Bad Feminist

A strikingly fresh cultural critic. -- Ron Charles * Washington Post *
Roxane Gay is so great at weaving the intimate and personal with what is most bewildering and upsetting at this moment in culture. She is always looking, always thinking, always passionate, always careful, always right there. -- Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?
Gay is my favourite current writer. -- Jessica Valenti * Guardian *
Let this be the year of Roxane Gay. * Time Magazine *
Roxane is a powerhouse of a writer. She's really punk in her approach and her book Bad Feminist has liberated a lot of women by making it clear you can be a conflicted, complicated woman and still identify with feminism. -- Lena Dunham
Smart readers cannot afford to miss these essays, which range from socially significant art (Girls, Django in Chains) and feminist issues (abortion) to politics (Chris Brown) and why Gay likes pink. * Library Journal *
As Bad Feminist proves, Gay is a necessary and brave voice when it comes to figuring out all the crazy mixed messages in our mixed-up world. -- ‘20 New Nonfiction Books That Will Make You Smarter’ * Flavorwire *
I just read Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist in one plane ride. It's brilliant. I am deeply grateful for it. Please read this book. -- Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love) via Twitter
One of our sharpest new culture critics plants her flag in topics ranging from trigger warnings to Orange is the New Black in this timely collection of essays. * O, the Oprah Magazine *
Refreshing . . . [Gay's] greatest gift as a writer is energy, enthusiasm - sheer gusto. She loves bad television, and enjoys terrible films, and is overjoyed by an unexpected triple word score. Her writing feels alive. You might not always agree with her, but you are always interested to know what she thinks. -- Helen Lewis * New Statesman *
Roxane Gay applies her discerning eye to everything from Paula Deen to The Batchelor. * Marie Claire *
Gay's essays are consistently smart and provocative. * USA Today *
Alternately friendly and provocative, wry and serious, her takes on everything from Girls to Fifty Shades of Grey help to recontextualize what feminism is--and what it can be. * Time Out (New York) *
Gay's essays expertly weld her personal experiences with broader gender trends occurring politically and in popular culture. * Huffington Post *
What makes Bad Feminist such a good read isn't only Gay's ability to deftly weave razor-sharp pop cultural analysis and criticism with a voice that is both intimate and relatable. It's that she's incapable of blindly accepting any kind of orthodoxy. * San Francisco Chronicle *
Roxane Gay is the brilliant girl-next-door: your best friend and your sharpest critic . . . She is by turns provocative, chilling, hilarious; she is also required reading. * People *
An assortment of comical, yet astute essays that touch on Gay's personal evolution as a woman, popular culture throughout the recent past, and the state of feminism today. * Harper's Bazaar *
Fascinating . . . An important and pioneering contemporary writer . . . Readers will immediately understand the appeal of Gay's intimate and down-to-earth voice . . . An important contribution to the complicated terrain of gender politics. * Boston Globe *
I know there are still four and a half months left, but I'm calling it now: 2014 is the year of Roxane Gay. I just devoured her book, Bad Feminist . . . Amazing. * Rookie *
A thoughtful and often hilarious new collection of essays. * Chicago Tribune *
If you read one book this month, let it be this gem by Roxane Gay . . . Tackling topics as varied as racial privilege, Chris Brown, feminism, Fifty Shades of Grey and Trayvon Martin in her typically spot-on and engaging style. This is a book all your girlfriends will want to borrow. * Pride *