Podcasts about best sex writing

Host Jason Blitman talks to author Oliver Radclyffe (Frighten the Horses) about his journey of self-discovery and the transformative power of being true to oneself, Henry Higgins, and his dating life. Jason is joined by Guest Gay Reader Roxane Gay, who discusses her role in bringing Oliver's memoir to life through her imprint, Roxane Gay Books, what she's currently reading, the pros of cable, and woes of peeling garlic. Oliver Radclyffe is part of the new wave of transgender writers unafraid to address the complex nuances of transition, examining the places where gender identity, sexual orientation, feminist allegiance, social class, and family history overlap. His work has appeared in The New York Times and Electric Literature, and he recently published Adult Human Male, a monograph with Unbound Edition Press on the trans experience under the cisgender gaze. He currently lives on the Connecticut coast, where he is raising his four children.Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. She also has a newsletter, The Audacity and once had a podcast, The Roxane Gay Agenda. BOOK CLUB!Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply.http://aardvarkbookclub.comWATCH!https://youtube.com/@gaysreadingBOOKS!Check out the list of books discussed on each episode on our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/gaysreading MERCH!Purchase your Gays Reading podcast merchandise HERE! https://gaysreading.myspreadshop.com/ FOLLOW!@gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT!hello@gaysreading.com

Tracy Clark-Flory's journey with performative sexuality began at the age of 12, when she ventured into AOL chat rooms, seeking to discover what men wanted sexually. In her memoir, "Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey into the Heart of Desire," Tracy details her personal sexual exploration through the maze of mainstream feminism and hyper-sexualized media, where she grappled with the conflicting messages dictating her sexual identity. It wasn't until her tenure as a sex journalist and the dawn of deeper relationships that she unearthed a profound truth: there's no universal formula for male desire. This revelation sparked a profound shift, leading her to prioritize her own sexual fulfillment.Join Erin and Tracy for a conversation spanning the portrayal of sexuality in media to the complexities of sexual experiences, including orgasms and the performance of desire, as we explore:The clash of feminism and hyper-sexualization in media and its impact on young women's journey to self-discoveryThe pressure women face to conform to performative standards of desirability for menFeminist theory's role in untangling society's conflicting messages about sexualityExposing the myths surrounding pornography and the importance of media literacy.Faking orgasms and how to pursue genuine pleasure The intersection of motherhood and sexuality, and the liberating journey towards self-awareness and acceptance that comes with ageOUR GUEST: Tracy Clark-Flory is a journalist, essayist, and author of the memoir “Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey into the Heart of Desire”, an NPR best book of the year. Clark-Flory has written for Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Glamour, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. She is a former senior staff writer at Jezebel and Salon. Her work has shown up in the Best Sex Writing anthology and she has been called “one of the best journalists of our generation writing about sexuality.” She writes a weekly newsletter on sex, feminism, motherhood, and pop culture at tracyclarkflory.substack.com.Want more Tracy? Find her online at https://www.tracyclarkflory.com/ and tracyclarkflory.substack.com. Follow her on Instagram @tracyclarkflory Read her book Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey into the Heart of DesireWant more Hotter Than Ever? Find us and episode transcripts online at www.hotterthaneverpod.com and sign up for our mailing list! Follow us on:Instagram: @hotterthaneverpod TikTok: @hotterthaneverpod Youtube: @hotterthaneverpod Facebook: @hotterthaneverpod Follow Hotter Than Ever wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode! We'd love to hear what you think about the show - tell us what stories are resonating with you by writing us a...

Author and cultural observer, Roxane Gay, examines the landscape of the internet and our relationship with it. We discuss the line between constructive criticism and online toxicity; how to decide when to speak up and when to stay quiet; and how to stay human and allow redemption in an online world that demands perfection. Plus, a breakdown of our shared unguilty pleasure: Naked Attraction. About Roxane:  Roxane Gay is the author of several books, including Ayiti, An Untamed State, New York Times bestsellers Bad Feminist and Hunger; and the national bestseller Difficult Women. Her writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories, Best American Short Stories, Best Sex Writing, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times.  She also has a newsletter, “The Audacity” – and once had a podcast, The Roxane Gay Agenda. Her latest book, Opinions, is available now. TW: @rgay IG: @roxanegay74 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are plenty of books that offer advice about how to get or keep love in your life. But what about the stories we've all heard of people who do absolutely crazy things in the name of love, things that are the complete opposite of the sober advice offered by self-help books? In CRAZY LITTLE THING: Why Love and Sex Drive Us Mad, publishing in December by Viva Editions, Liz Langley interviewed dozens of people on the extreme edges of love and desire, as well as the experts who are uncovering new scientific information that urges us to ask: how much of our behavior is really our choice? Psychologists, academics and analysts of culture continue to offer us better understanding of ourselves in love and other areas, but neurologists and other specialists, armed with the brain scan, have taken the game to a higher level. Reaching across science, literature and newspaper headlines to illuminate the irrational things people do in the name of love, Langley reveals mental disorders, paraphilias, God and extraterrestrial conspiracies. Edgar Alan Poe's wife succumbed to tuberculosis when she was just 25 and forevermore his work was populated by sweet young women who died too young, often from wasting diseases. Nadine and Bob had both devoted their lives to the church, a nun and priest who never considered any other life until they met one another. And though turning toward each other seemed irrational, their love turned out to be their true commitment to spirituality. When his wife died in 2003, Le Van, a 55 year-old father of seven, at first slept on top of her grave. When his kids found out and prevented him from visiting the graveyard, he brought her home and slept beside her there. Langley goes on to explain recent breakthroughs in brain science for general readers. This book isn't a how-to. It's more of a guess-what. CRAZY LITTLE THING is a pop romp that begins to make sense of the burbling, boiling soup of endorphins, hormones and neurotransmitters that spill from our brains to make us do insane things in the name of love. Liz Langley is a columnist for SexIs magazine and her writing has appeared in/on Salon.com, Jezebel, Alternet, Details, Glamour, Bust, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, Carnal Nation and Gene Simmon's Tongue. She's regularly blogs for MyPleasure.com and has been a columnist for the Toronto Sun, the Orlando Weekly and the Orlando Sentinel and has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Florida Press Association and Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Her work appears in BEST SEX WRITING 2008 (Cleis Press)******************************************************************To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv*** AND NOW ***The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.comThe ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. · www.roxanegay.com· www.creativeprocess.info

Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. · www.roxanegay.com· www.creativeprocess.info

Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. · www.roxanegay.com· www.creativeprocess.info

Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. · www.roxanegay.com· www.creativeprocess.info

There are plenty of books that offer advice about how to get or keep love in your life. But what about the stories we've all heard of people who do absolutely crazy things in the name of love, things that are the complete opposite of the sober advice offered by self-help books? In CRAZY LITTLE THING: Why Love and Sex Drive Us Mad, publishing in December by Viva Editions, Liz Langley interviewed dozens of people on the extreme edges of love and desire, as well as the experts who are uncovering new scientific information that urges us to ask: how much of our behavior is really our choice? Psychologists, academics and analysts of culture continue to offer us better understanding of ourselves in love and other areas, but neurologists and other specialists, armed with the brain scan, have taken the game to a higher level. Reaching across science, literature and newspaper headlines to illuminate the irrational things people do in the name of love, Langley reveals mental disorders, paraphilias, God and extraterrestrial conspiracies. Edgar Alan Poe's wife succumbed to tuberculosis when she was just 25 and forevermore his work was populated by sweet young women who died too young, often from wasting diseases. Nadine and Bob had both devoted their lives to the church, a nun and priest who never considered any other life until they met one another. And though turning toward each other seemed irrational, their love turned out to be their true commitment to spirituality. When his wife died in 2003, Le Van, a 55 year-old father of seven, at first slept on top of her grave. When his kids found out and prevented him from visiting the graveyard, he brought her home and slept beside her there. Langley goes on to explain recent breakthroughs in brain science for general readers. This book isn't a how-to. It's more of a guess-what. CRAZY LITTLE THING is a pop romp that begins to make sense of the burbling, boiling soup of endorphins, hormones and neurotransmitters that spill from our brains to make us do insane things in the name of love. Liz Langley is a columnist for SexIs magazine and her writing has appeared in/on Salon.com, Jezebel, Alternet, Details, Glamour, Bust, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, Carnal Nation and Gene Simmon's Tongue. She's regularly blogs for MyPleasure.com and has been a columnist for the Toronto Sun, the Orlando Weekly and the Orlando Sentinel and has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Florida Press Association and Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Her work appears in BEST SEX WRITING 2008 (Cleis Press) ****************************************************************** To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv *** AND NOW *** The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.com The ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

There are plenty of books that offer advice about how to get or keep love in your life. But what about the stories we've all heard of people who do absolutely crazy things in the name of love, things that are the complete opposite of the sober advice offered by self-help books? In CRAZY LITTLE THING: Why Love and Sex Drive Us Mad, publishing in December by Viva Editions, Liz Langley interviewed dozens of people on the extreme edges of love and desire, as well as the experts who are uncovering new scientific information that urges us to ask: how much of our behavior is really our choice? Psychologists, academics and analysts of culture continue to offer us better understanding of ourselves in love and other areas, but neurologists and other specialists, armed with the brain scan, have taken the game to a higher level. Reaching across science, literature and newspaper headlines to illuminate the irrational things people do in the name of love, Langley reveals mental disorders, paraphilias, God and extraterrestrial conspiracies. Edgar Alan Poe's wife succumbed to tuberculosis when she was just 25 and forevermore his work was populated by sweet young women who died too young, often from wasting diseases. Nadine and Bob had both devoted their lives to the church, a nun and priest who never considered any other life until they met one another. And though turning toward each other seemed irrational, their love turned out to be their true commitment to spirituality. When his wife died in 2003, Le Van, a 55 year-old father of seven, at first slept on top of her grave. When his kids found out and prevented him from visiting the graveyard, he brought her home and slept beside her there. Langley goes on to explain recent breakthroughs in brain science for general readers. This book isn't a how-to. It's more of a guess-what. CRAZY LITTLE THING is a pop romp that begins to make sense of the burbling, boiling soup of endorphins, hormones and neurotransmitters that spill from our brains to make us do insane things in the name of love. Liz Langley is a columnist for SexIs magazine and her writing has appeared in/on Salon.com, Jezebel, Alternet, Details, Glamour, Bust, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, Carnal Nation and Gene Simmon's Tongue. She's regularly blogs for MyPleasure.com and has been a columnist for the Toronto Sun, the Orlando Weekly and the Orlando Sentinel and has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Florida Press Association and Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Her work appears in BEST SEX WRITING 2008 (Cleis Press)******************************************************************To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv*** AND NOW ***The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.comThe ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

There are plenty of books that offer advice about how to get or keep love in your life. But what about the stories we've all heard of people who do absolutely crazy things in the name of love, things that are the complete opposite of the sober advice offered by self-help books? In CRAZY LITTLE THING: Why Love and Sex Drive Us Mad, publishing in December by Viva Editions, Liz Langley interviewed dozens of people on the extreme edges of love and desire, as well as the experts who are uncovering new scientific information that urges us to ask: how much of our behavior is really our choice? Psychologists, academics and analysts of culture continue to offer us better understanding of ourselves in love and other areas, but neurologists and other specialists, armed with the brain scan, have taken the game to a higher level. Reaching across science, literature and newspaper headlines to illuminate the irrational things people do in the name of love, Langley reveals mental disorders, paraphilias, God and extraterrestrial conspiracies. Edgar Alan Poe's wife succumbed to tuberculosis when she was just 25 and forevermore his work was populated by sweet young women who died too young, often from wasting diseases. Nadine and Bob had both devoted their lives to the church, a nun and priest who never considered any other life until they met one another. And though turning toward each other seemed irrational, their love turned out to be their true commitment to spirituality. When his wife died in 2003, Le Van, a 55 year-old father of seven, at first slept on top of her grave. When his kids found out and prevented him from visiting the graveyard, he brought her home and slept beside her there. Langley goes on to explain recent breakthroughs in brain science for general readers. This book isn't a how-to. It's more of a guess-what. CRAZY LITTLE THING is a pop romp that begins to make sense of the burbling, boiling soup of endorphins, hormones and neurotransmitters that spill from our brains to make us do insane things in the name of love. Liz Langley is a columnist for SexIs magazine and her writing has appeared in/on Salon.com, Jezebel, Alternet, Details, Glamour, Bust, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, Carnal Nation and Gene Simmon's Tongue. She's regularly blogs for MyPleasure.com and has been a columnist for the Toronto Sun, the Orlando Weekly and the Orlando Sentinel and has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Florida Press Association and Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. Her work appears in BEST SEX WRITING 2008 (Cleis Press) ****************************************************************** To listen to all our XZBN shows, with our compliments go to: https://www.spreaker.com/user/xzoneradiotv *** AND NOW *** The ‘X' Zone TV Channel on SimulTV - www.simultv.com The ‘X' Chronicles Newspaper - www.xchroniclesnewpaper.com

To listen to the full episode with Roxane Gay, please visit our Patreon! This week, New York Times Bestselling author, professor, editor, and social commentator Roxane Gay walks The Tight Rope. Gay and the professors discuss the devastating attacks on Palestine and why so many public figures are afraid to speak out. Plus, learn why Gay felt called to be a writer and how she fell in love with the essay form. Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. She also has a newsletter, The Audacity. Become a member of our Patreon family for full episodes, behind-the-scenes access and more exclusive content! You can sign up here at https://www.patreon.com/thetightropepod OR, Donate to the show here! Follow The Tight Rope on Social Media! Patreon | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Previous video episodes on our Youtube! Follow Roxane Gay on Social Media! Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website Credits: Creator/EP: Jeremy Berry EP/Host: Cornel West EP/Host: Tricia Rose Producers: Allie Hembrough, Ceyanna Dent Beats x Butter (IG: @Butter_Records) #TheTightRope #CornelWest #TriciaRose #SpkerBoxMedia

On this episode Chris and I discuss two movies we adore: Baise-moi and Sauvage. Through these films we have an honest and open conversation about: sex work, nihilism, transgression/transformation, subverted expectations, feminism, and porn.   Baise-moi (Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000) — Two young women, marginalized by society, go on a destructive tour of sex and violence. Breaking norms and killing men - and shattering the complacency of polite cinema audiences.  Sauvage (Camille Vidal-Naquet, 2018) — A young street hustler leads a debauched life of turning tricks and taking drugs while longing for love.  Christopher Zeischegg is a writer, musician, and filmmaker who spent eight years working in the adult industry as performer, Danny Wylde. He is the author of four books, Come to my Brother, The Wolves that Live in Skin and Space, Body to Job, and The Magician, and has contributed to The Feminist Porn Book, Best Sex Writing, Coming Out Like a Porn Star, Split Lips, and a variety of digital publications, such as Somesuch and The Nervous Breakdown. The Broadly interview with Virginie Despentes we reference.  --cash.app/$wakeisland666     --Venmo: @wake-island666 Theme music by Joseph E. Martinez of Junius Follow us on social at: Twitter: @WakeIslandPod Instagram: @wakeislandpod --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/wake-island/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wake-island/support

Journalist Tracy Clark Flory joins Tristan Taormino to talk about her new memoir Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey into the Heart of Desire. They discuss her early interest in sex and how her attitudes were influenced by her hippie parents, the media, and HBO’s Real Sex. As a young adult, she struggles with failing at being a woman, and she searches for “what men want” and her own desirability through porn, strip clubs, sex writing, and a lot of casual sex. She comes clean about being an orgasm faker during this time, and they unpack why. She shares when she began to challenge the paradoxical sexual norms of our society and center her own desire, pleasure, and power. They delve into how her mother’s death affected her sex life, her orgasmic breakthrough, and what she’s learned from visiting porn film sets. The book is deeply personal, yet brilliantly analyzes the social and political forces that shape the current sexual landscape. Special thanks to Calm and Sakara for their support of this episode. Tracy Clark-Flory is a senior staff writer at Jezebel. Her work has been published in Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Marie Claire, Salon, The Guardian, Women’s Health, and the yearly “Best Sex Writing” anthology. She has appeared on “20/20,” MSNBC and NPR. She is the author of the memoir Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey into the Heart of Desire.

Tracy Clark-Flory talks about her new book Want Me: A Sex Writer's Journey Into the Heart of Desire.  We talk about sexuality, desire, grief, and love. Not to mention pregnancy, a maturing sexuality, and the neoliberal feminist myth of sexual empowerment and "having it all."  Tracy Clark-Flory is a senior staff writer at Jezebel. Her work has been published in Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Marie Claire, The Guardian, Women's Health, and the yearly Best Sex Writing anthology. Prior to Jezebel, she was a senior staff writer at Salon, where she covered the sex beat for years. She lives in the Bay Area with her family.  This episode was sponsored by Aorta Films, After Adult Podcast, Assembly Four and TroubleFilms. 

Have you ever felt like you’re in a tunnel trying to dig your way out and are just getting nowhere?  Like there’s not even a light at the end? In Roxane Gay and Tracy Lynne Oliver's fantastical graphic novel The Sacrifice of Darkness, a man is pushed past his limits and the consequences are global as the world is shrouded in darkness. About the AuthorsRoxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. Tracy Lynne Oliver is attempting to make a new name for herself in this writing game. She has a magical novel that is anxious to see the light of day as well as a monstrous short story collection. If you know what's good for you, you'd contact her ASAP to call dibs on this greatness before you lose the next literary Beyonce. In the meantime, you can read her essay, "Love Letters" in Medium's "Unruly Bodies" series. Episode Credits:This episode was produced by Andrew Dunn and Amanda Stern. It was edited, mixed and sound-designed by Andrew Dunn who also created Bookable's chill vibe.  Our host is Amanda Stern. Beau Friedlander is Bookable's executive producer and editor in chief of Loud Tree Media.  Music:"Books That Bounce" by Rufus Canis, "Uni Swing Vox" by Rufus Canis, "Walk with Me" by Land of Legs, "Dimensions Distilled" by Frozen Mesa, "Electric Passion" by Keen Collective, "Maple" by Pastek, "In the Steps of Dust" by Jules Blueprints, "Loa" by El Buho y Barrio Lindo.

Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. · www.roxanegay.com· www.creativeprocess.info

Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. · www.roxanegay.com· www.creativeprocess.info

Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. · www.roxanegay.com· www.creativeprocess.info

Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. · www.roxanegay.com· www.creativeprocess.info

Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. · www.roxanegay.com· www.creativeprocess.info

Roxane Gay's writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney's, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. · www.roxanegay.com· www.creativeprocess.info

Karolina Waclawiak’s breakout novel, Life Events, follows Evelyn, who, at thirty-seven, is on the verge of divorce and anxiously dreading the death of everyone she loves. She combats her existential crisis by avoiding her husband and aimlessly driving along the freeways of California looking for an escape—one that eventually comes when she discovers a collective of “exit guides.” Evelyn enrolls in their training course, where she learns to provide companionship and a final exit for terminally ill patients seeking a conscious departure. She meets Daphne, a dying woman still full of life; Lawrence, an aging porn king; and Daniel, who seems too young to die and whom Evelyn falls for, despite knowing better, not to mention the exit guide code. Each client opens something new in Evelyn, allowing her a chance to access her own grief and confront the self-destructive ways she suppresses her pain. When Evelyn travels through the Southwest to an afterlife convention to further her death education, she must finally face her complicated relationship with her alcoholic father and reconcile her life choices. Sensitively observed and darkly funny, Life Events is a moving, enlivening story of the human condition: the doldrums of loneliness, the consuming regret of past mistakes, and the thrill, finally, of finding meaning—and love—where you least expect it. Waclawiak is in conversation with Roxane Gay, whose writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, Harper’s Bazaar, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. _______________________________________________   Produced by Maddie Gobbo & Michael Kowaleski Theme: "I Love All My Friends," a new, unreleased demo by Fragile Gang. Visit https://www.skylightbooks.com/event for future offerings from the Skylight Books Events team.

This episode is about using a character to express the voice of reason. So often in a story, the narrator is in a bind and can't see clearly. In the story we bring you today, the narrator's wife says something that opens the narrator's mind to a different point of view. The narrator went years believing something that might not be true. In this story, he artfully showed us the moment the story he told himself was called into question. Today's story is by listener Nicholas Garnett, an adjunct professor of creative writing at Florida International University and Miami Book Fair International. He's editor of the journal Sliver of Stone. His writing has appeared in Salon.com, The Florida Book Review, and other places including Best Sex Writing of 2013. Most importantly, he's the co-producer of Lip Service, which is a Knight Foundation award winning live storytelling show in Miami. Andrea produced Lip Service for nine years and Nick was her co-producer for a few years. He's a super nice guy and a great writer and editor. Writing Class Radio is a podcast where you'll hear true personal stories and learn a little about how to write your own stories. Writing Class Radio is equal parts heart and art. By heart we mean the truth in a story. By art we mean the craft of writing. No matter what's going on in our lives, writing class is where we tell the truth. It's where we work out our shit, and figure out who we are. There's no place in the world like writing class and we want to bring you in.Writing Class Radio is co-hosted by Allison Langer (www.allisonlanger.com) and Andrea Askowitz (www.andreaaskowitz.com). Writing Class Radio is produced by Virginia Lora, Andrea Askowitz and Allison Langer. Ariel Henley is our media specialist.Theme music is by Emia. Additional music by Podington Bear and Ari Herstand.There's more writing class on our website (www.writingclassradio.com), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/writingclassradio/), Instagram and Twitter (@wrtgclassradio).If you love the lessons you get on each episode, you can get them ALL in one place--our three-part video series--for $50. Click Video Classes on our website.Writing Class Radio is now open to submissions from our listeners. Go to the submissions page on our website for guidelines. We pay!If you want to be a part of the movement that helps people better understand each other through storytelling, we are now on Patreon. For $10/month you can join Andrea's submissions conversation. We'll support each other as we try to get our stories published. For $25/month you can join Allison's weekly writers lunch, where you can write and share your work. Go to www.Patreon.com/writingclassradio or click here to support us.CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: Do you have a story you just can't get right? If you're brave enough, we'll edit it on the air. Send a Word doc (1,500 words max) to info@writingclassradio.com. Write HARD EDITS in the subject line.

On episode 082 of The Quarantine Tapes, Paul Holdengräber is joined by writer Roxane Gay. Roxane and Paul catch up on how she has been spending her time in quarantine baking, gardening, and reading. In this episode, they talk in-depth about Roxane’s recent article in The New York Times, “How We Save Ourselves,” on the subject of racism and police brutality. She elaborates on the critical role of imagination in our response to the current moment. Roxane offers a thoughtful perspective on the need to sustain the energy of ongoing movements against racism and police brutality. “I don’t really deal in hope,” she says near the end of the episode. This episode’s conversation takes a frank look at both the skepticism and the possibility of this moment.Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, Harper’s Bazaar, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and New York Times bestselling Hunger: A Memoir of My Body. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel and the editor of Best American Short Stories 2018. She is currently at work on film and television projects, a book of writing advice, an essay collection about television and culture, and a YA novel entitled The Year I Learned Everything.

Welcome to episode 8 of The Make Life Work Podcast — This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Madison Young. Madison is not only a mom of two and a Founding Member of VIDA, but also a feminist filmmaker, sexual revolutionary and brilliant storyteller whose most recent project, Submission Possible, just premiered on Revry TV.As a noted sex educator and artist, Madison's work has taken her around the world and has been featured in outlets from the Independent Film Channel to Bitch Magazine to the Best Sex Writing of 2013 anthology. Very early in her career, Madison founded the nonprofit arts organization Femina Potens Art Gallery, and has since served as a speaker and panelist on the topics of sexuality, feminist porn studies, and the politics of BDSM around the world including at Yale University, Hampshire College, Northwestern University, University of Toronto, University of Minnesota, and the University of California at Berkeley.Her storytelling work has spanned her life and touches every medium from live theatre to a memoir, to children’s books to a podcast and her recent project, Submission Possible, is a travel TV series that takes viewers on a sex positive trip around the globe -- she has been described as the "Anthony Bourdain of sexuality."I hope you enjoy this far ranging episode in which we discuss the new show and her ever-- evolving career, the Black Lives Matter movement and marginalized communities, as well as the importance of finding and maintaining the resources needed to take care of oneself. Enjoy!~MelanieMelanie Marconi is the founder & CEO of VIDA, a coworking community in Portland, Oregon designed to Make Life/Work for women and families.The Make Life Work Podcast is proudly supported by the University of Oregon’s Executive MBA program. This Portland-based program is designed for established professionals who want to earn their MBA while continuing to work full time, and they are currently accepting applications for the fall 2020 cohort. Learn more or register for an upcoming info session here.

Roxane Gay is an award-winning pop culture powerhouse whose writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others.  She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, the New York Times bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women and the New York Times bestselling Hunger. She is also the author of World of Wakanda for Marvel. She has several books forthcoming and is also at work on television and film projects. We are going deep in this episode on a broad range of topics including: Roxane’s early writing career and her first big break We unpack Roxane's creative process and what inspires her How she mastered so many different types of writing And of course we get into racism in America, media literacy, activism, burn out, self care, and much much more.  Enjoy! Today's episode is brought to you by CreativeLive. CreativeLive is the world's largest hub for online creative education in photo/video, art/design, music/audio, craft/maker and the ability to make a living in any of those disciplines. They are high quality, highly curated classes taught by the world’s top experts -- Pulitzer, Oscar, Grammy Award winners, New York Times best selling authors and the best entrepreneurs of our times.

Christopher Zeischegg is a writer, musician, and filmmaker who spent eight years working in the adult industry as performer, Danny Wylde. He is the author of four books, Come to my Brother, The Wolves that Live in Skin and Space, Body to Job, and The Magician, and has contributed to The Feminist Porn Book, Best Sex Writing, Coming Out Like a Porn Star, Split Lips, and a variety of digital publications, such as Somesuch and The Nervous Breakdown. Theme music by Joseph E. Martinez of Junius Follow us on social at: Twitter: @WakeIslandPod Instagram: @wakeislandpod

My amazing guest Jon Pressick, gadabout of sexual culture in and around Toronto, Canada shared his passion about Sex in Words. He conveyed that sex needs a voice. A harmonious, diverse voice that speaks to the masses that SEX needs to be released into the Universe for us ALL to enjoy freely without any negative connotations attached to it. Jon primarily is a sex writer, who provides a weekly sex news round-up on Kinkly.com called Sex Stories We Love. He also contributes frequent articles to Kinkly, Cherry Banana and others. His work has appeared in the books Best Sex Writing 2013, Secrets of the Sex Masters and Met Another Frog, and on the sites New York Magazine, Cara Sutra, Future of Sex, Bisexual.com and more. In 2015, Jon edited Best Sex Writing of the Year, V1 for Cleis Press. Beyond sex writing, Jon is a former host of the sex talk radio show Sex City, a publishing producer of books for sex community writers, zine creator, event producer and he even dabbled a bit in burlesque. Check him out at www.sexinwords.caSupport the show (https://oralicious.com/podcast/)

Law school didn’t work out for Rachel Kramer Bussel. After failing to complete her studies as NYU, she began writing erotic on the side, while working as a paralegal. Twenty years later, she continues to write and edit works in the genre, even after moving to a far more suburban life in New Jersey. In the intervening years, she’s edited dozens of collections, including the Best Sex Writing series. The author sat down with us on a recent trip to Manhattan to discuss a two-decades long career that began as a happy accident and how life away from the big city has impacted her work.

Christopher Zeischegg is the guest. He is the author of the memoir BODY TO JOB (Rare Bird Books). A writer, musician, and filmmaker, he spent eight years working in the adult industry as performer Danny Wylde. His other two books are Come to my Brother and The Wolves that Live in Skin and Space. He has also contributed to The Feminist Porn Book, Best Sex Writing, Coming Out Like a Porn Star, Split Lips, and a variety of digital publications, such as Somesuch and Nerve. His industrial metal band, Chiildren, released their second EP, The Circle Narrows, through Records Ad Nauseam in 2015. He became the face of Wyldefire Hot Sauce in 2016. Zeischegg lives in Los Angeles with his two cats, Victoria and Isis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Christopher Zeischegg is a writer, musician, and filmmaker who spent eight years working in the adult film industry as Danny Wylde. He's the author of Body to Job and two other novels, Come to my Brother and The Wolves that Live in Skin and Space, and has contributed to The Feminist Porn Book, Best Sex Writing, Coming Out Like a Porn Star, and a variety of digital publications, such as Somesuch and Nerve. He lives in Los Angeles with his two cats, Victoria and Isis. Douglas Light is the author of Where Night Stops. He also wrote Girls in Trouble, which won the 2010 Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction. He co-wrote The Trouble with Bliss, the screen adaptation of his debut novel East Fifth Bliss. His work has appeared in the O. Henry Prize Stories and Best American Nonrequired Reading anthologies.

Fiona Helmsley‘s Girls Gone Old (We Heard You Like Books, 2017) is wildly honest, intense in its personal and cultural inquiry, and often brilliantly hilarious. Helmsley uses her keen eye, rich life experience, and incredible humor to get readers to consider and swallow hard truths, while also considering the wider cultural implications. A friend’s questions regarding the subject matter of her work (often continued reflection upon the complexity of her youth), posed on the night before her 40th birthday, acted as a springboard for this collection, and the 2016 presidential election results of cemented the deal. Helmsley has crafted sophisticated essays about the confluence of the late 20th-century television, art, and sexual fantasy; addiction and illness; school shootings and serial killers; family; Andy Warhol; ‘Mork and Mindy’; and the sleazy (yet sexy) misogyny of Axl Rose…” She stares down what many would avert our eyes from, and probes, with curiosity and openness the many contours of shame, until it becomes a terrain of connection for her readers. Fiona Helmsley’s writing can be found online at websites like The Rumpus, Jezebel, The Weeklings, The Hairpin, PANK and in various anthologies like Ladyland and The Best Sex Writing of the Year. A multiple Pushcart nominee, her book of essays and stories, My Body Would be the Kindest of Strangers was released in 2015. Barbara Lawhorn is an Assistant Professor at Western Illinois University. She’s into literacy activism, walking Banjo (the best dog in the history of the universe), running, baking and eating bread, and finding the wild places, within and in the world. Her most recent work can be found at The Longleaf Pine, BLYNKT, Nebo: A Literary Magazine, and Naugatuck River Review. Her favorite creative endeavors are her kids, Annaleigh and Jack.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiona Helmsley‘s Girls Gone Old (We Heard You Like Books, 2017) is wildly honest, intense in its personal and cultural inquiry, and often brilliantly hilarious. Helmsley uses her keen eye, rich life experience, and incredible humor to get readers to consider and swallow hard truths, while also considering the wider cultural implications. A friend’s questions regarding the subject matter of her work (often continued reflection upon the complexity of her youth), posed on the night before her 40th birthday, acted as a springboard for this collection, and the 2016 presidential election results of cemented the deal. Helmsley has crafted sophisticated essays about the confluence of the late 20th-century television, art, and sexual fantasy; addiction and illness; school shootings and serial killers; family; Andy Warhol; ‘Mork and Mindy’; and the sleazy (yet sexy) misogyny of Axl Rose…” She stares down what many would avert our eyes from, and probes, with curiosity and openness the many contours of shame, until it becomes a terrain of connection for her readers. Fiona Helmsley’s writing can be found online at websites like The Rumpus, Jezebel, The Weeklings, The Hairpin, PANK and in various anthologies like Ladyland and The Best Sex Writing of the Year. A multiple Pushcart nominee, her book of essays and stories, My Body Would be the Kindest of Strangers was released in 2015. Barbara Lawhorn is an Assistant Professor at Western Illinois University. She’s into literacy activism, walking Banjo (the best dog in the history of the universe), running, baking and eating bread, and finding the wild places, within and in the world. Her most recent work can be found at The Longleaf Pine, BLYNKT, Nebo: A Literary Magazine, and Naugatuck River Review. Her favorite creative endeavors are her kids, Annaleigh and Jack.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiona Helmsley‘s Girls Gone Old (We Heard You Like Books, 2017) is wildly honest, intense in its personal and cultural inquiry, and often brilliantly hilarious. Helmsley uses her keen eye, rich life experience, and incredible humor to get readers to consider and swallow hard truths, while also considering the wider cultural implications. A friend’s questions regarding the subject matter of her work (often continued reflection upon the complexity of her youth), posed on the night before her 40th birthday, acted as a springboard for this collection, and the 2016 presidential election results of cemented the deal. Helmsley has crafted sophisticated essays about the confluence of the late 20th-century television, art, and sexual fantasy; addiction and illness; school shootings and serial killers; family; Andy Warhol; ‘Mork and Mindy’; and the sleazy (yet sexy) misogyny of Axl Rose…” She stares down what many would avert our eyes from, and probes, with curiosity and openness the many contours of shame, until it becomes a terrain of connection for her readers. Fiona Helmsley’s writing can be found online at websites like The Rumpus, Jezebel, The Weeklings, The Hairpin, PANK and in various anthologies like Ladyland and The Best Sex Writing of the Year. A multiple Pushcart nominee, her book of essays and stories, My Body Would be the Kindest of Strangers was released in 2015. Barbara Lawhorn is an Assistant Professor at Western Illinois University. She’s into literacy activism, walking Banjo (the best dog in the history of the universe), running, baking and eating bread, and finding the wild places, within and in the world. Her most recent work can be found at The Longleaf Pine, BLYNKT, Nebo: A Literary Magazine, and Naugatuck River Review. Her favorite creative endeavors are her kids, Annaleigh and Jack.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiona Helmsley‘s Girls Gone Old (We Heard You Like Books, 2017) is wildly honest, intense in its personal and cultural inquiry, and often brilliantly hilarious. Helmsley uses her keen eye, rich life experience, and incredible humor to get readers to consider and swallow hard truths, while also considering the wider cultural implications. A friend’s questions regarding the subject matter of her work (often continued reflection upon the complexity of her youth), posed on the night before her 40th birthday, acted as a springboard for this collection, and the 2016 presidential election results of cemented the deal. Helmsley has crafted sophisticated essays about the confluence of the late 20th-century television, art, and sexual fantasy; addiction and illness; school shootings and serial killers; family; Andy Warhol; ‘Mork and Mindy’; and the sleazy (yet sexy) misogyny of Axl Rose…” She stares down what many would avert our eyes from, and probes, with curiosity and openness the many contours of shame, until it becomes a terrain of connection for her readers. Fiona Helmsley’s writing can be found online at websites like The Rumpus, Jezebel, The Weeklings, The Hairpin, PANK and in various anthologies like Ladyland and The Best Sex Writing of the Year. A multiple Pushcart nominee, her book of essays and stories, My Body Would be the Kindest of Strangers was released in 2015. Barbara Lawhorn is an Assistant Professor at Western Illinois University. She’s into literacy activism, walking Banjo (the best dog in the history of the universe), running, baking and eating bread, and finding the wild places, within and in the world. Her most recent work can be found at The Longleaf Pine, BLYNKT, Nebo: A Literary Magazine, and Naugatuck River Review. Her favorite creative endeavors are her kids, Annaleigh and Jack.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fiona Helmsley‘s Girls Gone Old (We Heard You Like Books, 2017) is wildly honest, intense in its personal and cultural inquiry, and often brilliantly hilarious. Helmsley uses her keen eye, rich life experience, and incredible humor to get readers to consider and swallow hard truths, while also considering the wider cultural implications. A friend’s questions regarding the subject matter of her work (often continued reflection upon the complexity of her youth), posed on the night before her 40th birthday, acted as a springboard for this collection, and the 2016 presidential election results of cemented the deal. Helmsley has crafted sophisticated essays about the confluence of the late 20th-century television, art, and sexual fantasy; addiction and illness; school shootings and serial killers; family; Andy Warhol; ‘Mork and Mindy’; and the sleazy (yet sexy) misogyny of Axl Rose…” She stares down what many would avert our eyes from, and probes, with curiosity and openness the many contours of shame, until it becomes a terrain of connection for her readers. Fiona Helmsley’s writing can be found online at websites like The Rumpus, Jezebel, The Weeklings, The Hairpin, PANK and in various anthologies like Ladyland and The Best Sex Writing of the Year. A multiple Pushcart nominee, her book of essays and stories, My Body Would be the Kindest of Strangers was released in 2015. Barbara Lawhorn is an Assistant Professor at Western Illinois University. She’s into literacy activism, walking Banjo (the best dog in the history of the universe), running, baking and eating bread, and finding the wild places, within and in the world. Her most recent work can be found at The Longleaf Pine, BLYNKT, Nebo: A Literary Magazine, and Naugatuck River Review. Her favorite creative endeavors are her kids, Annaleigh and Jack.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest is Fiona Helmsley. Her most recent book of essays is entitled "Girls Gone Old." Her writing can be found online at websites like The Rumpus, Jezebel, The Weeklings, The Hairpin, PANK and in various anthologies like Ladyland and The Best Sex Writing of the Year. A multiple Pushcart nominee, her book of essays and stories, My Body Would be the Kindest of Strangers was released in 2015. She is an MFA candidate at L’École de Merde. Special Guest: Fiona Helmsley.

Junauda and Erin talk with the baddest feminist in the game, Roxane Gay, author of The Bad Feminist. Roxane Gay’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, West Branch, Virginia Quarterly Review, NOON, The New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, Time, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Rumpus, Salon, and many others. She is the co-editor of PANK and the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, Bad Feminist, and Hunger, forthcoming from Harper in 2016.  

Devi speaks with returning guest Jon Pressick about the best sex writing of 2014. Find out: What is sex writing?Is this erotica (no!)What is the state of sex in current media?What could be better done with sex in media?What are the most pressing sex-related topics we should be having?Listen live and call in with questions!About Jon Pressick ~Jon is the editor of Best Sex Writing of the Year, volume 1, co-host and producer of the weekly sex radio show Sex City and all-around sex blogger at SexInWords.ca. He is also a freelance sex writer and frequent contributor to Kinkly.comConnect with Jon at:Name Jon PressickEmail Address: jon@sexinwords.caWebsite Address: www.bestsexwritingoftheyear.com & www.sexinwords.caTwitter: @sexinwords & @bestsexwritersFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/sexinwordsblog?fref=ts and https://www.facebook.com/bestsexwritingoftheyear?fref=tsWhere people can purchase your product: Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sex-Writing-Year-Challenging/dp/1627780866Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/best-sex-writing-of-the-year-jon-pressick/1121018793?ean=9781627780865iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/best-sex-writing-of-the-year/id924230187?mt=11Indigo: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/best-sex-writing-of-the/9781627780865-item.html?ikwid=best+sex+writing+of+the+year&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0

Jon Pressick is the sexual community's gadabout. Some days he's the new editor of the Best Sex Writing series. Some days he's hard at work writing about sex news, sex bloggers and erotica on Sex in Words. Some days he's one of the hosts and the producer of Sex City. Some days he's a proud parent and partner. What is he doing all of the days? Thinking about sex!http://www.sex-in-words.blogspot.ca

An Untamed State (Grove Press) Roxane Gay is a powerful new literary voice whose short stories and essays have already earned her an enthusiastic audience. In An Untamed State, she delivers an assured debut about a woman kidnapped for ransom, her captivity as her father refuses to pay and her husband fights for her release over thirteen days, and her struggle to come to terms with the ordeal in its aftermath. Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti's richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her father's Port au Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents. An Untamed State is a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and of the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce. It is the story of a willful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places. An Untamed State establishes Roxane Gay as a writer of prodigious, arresting talent.  Roxane Gay's writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, Oxford American,American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, NOON, The New York Times Book Review, The Rumpus, Salon, and many others. Her first book, Ayiti, was a collection of poetry and short stories. She is the coeditor of PANK. She teaches writing at Eastern Illinois University.