Roxane Gay is an American writer, editor, cultural critic, and commentator whose work has made her one of the most influential public intellectuals of the 21st century.
Roxane was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Haitian immigrant parents, and was raised primarily in Nebraska before attending Phillips Exeter Academy. She later earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Technical Communication from Michigan Technological University. Throughout her academic career, Roxane has taught creative writing, English, and cultural studies at several universities while continuing to publish essays and fiction.
She first gained mainstream attention with the publication of her short story collection Ayiti, a series of interconnected stories inspired by Haiti’s history and politics. Three years later, she had a breakthrough with the publication of her novels An Untamed State and Bad Feminist, with the latter becoming an international bestseller. Roxane continued to explore identity and trauma in Difficult Women, and that same year she published Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, where she discusses surviving childhood trauma, body image, and self-protection. This novel also became a New York Times bestseller and was widely praised for its honesty and emotional nuance.
Beyond her work as a writer, Roxane has become one of the United States’ most recognizable cultural commentators. She has served as an op-ed writer for The New York Times, worked as an essay editor for The Rumpus, and her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s Bazaar, Time, and many other publications.
She made history in 2016 when Marvel Comics announced that she and poet Yona Harvet would write World of Wakanda, making them the first black women to write for Marvel. The series would be a spin-off of Black Panther, focusing on the relationship between Ayo and Aneka, members of the Dora Milaje whose romance would become one of Marvel’s most prominent queer storylines.
In November 2019, Roxane publicly announced her engagement to writer and designer Debbie Millman. She shared the news on X and wrote:
Ahhh! Yes, I am indeed engaged to @debbiemillman! It is very exciting! Thank you ALL for the kind words and congratulations. — roxane gay (@rgay)
The couple married in 2022 and have since become one of publishing’s most prominent LGBTQ couples, appearing together at literary festivals, conferences, and public events. Much of Roxane’s work explores gender and sexuality, and she has long identified as bi. She has also openly written about attraction, relationships, and the limitations of rigid labels, and continues to be a source of bi visibility and representation while continuing to influence literature and journalism.