On Thursday, April 28, 2016, Roxane Gay graced York College of Pennsylvania with her presence during the semester’s Writer in Residence event. When stepping into the auditorium beforehand, you couldn’t help but notice the excited atmosphere. The room was abuzz with talk, people passing around Roxane’s two books and patiently waiting for her to make an appearance on stage. When the lights dimmed, the considerably full room became hushed, and the anticipation was palpable. The moment she stepped into the room, everyone gave their applause.
Travis Kurowski, Ph.D., and Coordinator of the Creative Writing department at YCP, introduced Roxane Gay and her writing to the crowd with a very nicely written speech. One of my favorite comments from his speech was about how “writing is pain”. Roxane thanked Kurowski for that wonderful introduction and then addressed the crowd, expressing that she wanted to give us a few readings, and then take some questions.
Within a matter of minutes, we learned that Roxane Gay has a very entertaining sense of humor—especially when she opens her readings with a well-written piece about her obsession with her UPS man. While there may have been a few flushing faces in the crowd—Gay was extremely open about how much she enjoyed UPS man’s calf-muscles—there certainly was a lot of laughter and applause. I wouldn’t put a PG rating on the event, that’s for sure!
While her relationship with the UPS man is one-sided, her relationship with her writing is not. When everyone calmed from their fits of laughter, the room grew more serious as Gay went on to talk about her debut novel An Untamed State.
An Untamed State is about a Haitian-American women named Mireille that is kidnapped for ransom and must strongly endure the tortures of her kidnappers for several days. Roxane Gay chose to read us the very first chapter of this riveting novel; captivating us with the tone of her voice and the tale she wove with her words. One sentence really stood out to me when she had read it:
“ …the relief that it was not yet their time; the wolves had not yet come for them.”
The applause roared in my ears when she was finished, my own drowning among the rest. She spoke more about the book, telling us that she wrote the violent parts to the point that they were “unreadable,” and that many people have expressed that they simply had to “skip over” those pages because they were unbearable to read. I knew then that I would have to buy the book; that I had to read the tale for myself.
The serious died as Roxanne continued her readings from her book Bad Feminist, which is a collection of her nonfiction essays.
She read three passages from it, one about her experiences teaching for the first time, another about being friends with other women, and then the second part of her essay Bad Feminist. Laughter abounded once more, and later on during the book signing, I expressed to her that she should consider being a stand-up comedian. Roxane had previously stated that she is afraid of public speaking—though she hides it very well—and is naturally a shy person.
When her readings were finished, she answered a variety of questions about her writing, teachings, getting published, feminism, family and background. I think many writers, or aspiring writers, in the room could take a lot away from what she had to say. One of the things that I took away from it is this:
"The only thing you have to do as a writer is write."
She expressed taking down those walls and barriers that we put up as writers and just write. Very sound advice, though not necessarily easy. Especially for those writers like me who tend to overthink things!
The event ended with a standing ovation and a book signing.
Definitely check out Roxane Gay and her work; she won't disappoint!
