ROXANE GAY: AN INTERVIEW by Paul Cunningham

How have online literary journals affected the way you read poetry?

They haven’t, really. I don’t really read much poetry but when I do read poetry online, I cannot say I read it any differently than when I read poetry in print, save that I probably read it more carefully in that the kind of poetry I tend to enjoy tends to be published online more than in print. 

What shocks you about writers?

Everything. Writers are curious, curious, endlessly fascinating people in terms of the worlds they can create through their writing, in terms of their insecurities and arrogance and passion and ennui.

What should matter most to a writer?

Writing.

What does or will defeat the writer?

Weakness, worrying about what other writers are doing, too much self-doubt and insecurity, trying to be something you’re not.

What five books do you recommend most often?                   

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Brutal Language of Love by Alicia Erian
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon
Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler
The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Is there a particular type of writing you would like to see more of in literary journals?

Writing with heart, real bloody, beating heart.





Roxane Gay lives in the Midwest.