Be Bigger, Fight Harr: Roxane Gay On A Lifetime Of 'Hunger' : NPR

Contents:

• ONE OF ROXANE GAY’S GO-TO RECIP
• COOKG CLASS | ROXANE GAY
• IN HUNGER, ROXANE GAY SAYS WHAT NO ONE ELSE WILL ABOUT BEG FAT AMERI
• BE BIGGER, FIGHT HARR: ROXANE GAY ON A LIFETIME OF 'HUNGER'
• ROXANE GAY
• ‘GASLIGHT’ SPARKS BATE AFTER ROXANE GAY SLAMS NILE KIDMAN’S LUCY
• ‘I’LL ALWAYS BE A BAD FEMIST!’: ROXANE GAY ON LOVE, SUCCS – AND UPSETTG PIERS MAN
• ROXANE GAY: TOP 10 MT-KNOW FACTS ABOUT NON-FICTN AUTHOR
• 'I DIDN’T THK MARRIAGE WAS IN THE CARDS FOR ME': AUTHOR ROXANE GAY CELEBRAT FIRST ANNIVERSARY AFTER ELOPG DURG PANMIC

ONE OF ROXANE GAY’S GO-TO RECIP

ViotranscripttranscriptCookg Class | Roxane GayThis chicken Milane is always a h wh Gay’s wife.

“Hi, I’m Roxane Gay, and wele to my kchen Los Angel.

”This chicken Milane is always a h wh Gay’s J. A., ” Roxane Gay recently told T, by which she meant she’s gotten to juic and cleans and “gog to the farmers’ market and gettg super-h produce.

COOKG CLASS | ROXANE GAY

She do, however, still make to New York every two months or so, travelg wh her wife, Debbie Millman, who is a signer, brandg nsultant, tor, wrer and podster (the pair met when Gay was a gut on Millman’s podst, “Dign Matters, ” and eloped last year), and their new puppy, Maxim Toretto me to okg on the later si. “I don’t thk food was so central to our world, ” says Gay, though she pecially enjoyed her mom’s Haian maroni and chee, which has a béchamel base, as well as grt, a dish of cubed pork shoulr that’s been marated cs and chil.

I realized that if I wanted to eat anythg more than French i and iceberg lettuce, I was gog to have to learn to ok, ” says Gay. She jt ma okg seem like such a joyful experience, ” says Gay.

IN HUNGER, ROXANE GAY SAYS WHAT NO ONE ELSE WILL ABOUT BEG FAT AMERI

Wrg her 2017 book, “Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, ” which explor her relatnship to eatg and trma, proved to be another opportuny for Gay to reorient how she thought about food. ”As a ok, Gay has plenty of charm herself.

” And, like so many others, Gay spent much of last year’s lockdown tryg out still more new recip.

BE BIGGER, FIGHT HARR: ROXANE GAY ON A LIFETIME OF 'HUNGER'

And then there were Gay’s standbys, among them Melissa Clark’s chicken Milane, to which she adds extra h basil, as well as dried basil and oregano to taste. The dish is Millman’s favore, and was the first meal Gay ever oked for her. RossRoxane Gay’s Take on Melissa Clark’s Chicken Milane Wh Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Salad(Apart om Gay’s addns, which are alicized, the below is a reproductn of the origal recipe, which n also be found at New York Tim Cookg.

ROXANE GAY

)Ingredients:1 ½ pounds chicken cutlets, pound ¼-ch thickKosher salt and hly ground black pepper, as need⅔ cup pl ¼ cup extra-virg olive oil⅔ cup basil leav (Gay a ltle more)½ teaspoon of dried basil½ teaspoon of dried oregano1 fat garlic clove, fely grated or mced1 pound cherry or grape tomato, halved8 ounc h mozzarella, cut to ½-ch piec½ cup all-purpose flour2 large eggs, beaten1 ¼ cups panko bread cmbs¼ cup grated Parman2 tablpoons unsalted butterLemon wedg, for servg1.

‘GASLIGHT’ SPARKS BATE AFTER ROXANE GAY SLAMS NILE KIDMAN’S LUCY

Roxane Gay has a knack for turng unfortable tths to necsary readg.

‘I’LL ALWAYS BE A BAD FEMIST!’: ROXANE GAY ON LOVE, SUCCS – AND UPSETTG PIERS MAN

Gay unflchgly guis rears through an exploratn of pa, sire, and the reali of her life as an overweight woman, followg a taclysmic early trma back to the root, and rerdg the reverberatns that event has had on the rt of her life. Gang-raped at 12 by a band of boys led by her first csh, unwillg to tell her fay what happened to her (and, her belief, shatter their perceptn of her as a “good girl”), Gay ed food as a pg mechanism as she sought the protectn of a body she believed to be both removed om male sire and strong enough to fight back, a wish that ultimately proved stctive.

A prolific sayist and cultural cric, Gay has tackled subjects both lighthearted and grave before. Unpackg the allure of Beyoncé as nimbly as she creat fantasy-tged short stori, poems, and the adventur of ele female warrrs Marvel’s short-lived ic book seri, Black Panther: World of Wakanda, Gay tends to foc her fictn on women whose liv have been dispted or margalized. She brgs that same ftns to her own story: mercifully ee of the unsoliced health advice or upliftg self-acceptance narrative that has bee synonymo wh many books centered on fat, Gay prents stead a briskly ank pictn of her size and the world’s rponse to .

ROXANE GAY: TOP 10 MT-KNOW FACTS ABOUT NON-FICTN AUTHOR

Juxtaposg Gay’s relatnship wh her “unly body” wh the impact of the Amerin obssn wh weight (wh ample cultural evince, om the celebri who shill for diet pani to the populary of shows like The Biggt Loser or My 600-lb Life), Gay unravels a subject that is omniprent yet rarely addrsed—the realy of livg a body that has been emed by society to be duelg ias about fatns currently servg as a rallyg cry for body posive activists, onle ncern trolls, and the medil health muny, Gay is very nsired the discsns she has around size, and always reful to nail home that above all, fat people serve digny—not that her efforts always make a difference. The week of Hunger’s publitn, an Atralian podst host named Mia Freedman helped prove Gay’s pot when she released an terview that they’d rerd together wh a scriptn that tailed the thor’s alleged ncerns (“Will she f to the office lift?

”), which Gay lled out on Twter as “cel and huiatg. “I fd prs around this book generally to be very challengg, bee people jt don’t know how to talk about fat, ” Gay said, “and everyone’s tiptoeg, or askg awkward qutns.

'I DIDN’T THK MARRIAGE WAS IN THE CARDS FOR ME': AUTHOR ROXANE GAY CELEBRAT FIRST ANNIVERSARY AFTER ELOPG DURG PANMIC

“No, ’s not everyone’s story, but ’s my story, ” Gay said. Roxane Gay is a novelist and short story wrer. Roxane Gay has fally wrten the book that she "wanted to wre the least.