Biography: Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay, a first generation Haitian-American, is the thirty-nine year old author of An Untamed State. After spending many years writing short stories, including one of her famous essay collections, Bad Feminitst, her novel debuts as one of the most gripping tales of women facing rape and kidnapping on a daily basis all over the world.

Gay had many reasons for writing this tale. She has first-hand accounts of being gang-raped as a teenager, scarring her for the rest of her life. Gay says in an article for Chicago Magazine, "'I wanted to explore what it would be like surviving something like that'" and shows her interest--whether voluntary or involuntary--in this subject. She conceived Mireille's character by hearing of kidnapping through her parents. By establishing a protagonist that does not conform to solely one societal norm, it allows Mireille to hold onto a society open to people who are different, as embodied in the United States, while keeping her roots in the motherland, Haiti.

While An Untamed State is fiction, many aspects of the novel are autobiographical. Roxane Gay mentions that "'[She doesn't] believe people can be protected from their histories. [She doesn't] believe it is at all possible to anticipate the histories of others'" in an interview with Kirkus News. While hoping to cope, she writes Mireille's tale in a manner that does not disregard the recovery of others. Each person forges their own path and by implementing this ideal, Roxane Gay ends her novel without a distict outset of a path to recovery.

Gay's writing is truly profound. Clearing a path through the field of trauma has helped her share a story--while it is not necessarily hers--that sheds light upon an urgent situation in need of publicity. She does not mask the truth but rather weaves it and ignites the flames that will spark a revolution and put an end to the distress many victims experience each day.

Works Cited:

Gay, Roxane. An Untamed State. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Obaro, Tomi. "How Roxane Gay Wrote An Untamed State." Chicago Magazine Arts Culture. Chicago Magazine, 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. .

Sanders, Joshunda. "Best Books of 2014: Roxane Gay." Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus, 21 Nov. 2014. Web. 14 Jan. 2015. .

(The group personally contacted Roxane Gay and received additional information regarding this subject and the validity of the sources cited)