Gay attracts a specific kind of devotion few writers receive: not only the dispassionate admiration that comes from her mastery of craft and story, but also the intimate adoration that people also often feel for a crush or the band they listen to during a break up. Keep it up ,” Gay tweeted over the weekend. “White man just walked by me, threw his fist in the air, and shouted Roxane, keep hope alive.
The news still rippled through the convention center in early February. Two weeks before, on January 25, Gay pulled her forthcoming book, How to Be Heard, from Simon & Schuster after learning they had offered famous-internet-bigot Milo Yiannopoulos a book deal. People stop in their tracks and stare, people shout out exhortations of her greatness, drinks appear unbidden for her at the crowded hotel bar, bras are offered for signing. In the world of writers-and specifically the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference in DC-Roxane Gay is a rock star.
