Roxane Gay and Myriam Gurba on Refusing to Be Nice

These two former guests are partnered for their clear-eyed take on the world and their unwillingness to back down. Roxane Gay and Myriam Gurba are as loved as they are rebuked for their honesty and their critical takes‚ and for writing things that others might not dare. This week we’re celebrating bravery on the page, and heroines like Roxane and Myriam who say the things that need to be said. And we explore the kind of writing they do and why there’s not really room for niceness when you’re calling out, drawing attention to, or pushing back. An inspiring episode for writers looking to harness and use their voices to speak truth to power and effect change.

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, and more. 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 also writes the Substack newsletter, The Audacity.

Myriam Gurba is the author of four books: Dahlia Season, Painting Their Portraits in Winter; Mean, and Creep. Myriam’s writing has been widely anthologized and has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Believer, Paris Review, and elsewhere.

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