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“If you have to chart your own map to success, however you define it, share that map with others on the same path,” Gay said. She concluded her speech by reminding students to ask for help when they needed it. “They want you to believe that only responsible choices are available to you because those are the choices they made for themselves.” “Naysayers want you to tame your potential until it can satisfy their lack of imagination for what is possible for you,” Gay said. Gay also urged students not to let their dreams be limited by other’s expectations. “I was going to show each and every editor who rejected my work that I could write well, that I was good enough and eventually I was.” “Sometimes it was pure spite pushing me forward making me write every day and try to improve my craft,” Gay said. Instead, Gay said she used rejection as motivation, determined to prove herself. Her work has been nominated for the 46th Annual NAACP Image Awards in Outstanding Literary Work in nonfiction and fiction. She is the author of Ayiti, Bad Feminist, and An Untamed State. Despite receiving countless rejections, she never doubted her abilities as a writer. A dynamic provocateur and cultural critic, Roxane Gay was the judge for the Kore Press Annual Short Fiction Award, 2015. Gay also told students not to let rejection or influence from others prevent them from reaching high. “I think I just wanted to be free,” Gay said. She focused on stories themselves, drowning out other people’s expectations, which allowed her to write on her own terms.
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Her works include a best-selling collections of essays (Bad Feminist), a blockbuster memoir (), the Black Panther. Gay recounts her own early dreams of becoming a writer and how she purposely refused to set far-reaching goals. Roxane Gay is one of the most prolific and versatile writers of our generation. Newsletter Signupīut this commencement weekend, her speech focused instead on pursuing big dreams. Gay previously expressed her interest in speaking at Cornell’s convocation in 2019 when comedian Hasan Minhaj stepped down from the role - saying at the time that her speech would focus on the importance of listening to others. I love how Wharton finely details the lives of the New York wealthy. She also launched her own publishing imprint, Roxane Gay Books with the publisher Grove Atlantic. 1 go-to book is ‘The Age of Innocence,’ by Edith Wharton, Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist and Hunger, told The New York Times in her By the Book column. Gay is also a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times as well as a visiting professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Yale University. Gay has penned bestselling books Bad Feminist, an essay collecting covering the intersections of feminism with race, politics and culture, and Hunger, a memoir about food and body image. “I was able to honor this commitment to my craft because writing was and is my true north,” Gay said.