Reckon True Stories · Ursa Story Company

Roxane Gay on Criticism, Social Media, and Being Heard

July 16, 2024·51 min·4 clips

Roxane Gay reveals she received $100,000 for 'Hunger' while a comparable white writer got $2 million for her second book.

Roxane Gay wants cheerleading, not criticism. The episode opens with the funny closeness of a wife who reads everything and gives feedback a little more honestly than the writer asked for. The room gets comfortable fast. Deesha Philia and Kiesa Lehman talk about Reckon True Stories as a place for nonfiction, essays, journalism, memoirs, and writing that keeps people connected. Gratitude keeps coming up. A long stretch follows Roxane's Goodreads review and how it helped a book travel farther, even turning into a blurb for a UK publisher. That mattered. The thanks does not feel like publishing manners. It feels like proof that writers can help keep each other afloat. Social media keeps barging in too. Threads, Blue Sky, Goodreads, and Twitter are less the point than the weird public weather writers have to live in now. Criticism gets prickly. The guest is asked about the pressure to post only kind reviews because authors have worked hard. She does not file that away neatly. The conversation also gets into whether authors should review other authors outside major review venues, now that everyone can see everyone else online. It stays loose, with gratitude, promotion, criticism, and literary community all tangled together. Near the end, a bit about clues and online searching turns into teasing, Virgo-level investigation mode before the formal thanks. Roxane plays right along. The appeal is that the show can be serious about books and still laugh at itself.

As heard by us

Roxane Gay and the Reckon True Stories hosts turn book criticism and social media manners into a warm, sharp conversation about honesty, care, and being heard.

Roxane Gay joins the Reckon True Stories hosts for a loose, candid conversation about criticism, generosity, and the strange etiquette of literary life online.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For a candid writer-to-writer conversation about criticism, book reviews, and how writers show up for each other online.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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