It’s time for a rest, dear Rebels. Let’s calm our bodies, quiet our minds, and release our worries out into the world.

Take a deep breath in
(breathe in)
and release. Aaaaah.

You can even close your eyes, if you like. Now, imagine that all around you is deep, purple light. It’s like a cocoon, close and warm. Soft. Relax into this calm space as we tell you the story of a remarkable rebel named Roxane Gay.

Roxane is a powerful writer and storyteller. She finds words and ideas everywhere — in the spark of a smile, the shiver of a cool breeze, or the rush of emotions. She weaves together stories from careful observation, threads of memory, and bits of fantasy. In her writing, she creates characters that are out of this world.

Literally! [light chuckle] I should know, because my name’s Claire and I’m one of Roxane’s characters. Though my world is imagined, I stand for REAL ideas and convictions, like trusting your gut and finding light even in the darkest night. Roxane brought me and many other characters to life with her words.

Now, let’s get into her story…
PICTURE THIS:

Imagine a four-year-old Roxane, with two tiny pigtails in her hair, big brown eyes, and a pen in her hand. She is sitting at her family’s kitchen table in Omaha, Nebraska, drawing on a napkin. She plots out houses and roads, a winding river and some fluffy clouds. She makes a whole village, with smoke puffing out of chimneys and speck-sized people waving hello. Then she starts writing out what their lives could be like, giving them words and ideas, hopes and dreams….

Roxane makes up all kinds of stories about these tiny people in her napkin pictures. She writes and writes. She can’t help it! She has this voice full of stories inside her, begging to be let out.
LOST AND FOUND:

One day though, when Roxane is twelve years old, a group of boys hurt her badly. Roxane doesn’t know how to tell anyone, or ask for help. She doesn’t know how to describe all the anger and fear she’s experiencing. For the first time, that creative voice inside her goes quiet.

Roxane feels small and vulnerable. How can she protect herself so she never gets hurt like that again?

She starts to eat more than before, trying to build her body up like a fortress so nobody can come near. She goes away to a boarding school, hoping to find a place where she can create a new life for herself.

And she does. Slowly. One word at a time. She fills her notebooks with new ideas. Poems, plays, essays, ramblings. She has a lot to say, especially about how society treats women and what it means to speak out for herself. She meets a great teacher who helps her get counseling and tells her to write every day no matter what, which she does.
LOST AND FOUND:

Roxane keeps writing throughout college and graduate school. She has to! Her voice grows louder and stronger every day and she knows this is what she’s meant to do. She is here on this earth to tell stories that connect and move people. She can be a light for anyone who feels lost or alone.

She writes about feminism and what it’s like to move through the world as a woman. She writes about race, and what it means to be Black in America. She writes about being queer, and the meaning of love; and about how people don’t understand or appreciate the wonders of a big body. Her words are strong and sharp, bright and honest, and funny too.

She starts sending out some of her writing, hoping to get published. But all she hears back from publishers is no, no no. It’s hard not to take it personally. Here she is, offering the most vulnerable parts of herself, and she keeps on being dismissed. Still, Roxane refuses to give up. And in 2011, a small press offers to publish a collection of her writing.

The book is called Ayiti [ay-ee-tee] and it’s filled with folklore, love potions, mysterious hauntings, and truths about immigration. When the book comes out, Roxane is thrilled to hold her printed words in her hands. People start talking about how powerful her voice is on the page. One reviewer even calls her “a bright and shining star.”

And Rebels? I think of her that way, too.
CLAIRE’S WORLD:

You see, in my world, it is always night.

Let me explain. Soon after Roxane’s first book is published, she starts writing a new story — or really, many of them. She creates a whole world on the page where the sun has disappeared and everyone is searching for other sources of light.

I don’t know which part of me Roxane thinks of first…my eyes blinking in the dark? My ears listening for footsteps? My heart seeking a companion?

All I know is, she breathes life into me on the page in this wild world where it’s always night. This may sound scary at first, but it actually becomes a wonderful place to live. Roxane writes about me and the people of my world with so much love and calm. She teaches us that hope can be found in being honest or sharing a sandwich. We don’t have to live in a perfect sunny place to feel the warmth or joy of true connection. With Roxane writing my journey, I feel like anything is possible.

I think that’s how a lot of Roxane’s stories and books feel. Because the louder and brighter her voice becomes, the more worlds she creates. She writes about magic and danger, distant lands and fairy tales, superheroes and the power within each of us.

She writes a memoir: Hunger, about women like her, who don’t fit into neat boxes or expectations. She describes the big trauma of her childhood, and how it has affected her relationship to her body throughout her whole life.

And as her writing grows, so do her fans. Like the very best kinds of stories, Roxane’s writing helps readers discover things about themselves. The more people she talks to, the more she realizes that everyone has times in their lives when they feel weird in their bodies, or alone in the universe. By bravely opening up about herself, Roxane encourages readers to open up, too!

And of course, her story isn’t some perfect fairytale. Readers love that Hunger doesn’t resolve everything in the last chapter — like them, Roxane is still learning and changing every day.
AND NOW…:

Roxane’s story is far from over. With five books of her own and many more that she’s co-written and collaborated on, she continues to find new ways to express love, light, and hope.

She still thinks about her place in this world, and the ways she moves through it. But her perspectives continue to shift. As for her body, she feeds it well and exercises. She is strong and healthy. She lets herself love and be loved, especially by her wife, Debbie.

She’s also an esteemed writing teacher, editor, and publisher, empowering new writers to find the stories they need to tell. Because she knows that words have great power. Words can be the opening into the deepest, darkest truths, the brightest, sharpest secrets, and the ability to heal.

So as you drift off to sleep, Rebels, listen to your inner voice, and think about the worlds that you want to build in your dreams. Can you see them in your mind’s eye? Can you put words to them? Are there majestic castles glittering in the sunlight? Or is it more like my world, velvety and quiet, humming with hope? Find your voice rebels, and create whatever world you want.

Because after Once upon a time, anything can happen.