Bestselling author, professor, and New York Times columnist Roxane Gay has connected to readers around the world with her unyielding truth-telling and highly personal feminism. In her MasterClass, she teaches you how to own your identity, hone your voice, write about trauma with care and courage, and navigate the publishing industry. Learn how to document and narrate the world as you see it—and then demand change.

Syllabus

Meet Your Instructor

Roxane Gay is a professor, New York Times columnist, and the bestselling author of Bad Feminist. She opens with some of her history and what she’ll be teaching you in her class.

Writing as a Black Feminist

Roxane shares her perspective as a Black feminist, explaning how her identity has informed her work and desire to make change. She also speaks about the influence of Audre Lorde, the celebrated writer and activist, on her thinking and writing.

Challenging Ideas and Changing Minds

Roxane’s work has challenged a wide variety of audiences to see things differently. In this lesson, she reveals her approach by walking you through some of her most famous pieces that speak truth to power.

Getting Started as a Writer

Getting started is one of the most challenging parts of writing. Roxane gives you the right questions to ask yourself so you can begin your work.

Roxane’s Writing Process

Roxane breaks down her writing process and gives you guidance on how to develop your own process. She also covers writer’s block and flexibility.

Roxane’s Writing Toolbox

Roxane offers bite-sized tricks that will help make your writing more persuasive and engaging.

Research

Can research be sexy? Maybe! Roxane teaches you how vital research is to the writing process and how you can best approach research in your writing.

Self-Editing: Re-Visioning Your Work

Get a deep dive into the processes of revising, editing, and proofreading. Roxane discusses how to edit yourself, what you should look for in feedback from others, and how you know when a piece is finished.

Consuming and Criticizing Culture

Roxane frames much of her feminism and social commentary through the lens of culture. She explores the practical aspects of approaching cultural criticism and takes a look at some renowned essays from her book Bad Feminist.

Writing About Trauma

Learn how to write about trauma with care and courage. Roxane offers excerpts from her book Hunger and the short story “La Negra Blanca” from Difficult Women as examples.

Writer’s Workshop: Feedback

In this writing workshop, Roxane speaks to Rose, a writer working to explore a pervasive societal issue in essay form.

Writer’s Workshop: Common Ground

In this writing workshop, Roxane works with Chanel, a writer working on an essay connecting two seemingly unrelated life experiences to speak to a deeper cultural issue.

Writer’s Workshop: Finding Your Voice

In this writing workshop, Roxane gives feedback to Andi, a writer looking to get a piece of short fiction to the next stage of revision after a long period of being on the shelf.

Engaging With Your Readers

Roxane has been called “the best thing to happen to Twitter.” She discusses the why and how of engaging with an audience through social media.

Having a Day Job

Roxane talks about how having a day job can take the pressure off the art-making and create the space necessary to make great work.

The Business of Writing

Find out how to get your work into the world, step by step.

Finding an Agent

Finding literary representation can be one of the most critical and daunting parts of a writing career. Roxane emphasizes the importance of protecting your intellectual property and how an agent can help.

Getting Published

Learn the specifics of getting a book published and why becoming familiar with the business side of things will put you in a position to get the most out of publishing your work.