Roxane Gay

Not Like One of the Family: Novels of Dignity and Domestic Labor

Not Like One of the Family: Novels of Dignity and Domestic Labor

The myth of Rosie the Riveter is as well-known as her bandana-clad hair and stoic flexing. As a way to supplement male industrial labor resources depleted by World War II, Rosie represented the potential for women economically left behind since the Great Depression to gain financial power over their lives.

One light among many unlit bulbs

Reconstruction: How the Lyric Essay Rendered One Body After Trauma

1. I didn’t start writing lyric essays until I found out I had cancer. The melanoma buried in my right cheek was at first missed, and then misdiagnosed in its severity. Clark’s stage IV, they told me. Likely in my lymph nodes, but they wouldn’t know until my third surgery, the excision and biopsy. 2….