The students I work with are incredibly talented at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. We always hear that kids can't write these days and so on and so forth and that is just not the case. So I have seen writers who are undeterred and I'm very glad about that. I worked in order to be a writer.Īnd I oftentimes worked in shitty jobs. When I wrote my memoir, Hunger, which was a memoir of my body, I was extremely worried about how it would be received, because it required a level of. I mean, I still have a day job and you know, it didn't come from magic. Enjoy this video with the acclaimed American writer Roxane Gay, who gives a compelling reading from her New York Times bestselling memoir. Going into Hunger, and knowing what Gay looks like, you know that there will be references to food, weight, and hunger. Statistics say that 34.9 percent of Americans are obese and 68.6 percent of Americans are obese or overweight. I wish we would all be more honest about the fact that you need a day job. Roxane Gay HarperCollins JContent warning: rape. Which I think is a terrible thing to do to rising writers. You know, I haven't seen any particular themes but I have seen just very strong writers who are very committed to the writing life, despite a lot of rhetoric that suggests that they can't make it. (Owen Egan and Joni Dufour/McGill) On fostering the next generation of writers: Women and New York Times bestselling Hunger: A Memoir of My Body. Time, and Vanity Fair, and on public radios This American Life. Roxane Gay was also signing copies of her books, Bad Feminist and Hunger, among others. Roxane Gays writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American. Sittenfield will appear in discussion with Roxane Gay, bestselling author of Bad.