Roxane Gay Is Not Sorry

Getting to know one of America's most important and accessible cultural commentators — a woman who can call out rape culture and sing the praises of Law & Order: SVU in a single op-ed

- Jessica P. Ogilvie

Sitting on an Eames-style bar stool next to a white marble kitchen island in her Los Angeles home, Roxane Gay swipes through a music app, searching for something to set the mood and singing the praises of her in-house sound system.

“Oh my God, it’s the world’s best speakers,” she says. Settling on Beyoncé’s Lemonade, she hits on “Hold Up” and the song comes washing in from all sides. Gay is an avowed fan; she all but live-tweeted the Carters’ On the Run II concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California last September.

Dressed in a slate-blue shirt and jeans, Gay is addressing a makeup artist, PLAYBOY’s photography team and me. She’s relaxed and chatty, her honey-smooth voice edged with a wry wit.

It’s an outgoing side of the 44-year-old author and columnist — one that is not always on display. When we first meet, a few days before, Gay is decidedly more reserved. Opening the door with a warm hello, she pads quietly past two carefully curated bookcases, offering me water and a seat on the couch. She joins me, sitting beneath the slanted living room roof and across from a sliding glass door that looks out onto a sun-drenched patio, and we chat about John Branch’s book The Last Cowboys, a copy of which is on the table.