a razor blade.”
How do I go about
writing this thing?
When writing about pop culture,
Roxane moves outward, from narrow
(her own experience) to broad (applying
her experience to larger experiences).
As you consume a piece of media, she
suggests, think about what larger con-
nections you can make. Some questions
you might ask yourself before getting
started: What does this piece of culture
say about the political, socioeconomic,
or cultural climate? What are its themes?
What’s working about it? What’s not?
Who is the intended audience for the
piece of culture, and how does that com-
pare with whom it’s actually reaching?
Answering these ahead of time can
help you decide on an angle, or a direc-
tion, for your essay. Once you’ve done
that, pull in examples that support (and
don’t support) your argument. You need
evidence to make a convincing case.
When she wrote her essay “Not Here to
Make Friends,” about the importance of
unlikable female protagonists, Roxane
not only looked at reality television (as the
titular phrase might suggest), but also Gil-
lian Flynn’s novel Gone Girl and the movie
Young Adult. In order to enter the piece,
however, she started with a personal story
about her own life. Roxane refers to this
technique as “I know what I’m speaking
of because I’m a customer, too.”
Before you write,
do your homework
To that end, it’s crucial that you read
all the pop culture criticism you can get
your hands on. If you’re writing about
RuPaul’s Drag Race, check New York
magazine, Vogue, Rolling Stone, The Ad-
vocate, and other outlets, and see what’s
been published about the topic already.
Reading what other people are saying
is the only way to ensure that your ar-
gument is new and specific. Ultimately,
ask yourself: What is nobody else talking
about? What do I have to say about this
that hasn’t already been said?
10
 ROXANE WORKS on
multiple projects at once,
often in different formats,
moving between online
essays and magazine
op-eds, film and televi-
sion. She also writes in
many different genres.
“I can take skills that I’ve
learned writing comics

WHY DID
and apply them to a short
story because [comics
are] very plot-driven.
And literary fiction is
not known for plotting,”

THE WRITER
Roxane says. “It’s like
cross-training.”
Experimenting with
genre might open you up
to a whole new world of

CROSS THE
influences (in addition to
expanding your writerly
abilities). Use the chart on
the next page to discover

GENRE?
a wide variety of novels,
poems, films, and more,
all of which will help you
hone the different skills
you’ll need when faced
with a blank white page.
READING ACROSS
GENRES—AND REFUSING
1
TO LET CATEGORY DEFINE
WHAT INTERESTS YOU—
WILL MAKE YOU A MORE 5

WELL-ROUNDED WRITER

7 6

11 
PUT IT INTO PRACTICE

If You Want to Improve…

...Plot ...Dialogue ...Inserting ...Blending

R E A D COMIC BOOKS READ YOUNG ADULT FICTION
theme in research
Watchmen 1 by Alan Before We Were Free READ CHILDREN’S BOOKS READ NONFICTION
Moore & Dave Gibbons by Julia Alvarez Charlotte’s Web Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Black Panther: World of Darius the Great Is Not by E. B. White Between the World and Me
Wakanda by Roxane Gay Okay by Adib Khorram 6 Front Desk by Ta-Nehisi Coates
History is All You Left Me by Kelly Yang Homeland Elegies
R E A D MYSTERIES
by Adam Silvera New Kid by Ayad Akhtar
Dare Me & You Will How to Make Friends by Jerry Craft
Know Me by Megan Abbott with the Dark by Kathleen
The Talented Mr. Ripley 2 Glasgow WATCH SUPERHERO FILMS ...Symbolism
by Patricia Highsmith
Spider-Man: READ LITERARY NOVELS
Murder on the WATCH ROM-COMS
Into the Spider-Verse
Orient Express 3 Moonstruck On Beauty by Zadie Smith 12
Logan
by Agatha Christie When Harry Met Sally 7 Commonwealth
The Dark Knight by Ann Patchett
R E A D THRILLERS Going the Distance
Bridesmaids Middlemarch by George Eliot
Await Your Reply ...Concision The Hours
by Dan Chaon Hitch
READ GRAPHIC NOVELS by Michael Cunningham
The Cutting Season WATCH PRESTIGE TV
by Attica Locke Fun Home WATCH INDIE FILMS
The Crown by Alison Bechdel
Sharp Objects The Lobster 13
by Gillian Flynn The Wire Persepolis 11
West Wing by Marjane Satrapi Parasite
The Herd by Andrea Bartz
The L Word This One Summer Palm Springs
Breaking Bad by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki The Lighthouse
...Lyricism Dexter
READ PROSE POETRY
R E A D POETRY
Citizen 13
Bright Dead Things ...Jokes
by Claudia Rankine
by Ada Limón
WATCH SITCOMS Tender Buttons
Night Sky with Exit
Seinfeld 8 by Gertrude Stein
Wounds by Ocean Vuong 4

Never Have I Ever Illuminations

Homie
Insecure by Arthur Rimbaud
by Danez Smith
Devotions 30 Rock
by Mary Oliver I Love Lucy 9

LISTEN TO SPOKEN WORD WATCH STAND-UP COMEDY

11 12
Kae Tempest Wanda Sykes in
Saul Williams 5 “Not Normal”
Rudy Francisco Sarah Silverman in 5
“A Speck of Dust”
Tig Notaro in 10
“Happy to Be Here”

8 3

10

4
COMMUNAL
EFFORTS
TIPS FOR BEING A GOOD LITERARY CITIZEN

WHAT DOES IT MEAN to be a good literary citizen?
It’s simpler than it sounds. The literary community
is small and tight-knit; reputation matters, and if you
treat people badly, word gets around. Why not err on
the side of kindness? It costs nothing, and you never
know when—and in what way—being negative will
come back to bite you. After all, these are your current
(and maybe even hopeful) colleagues.
That’s not to say you need to be published in order
to participate. If an author is coming to your local
bookstore or library, support them by attending their
reading; buy their book, if you can afford it, or check it
out of the library. If you read a great book, talk about
it online; word of mouth on social media and sites like
Goodreads can do a tremendous amount to raise an
author’s profile (and help them put food on the table).
And if you are a working writer? All of the above ap-
plies, plus more. You can speak at writing conferences
when invited, judge writing contests, and blurb other
authors’ books. If you’re unable to take a writing job or
you aren’t the right fit, provide the editor or publish-
er with a list of other writers who might be available.
(Then tell those other writers how much money you
were offered to ensure pay parity across the industry.)
Spend time mentoring writers who haven’t had access
to the same opportunities as you. Basically, be decent
and supportive. Or, as Roxane puts it: “Give the literary
community as much as you take.”

Workshop Etiquette

“ BEING A GOOD literary
citizen is not about being
fake,” Roxane says. “It’s just
about contributing.” You
can’t expect other writers to
take the time to thoughtfully
read your work when you
don’t provide them the same
“Give the service. So here’s a writerly
literary update to the golden rule:
generosity, kindness, and
respect in order to cre-
ate a community that you
value (and that values you
in return). Here are a few
pointers.
1. Set ground
rules everyone
to give the group a sense
of what it sounds like in
their voice before receiving
feedback? Should the writer
have a gag order (meaning
they can’t speak until they’ve
heard all of the feedback),
or should they be able to
respond to critique in the
moment? Do you want to do

community
Read others as you want
to be read. This means fol-
as much as lowing workshop or writers’
you take.”
group etiquette. You must
treat other writers and their
Roxane work—often an extension
of their very being—with
can agree on
before the
workshop begins.
Should the writer read a
section of their work aloud
a round of positive feedback
before sharing any critical
feedback? Should the writer
give the group specific
questions to consider before
reading? Make these choic-
es prior to meeting.

13 

2. Keep the
author’s inten-
tion in mind.
When you’re in the critic’s
seat, be sure to honor the
intent of the work. If you’re
reading a magical realism
story, don’t attempt to
change a scene about a
four-year storm into a few
days of rain in the name of
meteorological science.
3. Read the
work submitted
carefully before
the meeting.
That means reading a piece
not once but twice—and
sometimes even three
times: first to understand
where the story is going,
second to make overall
critiques, and a third pass
for sentence-level line edits.
4. Give the type
of feedback
you’d like
to receive.
Be specific, honest, kind,
and articulate. Show com-
passion, but don’t give emp-
ty compliments, especially
if you don’t mean them. Try
not to repeat what others
have already said; only give
feedback when you think it
will be helpful. Everyone’s
been in a workshop with a
person who loves to hear
themselves talk (and nobody
likes it—or them, for that
matter).
5.Set a schedule
for people to
turn in writing
before the
workshop begins,
and stick to it.
Sometimes life happens and
workshoppers need to switch
submission dates, but try to
make a concerted effort with
your group to stick to a spe-
cific schedule. The concrete
deadlines will make everyone
take the writing—and them-
selves—seriously.
6. Don’t forget
to have fun!
While a good workshop
requires patience and
vulnerability, it shouldn’t
feel like a thankless job.
Some days will be painful,
but that pain should come
from discovering something
new, not from a negative
group dynamic.
How to Find a
Writing Group
WHETHER YOU’RE FOCUSED ON FICTION
WRITING, NONFICTION, OR EVEN SCREEN-
WRITING, GETTING FEEDBACK FROM A
LIKE-MINDED COMMUNITY CAN BE A CRUCIAL
COMPONENT OF YOUR WRITING LIFE.
DON’T KNOW WHERE TO FIND SAID
COMMUNITY? NO PROBLEM. HERE ARE FIVE
TIPS TO GET YOU STARTED
Scour your local resources.
Community centers, libraries, college campuses,
bookstores—most all of them offer different types
of gatherings and courses and might have a writing
workshop or group that’s taking new members. You
can also check their schedules for upcoming author
readings, book signings, panel discussions, and
more.
Go on a writing retreat.
It’s a costlier option, to be sure, but many work-
ing writers will tell you it’s a worthwhile one. Retreats
offer coveted time and space to spend writing and
workshopping for days or even weeks at a time;
while you’re there, chances are you’ll meet some
folks you’d like to stay in touch with professionally
and personally.
Join different writers’ associations.
There are a number of writers’ associations
with local chapters, and joining one may very well
lead you to a writing group. Try connecting with an
association like National Novel Writing Month (you
might know it as NaNoWriMo), which has group
meetups at local libraries. You might also want to
try finding a writing group by joining a genre asso-
ciation, like Romance Writers of America, Mystery
Writers of America, or, more locally, something like
Independent Writers of Southern California (refer
back to tip No. 1).
Harness the power of the internet.
Don’t underestimate the amount of information
available via social media or other outlets. Explore
and join Facebook groups for writers, or check out
websites like Scribophile and Critique Circle.
Start your own writers’ group.
If you’re having a hard time finding a community
to suit your needs, start your own! Recruit writers
by posting a note at a coffee shop or library, asking
members of your book club to join, or posting on
social media.
14
THE
BUSINESS
SIDE
A PRIMER ON
THE WIDE WORLD
OF PUBLISHING

WRITERS ARE ARTISTS, and artists

usually aren’t interested in legalese
and fine print—they want to focus
on their story, their novel, their essay
collection (and rightfully so). Roxane
certainly encourages that type of
commitment, but she also says that
ignoring the business of being an art-
ist can be detrimental. Because once
you’ve finished the story, the novel,
the essay collection—well, some-
thing has to happen next. Art doesn’t
put itself out into the world, and
unfortunately, it’s remarkably easy to
lose control of your own work.
Put simply: You need to advocate
for yourself.
Accordingly, Roxane suggests
devoting some of your time to un-
derstanding the industry, even in the
most general terms: how to submit
your work for publication, finding ad-
equate representation, and learning
how to negotiate a contract or book
deal intelligently. In doing so, you can
ensure you’re being compensated
fairly and, ultimately, maintain own-
ership of what you’ve created.

15 
Learning
the Terrain
HOW DO YOU even start on
getting published as a writer? The
internet provides a great many
resources. Websites like Duotrope.
com and NewPages.com offer di-
rectories for both major and minor
publications, with information on
submission guidelines and oth-
er pertinents. Roxane calls these
sites “an invaluable tool for every
beginning writer.” Make a list of
potential publications that you’d
like to submit to, then take the time
to visit their websites; familiarize
yourself with their taste and style,
read as much of the content as you
can, and, if it’s feasible, subscribe to
the print edition (digital subscrip-
tions work, too). You could even
check your local public library for
physical copies.
Here, beginning writers can be
tempted into “carpet bombing”—
sending the same story to dozens
or sometimes hundreds of publica-
tions all at once. Generally speak-
ing, this isn’t an effective tactic;
there are many ways editors (and
the publication’s internal read-
ers—teams of interns and students
who help editors weed through
manuscript piles) can identify a
carpet-bomb submission. It’s also
inefficient. Large queues slow down
editors, decreasing your odds of
getting a reply. Keep it to a handful
of submissions at a time, and start
with the publications for which
your piece would be a really solid
fit. Then work your way out from
there. (See more pointers for sub-
mitting your work on page 17.)

16
Submitting
ONCE YOU’VE NARROWED down
a list of potential publications
for your story, it’s time to submit.
Many modern magazines—print
and digital—have a dedicated portal
for submissions on their website,
which is integrated with software
called Submittable. You don’t need
to download anything much less
mail a letter; Submittable will
instantly upload your story into the
editor’s queue.
The easiest way to distinguish
yourself right off the bat? Follow
the submission guidelines. These
will tell you how to format your
manuscript, what the appropriate
word count is for different types of
submissions, and any other rele-
vant details. Here, Roxane doesn’t
mince words: “This is not the time
to be creative or to interpret things
willfully. When an organization has
a guideline, they mean it. That’s
how they want to receive the work,
because that’s how it fits best into
their process for considering your
work for publication.”
Many times, those guidelines
will require a cover letter. Don’t
overthink it. Cover letters should
be short, informative, and unem-
bellished, like the template exam-
ple on page 18. You can address it
“Dear Editor,” although, if you’ve
done your research, you should
be able to figure out who will be
reading your submission (e.g., non-
fiction editor, poetry editor) and
personalize the opening. Declare
your submission, the working title,
and the word count of the piece
you’re submitting.
17 
“This is not the time to
be creative or to
interpret things
willfully. When an
organization has a
guideline, they mean it.
That’s how they want to
receive the work,
because that’s how
it fits best into
their process for
considering your work
for publication.”
Roxane
“Do not include a description
of the work,” Roxane says. “That
is one of the key things that will
set you apart as an amateur. They
don’t want you to explain your
work. They’re going to figure out
what your work is about by actually
reading it.”
Provide a short bio, around 50
words, listing your best bylines from
various publications (if you have
them) or your fine-arts degree (if
you have one). Lacking credentials?
Haven’t been published? No sweat.
Many writers, even hugely success-
ful ones, submit with single-line
bios—or omit them from the
cover letter entirely. Wrap up using
appropriate verbiage—“Regards,”
“Sincerely,” or, “I look forward to
hearing from you”—and sign your
name. Upload the whole shebang
via Submittable. Exhale.
If you’re submitting to a maga-
zine or newspaper, another ave-
nue to consider is tracking down
the email address of the relevant
editor and sending them your pitch
directly. Some pointed Googling will
usually surface said editor’s email,
but if you’re not sure where to start,
check the editor’s profile page on
the publication’s site or even their
Twitter bio. Many times editors
make it very apparent that they’re
looking for pitches and offer up
their contact information willingly.
Should you choose to go this
route, try to make your pitch as
personal as possible: Take time to
indicate that you’ve read the publi-
cation you’re submitting to and that
you’re familiar with the editor’s sec-
tion—food, culture, fashion, etc.—or
any previous work (you could even
link to a specific story you liked
very well). After that, make a clear
and concise case for your story
or your idea for a story. Think of
your pitches the way you think of
your résumé: the shorter and more
compelling you can be, the better—
chances are, the editor isn’t reading
the whole thing anyway, if only
because he or she is inundated with
hundreds of emails daily. Pick out
the most fascinating parts of your
piece and highlight them; indicate
why you (and only you) are the
person to write this particular story;
include photos or any other extras if
applicable. Once you send the pitch
off, wait at least three days before
you follow up.
 ASK ROXANE

Do I Need
a Master of
Sample Submission Query Letter Fine Arts
Degree to Be
a Professional
Writer?

Dear Editor:
“You absolutely do not need
I’d like to submit my short story, to have an MFA to make it as
“Cover Letter,” for publication in a writer. It can be a really use-
MasterClass Quarterly. As it stands, ful thing to do, because what
it affords you, more than
the piece is about 4,200 words. This anything else, is the time to
story is also being submitted to two develop as a writer. But is it
other publications.* a necessity? Absolutely not.
A great many writers, myself
included, do not have an
Recently, my story “One Example” MFA. The biggest benefit of
won the Fictional Fiction Contest. any creative writing program
is time to write, time to devel-
I’ve also written for Today’s the Day op your craft, time to engage
Daily and The World Needs You in the workshop experience.
Review. It’s also great, depending on
the program, to work with
really seasoned faculty who…
Thanks for your time, will help you develop your
Jill Student voice and become who you
are meant to be as a writer.
You should only get an MFA
at a graduate program that’s
going to give you the funding
to support [yourself] and that
covers tuition and everything
*There’s a difference between carpet-bombing (sending your story to every else. You shouldn’t go into
publication, more or less indiscriminately) and simultaneous submission. debt for a creative writing
The latter is totally okay, as long as your cover letter includes a disclosure, degree. Or any degree, for
which most submission guidelines will require. If you’re just starting out,
that matter.”
try this: Divide your target publications into tiers, from most exciting to
least, then submit to four to six of them at a time (per story). If your story
is accepted for publication somewhere—well, congrats! Just remember to
withdraw it from Submittable (see page 17) right away.

18
Finding
an Agent
AGENTS ARE INTERMEDIARIES
between you and publishing houses.
They’re the ones who act on behalf
of your best business interests, and
they usher your book into the world.
They make sure that you’re paid
fairly, that you have input on things
like cover art, and that your publish-
er spends the money to adequately
advertise and promote your book. In
exchange, the agent takes between
15 and 20 percent of your sales.
“And it's worth it,” Roxane says.
“It’s worth absolutely every penny.”
In general, for fiction writers,
you’ll want to seek out an agent
once you’ve completed a manu-
script. Nonfiction writers, in many
cases, can work “on proposal”—this
means outlining your book, the re-
search involved in its creation, and
the resources you’ll need to com-
plete it. In either case, you’ll almost
always be asked to include sample
chapters when you query, or pitch,
an agent. If they’re interested in rep-
resenting you, the agent will likely
request to see something like half of
your manuscript (or “a partial”) or,
in some cases, the whole book. Rox-
ane says the latter is often a good
sign. But she warns that the process
can be challenging. Sometimes, you
only need to query one agent; some-
times, you need to query dozens. Or
several dozens (see page 21). “It’s all
very subjective,” she says. “Just be-
cause an agent rejects you is not an
indication that you’re not worthy of
finding an agent. It just means that
you’re not a good fit for them.”
19 
Like publications, agents have
prescribed guidelines for query Some Questions
letters and samples. Follow them
for Your
closely. Websites like QueryTracker.
net and AgentQuery.com provide (Potential)
Agent
typical response times, reply rates,
and other data. Alternatively, you
How do you work
can look up who represents your
with writers? Are you
favorite writers—or writers whose
hands-on during the
work you feel is similar to your
editorial and develop-
own—and try reaching out. “There
mental process, or do
are no mysterious, secret ways of
you prefer to let writers
finding an agent,” Roxane says. “I
figure it out, then take
actually found my first agent by
it and sell it?
looking online.”
For an aspiring writer, finding an
Do you work with
agent can require patience and per-
foreign coagents to sell
sistence. If you get a rejection letter,
work overseas?
don’t take it personally. (You can
ask for feedback; some agents will
Do you have a film and
provide the reasoning behind their
television coagent, or
decision and some will not.) But if
a film and television
the rejections are piling up and you
division of your agen-
aren’t making progress, it might be
cy, in case this work is
worth reevaluating your project and
optioned?
deciding if it needs revisions—or
time on the back burner. Roxane
What’s your com-
reminds you that, oftentimes, the
munication style and
first book a writer publishes is not
cadence? Do you pre-
the first book they’ve written. Don’t
fer talking in person,
be afraid to start a new manuscript
over the phone, or via
while continuing to shop your initial
email? How often?
effort around to agents.
Which editors and
imprints might be a
good fit for this work?
Where might you
shop this work around
during the first round
of submissions? What
about a second round?
Do you have current or
past clients who would
be willing to speak as
references?
Sample Agent Query Letter

Dear Ms. Sarah LaPolla,

I am writing because I am seeking representation for two books—Strange Gods and Other
Stories, a short story collection, and my novel in progress, Things I Know About Fairy Tales.

Complicated women dealing with complicated situations are the focus of most of the stories
in Strange Gods. In “Mark of Cain,” a woman is married to one brother and in love with
his twin. “Between Things” uses Venn diagrams to unravel a story of a woman mourning
the death of her child in all the wrong ways. A woman is trying to find a way to escape her
damaged family, her lazy husband, and small town life in “How,” and in “Pilgrims,” a young,
infertile couple at the end of their marriage embark on a pilgrimage to a fertility faith healer
in Louisiana, hoping to find salvation for their marriage and themselves.

Set in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Things I Know About Fairy Tales (originally a short story
published by Necessary Fiction at http://necessaryfiction.com/stories/roxane-gay-things-i-
know-about-fairy-tales-) tells the story of a Haitian American woman who is kidnapped and
held in the Cité Soleil slum for thirteen days while visiting her parents in Port-au-Prince and
then has to return to her life a different person than the one her family remembers.

My writing appears or is forthcoming in Mid-American Review, Annalemma, McSweeney's

(online), Gargoyle, Hobart, The Collagist and others. Six of my short stories were named
Notable Stories of 2009 by the Million Writers Award. My first collection, Ayiti, short stories
and poetry about Haiti, is forthcoming this fall from Artistically Declined Press. I am a reg-
ular contributor to the popular literary blog HTMLGIANT, the coeditor of PANK Magazine,
and I can be found online at www.roxanegay.com. I am completing my doctoral degree in
Rhetoric and Technical Communication this summer and will be assuming the position of
Assistant Professor of English at Eastern Illinois University in the fall of 2010. (I am kind of
awesome. I'm sure it's gauche to say that, but it has to be said.)

I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you in advance for your time and consider-
ation. The full manuscript of Strange Gods is available upon request.

Sincerely,
Roxane Gay

*In 2019 and 2020, Roxane partnered with Medium to create Gay Magazine, a digital hub for fiction and
nonfiction on a variety of topics, including thoughtful pieces of cultural criticism (it has since shut-
tered). In 2021, she created The Audacity, an online newsletter. Roxane’s goal was to amplify the voices
of emerging writers—that is to say, writers with no published books, book contracts, or more than three
published bylines. If that sounds like you, The Audacity could be the ideal outlet for placing one of your
first essays; the publication accepts submissions on a rolling basis.

20
Negotiating
Contracts
CONTRACTS ARE “a necessary
evil,” according to Roxane. They can
do wonders when it comes to pro-
tecting you and your copyright—as
long as they’re negotiated correct-
ly. Maintaining your intellectual
property, or your ownership over
your creative work, can allow you to
resell, modify, or adapt your writing
without asking for anyone else’s
permission (and get paid whenever
your piece is used in any form).
“When you’re negotiating certain
elements of a contract, you have
to pick your battles,” Roxane says,
“and I think it’s more important to
negotiate copyright than it is to ne-
gotiate money.” But many contracts
are “work for hire” arrangements,
meaning the publication owns the
intellectual property rights to the
story you write for them. In Rox-
ane’s opinion, you “always, always,
always have to push back” against
these terms. “You can say you’re
willing to share copyright, but you
will not surrender your copyright.
Nine times out of 10, that publica-
tion is going to say, ‘No problem.’ ”
Roxane believes writers don’t
advocate for themselves—or even
read contracts before signing—
often enough. Which is understand-
able. Fine print and legalese can feel
overwhelming. Roxane suggests
that you use all available resources:
Get your dictionary, sit down with
the contract, and read every single
line. “Before I had a lawyer and an
agent,” she says, “I would Google
what various clauses meant and
then just cross them out and say,
‘That’s not good enough.’ ”
One crucial contractual element
to consider: the length of time for
which a publication can republish
and reprint your work. Keep an eye
out for the phrase “in perpetuity”;
this means the publication main-
tains the rights to your story forever,

Now-Famous Authors Whose Books Were Rejected

Over and Over (and Over) Again
THESE WRITERS HAD DOORS CLOSED IN THEIR FACE MULTIPLE TIMES BEFORE SIGNING BIG-TIME BOOK DEALS

Heidi Durrow Octavia Butler Stephen King Paul Beatty Lisa Genova William Saroyan

48 5 30 18 100 7,000
ABOUT

REJECTIONS YEARS OF REJECTIONS REJECTIONS REJECTIONS

before REJECTIONS before before REJECTIONS before
publishing before publishing publishing before publishing
The Girl Who Fell publishing Carrie The Sellout publishing The Daring Young Man
From the Sky Patternmaster Still Alice on the Flying Trapeze

21 
which could prevent you from, say,
including that piece in a collection
or an anthology elsewhere. Another
key term to be aware of is exclusiv-
ity. This is fine—after all, publica-
tions need exclusives to keep sub-
scribers happy—but make sure the
exclusivity will eventually expire.
(Anywhere from six to 18 months
is standard.) After that exclusive
period ends, the rights should revert
back to you, allowing you to resub-
mit your writing for publication
Age Is Just a Number
WORRIED YOU’RE TOO OLD TO PUBLISH? DON’T BE.
MAYA ANGELOU PUBLISHED HER FIRST MAJOR WORK AT 41.
RAYMOND CHANDLER WAS 51. YOU DON’T AGE OUT OF WRITING;
ON THE CONTRARY, LIFE EXPERIENCE RESULTS CAN PROVIDE
MORE RAW MATERIAL. EMBRACE IT, AND GO FORTH.
1 OTHER LUMINARIES
Marcel (AND THE AGE THEY
Proust FIRST PUBLISHED)
43 Frank McCourt 60

elsewhere, adapt it into a new story, Saul Bellow 38

2
Laura Ingalls Wilder 65
or expand it into a larger work. Maya
Angelou George Eliot 40
As a working writer, you’ll inev-
41
Henry Miller 44
itably end up in a situation where 1
Alex Haley 55
you’re confronted with a tough 3
Annie Proulx 57
choice: Sign a contract that doesn’t Raymond
serve you, or lose an opportunity for Chandler

publication. At that point, Roxane 51 2

says, you have to make a decision.
4
Sometimes, writers want certain Tony
publication credits (or, more realis- Morrison

tically, need the money—see page

24) and are willing to surrender
39
5
intellectual property rights. Doing
Walter
so isn’t a failure. Just make sure to Mosley
think about it carefully before sign-
ing on the dotted line.
38 3

Regardless of the terms, Rox-

ane reminds writers that they can
always—always!—push back on the
fee, especially when dealing with
larger magazines and online outlets.
5
“If they offer you $300, maybe you
ask for $500, and you guys meet in
the middle,” she says. “If they’re 4
reputable, they’re not going to
rescind an offer because you asked
for more. The worst they can say is
no, and then you have to decide if
you’re going to take the original of-
fer or not.” Above all else, when you
sit down to negotiate, remember:
Don’t be intimidated.

22
Selling a Book:
Advances
WHEN IT’S TIME to bring your
book to market, odds are you’ll
already have an agent. They’ll be
doing most of the negotiating on
your behalf. Still, Roxane says
it’s best to understand a few key
concepts—and what they mean in
practical terms.
The first is the matter of an
advance, or the amount you’re paid
by the publishing house. Generally
speaking, it’s not a lump sum paid
up front; typically, you get a percent-
age when you sign the contract—
which can take months to finalize—
then a percentage when you turn in
the finished manuscript. The third
part of the advance is paid when
your book is published. In some
cases, a fourth part of the advance
arrives later, when the paperback
version of your book is released.
There are, of course, variations on
these payment structures. Roxane ad-
vises you to consult with your agent
and be realistic about how each stage
“Once you earn out, every
single copy that you
sell of your book, in
perpetuity, is going to
earn you money.”
Roxane
23 
INDUSTRY INSIDER
Going It Alone
If you don’t have an agent, a
smaller press might still agree
to buy your book. In the event
this happens, consider joining
the Authors Guild (member-
ships start at $35) and asking
for a contract review. If you’re
able, you may even want to
hire a lawyer who specializes
in book deals. (They’ll gen-
erally take a fee that hovers
around 5 percent, but they
can help ensure your rights
are protected.) In Roxane’s
opinion, this is a better option
than self-publishing, where
the benefits—control of the
editing, sales, and promotion
processes—only present
equivalent challenges. Writers
need editors. Stores won’t sell
self-published books; critics
don’t review them. Of course,
there are exceptions, especial-
ly for marginalized voices. But
don’t expect to get paid. The
authors making millions from
self-publishing, Roxane says,
are similar to those making
millions from traditional pub-
lishing: “They’re the exception,
not the rule.”
will impact your personal finances.
Advances for first-time writers vary
wildly, but low-to-mid five figures is a
reasonable expectation. Bear in mind,
though, that the advance amount is
pretax—and before the agent takes
their commission.
Selling a Book:
Royalties
ANOTHER KEY CONCEPT is
royalties, or the amount you’re paid
whenever somebody buys your
book. Usually this is written into
the contract as a percentage, but
royalty structures can get tricky.
For instance, the percentages can
differ based on format (e.g., print
book versus e-book) and are usually
tied to the advance. In many cases,
writers don’t begin earning royalties
on a book until it earns out, meaning
it generates enough in sales to cover
the advance you received. According
to Roxane, most books never earn
out, and the effect is twofold: You
don’t make any money off the sales
of your first book, and the publishing
house might balk at purchasing your
next book. So the relationship be-
tween the advance and royalties can
be fickle. She stresses balance.
“If you sell a book for $2 million,
paying [back] that advance, unless
you’re James Patterson or Stephen
King, is really challenging,” Roxane
explains. “You don’t want an advance
so big that you are not going to be
able to earn it out and then earn
royalties. Once you earn out, every
single copy that you sell of your
book, in perpetuity, is going to earn
you money.”
 Famous
Scribes
Agatha Christie William Faulkner Anton Chekhov and
Their
Pharmaceutical Night supervisor at a Doctor
assistant university power plant

Based on your profile Based on your profile Based on your profile

Daily
Grinds
Connect Connect Connect

AMONG CREATIVE TYPES,

holding down a nine-to-five
(or bartending at night, or
babysitting in the after-
noons) can carry a certain
stigma. But writing full-time
Frank O’Hara J.D. Salinger Virginia Woolf isn’t a realistic, attainable
Museum clerk Luxury cruise liner Publisher goal for most people. Roxane
entertainment director doesn’t mince words: “Never
think that the job is failure.
The job is what makes your
Based on your profile Based on your profile Based on your profile
writing possible.”
To her point, even the most
Connect Connect Connect successful writers are also
professors—Claudia Rankine
at Yale, Zadie Smith at NYU,
and the late Toni Morrison
taught at Princeton. They
have day jobs, too, just at a
level that’s equivalent to their
literary accomplishments.
Roxane firmly believes that
regular employment—if
nothing else, providing health
Langston Hughes Herman Melville Franz Kafka insurance and some type
Busboy at a hotel Insurance clerk income—is “the greatest gift
Customs inspector
restaurant a writer can give themselves.”
In her eyes, it’s much easi-
Based on your profile Based on your profile Based on your profile er to be creative when you’re
not worried about money;
with a day job, writers can
Connect Connect Connect still carve out the time
required for their own work—
the work that feeds them
emotionally, as opposed to
work that puts food on the
table. And while there’s value
in writing consistency, you
don’t need to churn out pag-
es every day to be a Writer
with an uppercase W.
“You just have to make
William S. Octavia Butler Margaret Atwood appointments with yourself,”
Burroughs Dishwasher, telemarketer, Barista Roxane says, “and keep
Exterminator and potato chip inspector
them.”

Based on your profile Based on your profile Based on your profile

24

Connect Connect Connect

ROXANE’S READING LIST
ANY WRITER WILL TELL YOU: TO BE A BETTER WRITER, YOU MUST BE A VORACIOUS
READER. NOT SURE WHERE TO START? ROXANE HAS YOU COVERED

Americanah Thick How to Make Love Night at

by Chimamanda by Tressie McMillan to a Negro the Fiestas
Ngozi Adichie Cottom by Dany Laferrière by Kirstin Valdez Quade

Bastard Out of Krik? Krak!, Heavy A Sport and

Carolina by Edwidge Danticat by Kiese Laymon a Pastime
by Dorothy Allison by James Salter
The Dew Breaker “Thanksgiving
The Fire Next by Edwidge Danticat in Mongolia” Ghana Must Go
Time by James Baldwin by Ariel Levy by Taiye Selasi
Play It as It Lays
Notes of a by Joan Didion Voyage of the NW
Native Son Sable Venus by Zadie Smith
by James Baldwin Invisible Man by Robin Coste Lewis
by Ralph Ellison “Can the
The Vanishing “Rape Joke” Subaltern
Half The Round House by Patricia Lockwood Speak”
by Brit Bennett by Louise Erdrich by Gayatri Chakravorty
Full bibliography, Spivak
Notes From The Brutal Audre Lorde
No Man’s Land Language of Love “Frank Sinatra
by Eula Biss by Alicia Erian Heart Berries Has a Cold”
by Terese Mailhot by Gay Talese
American The Wretched
Salvage of the Earth B
 eloved Possessing the
by Bonnie Jo Campbell by Frantz Fanon by Toni Morrison Secret of Joy
by Alice Walker
How to Write an Stone Butch Blues Sula
Autobiographical by Leslie Feinberg by Toni Morrison Men We Reaped
Novel by Jesmyn Ward
by Alexander Chee “A Cyborg The Bluest Eye
Manifesto” by Toni Morrison Salvage the
“My Foreign by Donna Haraway Bones
Mom” by Jesmyn Ward
by Mary H.K. Choi
The Source of
The Book Self-Regard
of My Lives by Toni Morrison Sing, Unburied,
“The Laugh of the by Aleksandar Hemon Sing
Medusa” by Jesmyn Ward
by Hélène Cixous
Playing in the
The Known World Dark
by Edward P. Jones by Toni Morrison The Age of
Disgrace Innocence
by J.M. Coetzee Break Any by Edith Wharton
Lolita
Woman Down by Vladimir Nabokov
Slow Lightning by Dana Johnson
by Eduardo C. Corral The Argonauts Little House
Prelude to Bruise by Maggie Nelson on the Prairie
by Saeed Jones (series)
by Laura Ingalls Wilder

25 
 The Warmth The Writing Lucky Communities
of Other Suns of Fiction by Alice Sebold of Practice
by Isabel Wilkerson by Edith Wharton by Etienne Wenger
Are Prisons
Caste “Place in Fiction” Obsolete? The Major Works
by Isabel Wilkerson by Eudora Welty by Angela Davis of Oscar Wilde
by Oscar Wilde
A Little Life Green Girl Bel Canto
by Hanya Yanagihara by Kate Zambreno by Ann Patchett The Kiss
by Kathryn Harrison
The Chronology On Writing Well The Shipping
of Water by William Zinsser News Odd Girls and
by Lidia Yuknavitch by Annie Proulx Twilight Lovers
More Work by Lillian Faderman
Clan of the Cave for Mother Teaching to
Bear by Ruth Schwartz Cowan Transgress The Interpreter
by Jean M. Auel by bell hooks of Maladies
A Fine Balance by Jhumpa Lahiri
On Writing by Rohinton Mistry Teaching
by Stephen King Community: Literacy
Nobody’s Fool A Pedagogy by Paulo Freire
The Dream by Richard Russo of Hope
of a Common by bell hooks
What We
Language Empire Falls Talk About
by Adrienne Rich by Richard Russo Reel to Real When We Talk
by bell hooks About Love
The Amazing Straight Man by Raymond Carver
Adventures of by Richard Russo Lady Sings
Kavalier and Clay the Blues Waiting to Exhale
by Michael Chabon by Billie Holiday by Terry McMillan
Geek Love
by Katherine Dunn
This Bridge Feminism Things They
Called My Back Without Carried
edited by Gloria Anz-
Once Were Borders
Warriors by Tim O’Brien
aldúa and Cherríe L. by Chandra Talpade
Moraga by Alan Duff Mohanty
Drinking
SCUM Manifesto Coffee
The Perfect Elsewhere
by Valerie Solanas Victim by ZZ Packer
by Christine McGuire
Sisterhood Is American
Powerful How to Rent Psycho
by Susan Brownmiller a Negro by Bret Easton Ellis
by damali ayo
Negroland Before You
by Margo Jefferson Envisioning Suffocate Your
Information Own Fool Self
Tampa and Visual by Danielle Evans
by Alissa Nutting Explanations
by Edward Tufte
Pulphead
The Wife by John Jeremiah Sullivan
by Meg Wolitzer
“One of the many “Paper Tigers”
The Lover reasons I read is by Wesley Yang
by Marguerite Duras
to learn about the
lives of different
kinds of people.”
Roxane

26
 Class Credits

Roxane at the Toronto

International Film Festival
Courtesy Toronto International Film Festival

Audre Lorde at her desk

Courtesy Swann Auction Galleries

Book cover: Selected Works of Audre Lorde

Photograph of Audre Lorde by Robert Giard,
copyright estate of Robert Giard

Book cover: Posessing the Secret of Joy

Courtesy Open Road Media

Photograph of Roxane
(as seen on roxanegay.com)
Photograph by Jay Grabiec

Book cover and selected excerpt

readings: Bad Feminist
Courtesy HarperCollins Publishers.
Copyright (c) 2014 by Roxane Gay