Cultural critic Roxane Gay to speak at The Community Library – Idaho Mountain Express and Guide
In her New York Times Bestselling book “Bad Feminist,” cultural critic Roxane Gay writes, “I am still writing my way toward a place where I fit, but I am also finding my people in unexpected places.”
Gay is The Community Library’s 2022 Hemingway Distinguished Lecturer. She will speak on the Library’s Donaldson Robb Family Lawn Thursday, July 7, at 7 p.m. Her critically acclaimed writing explores such topics as trauma, modern pop culture and LGBTQIA+ issues.
Jenny Emery-Davidson is the Executive Director of The Community Library.
“Roxane Gay is a writer whose work spans genres with astonishing agility: from fiction to memoir to commentary to comic book series,” Emery-Davidson said. “She writes bravely and beautifully into difficult matters of trauma and belonging. Her analysis can cut to the core, and it also can illuminate subtlety. Her writing, I think, can light our imaginations and inform more thoughtful conversations between us about popular topics. And she can make us laugh.”
Her books include the memoir “Hunger” and the novel “Ayiti, An Untamed State.” Gay was the first black woman to ever write for Marvel, a comic series in the Black Panther universe called “World of Wakanda.” She also hosts the podcast “The Roxane Gay Agenda.”
“I admire and appreciate her open-mindedness, her wide-ranging curiosity, and the nimble intellect she applies from the poetry of Audre Lorde to the teen ‘Sweet Valley High’ novels,” Emery-Davidson said. “Each year for the Hemingway Distinguished Lecture, we aim to present a writer who demonstrates great literary talent and who informs public discourse in profound ways. Roxane Gay does that.”
Earlier in the day, she will speak to a group of local teens the library has chosen.
Space is limited for her public speaking event. Reserve a seat now on comlib.org. The event will also be streamed on Vimeo at vimeo.com/712153820.