Roxane Gay is an author and cultural critic whose writing is unmatched and widely revered. Her work garners international acclaim for its reflective, no-holds-barred exploration of feminism and social criticism. With a deft eye on modern culture, she brilliantly critiques its ebb and flow with both wit and ferocity.

Words like “courage,” “humor,” and “smart” are frequently deployed when describing Gay. Her collection of essays, “Bad Feminist,” was a New York Times best-seller and is universally considered the quintessential exploration of modern feminism. NPR named it one of the best books of the year and Salon declared the book “trailblazing.” Her powerful debut novel, “An Untamed State,” was long listed for the Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize. She has two upcoming releases–“Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body” is a painstaking examination of body image, and “Difficult Women” is a collection of stories.

Gay is a contributing op-ed writer for The New York Times. She was a founding editor of PANK and non-fiction editor at The Rumpus. Her writing has also appeared in McSweeney’s, The Nation and many other publications.

Gay is an associate professor of English at Purdue University.