Rutgers University’s Roxane Gay Receives Lifetime Achievement Award From the National Book Foundation

Roxane Gay, the Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey, is the 2025 recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.

An author, editor, publisher, educator, and cultural critic, Dr. Gay has published 16 books and dozens of articles, short stories, and essays. Some of her most well-known books include her first essay collection Bad Feminist (Harper, 2014), her memoir Hunger (Harper, 2017), and Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People’s Business (Harper, 2023).

Dr. Gay also writes her own newsletter, The Audacity; contributes to the New York Times; and hosts her own podcast, The Roxanne Gay Agenda. Currently, she is working on film and television projects, a book of writing advice, an essay collection about television and culture, and a young adult novel.

In addition to her own work, Dr. Gay is dedicated to empowering other writers. She founded Roxane Gay books, an imprint of Grove Atlantic dedicated to publishing stories by writers from underrepresented backgrounds. She also serves as a mentor for Grove Atlantic’s annual editorial fellowship.

A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Dr. Gay attended Yale University but earned her bachelor’s degree at Vermont College of Norwich University. She received a master’s degree with an emphasis in creative writing from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Professor Hay earned her Ph.D. in rhetoric and technical communication from Michigan Technological University. Before joining the Rutgers faculty, she taught at Eastern Illinois University, Purdue University, and Yale University.