Roxane Gay, A Better Chance Alumna '92

Roxane's Journey since Learning of A Better Chance

Dr. Roxane Gay initially learned about A Better Chance from a guidance counselor at her junior high school. She went on to attend A Better Chance Member School Phillips Exeter Academy as a Scholar, graduating in 1992.  After that, she studied as an undergraduate at Yale University before earning her BA from Vermont College of Norwich University. She then went on to pursue a Master of Arts from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, and finally her PhD from Michigan Technical University.

"I would say that A Better Chance opens up an entire world of possibility," says Roxane, on the subject of her experience.

What She's Up to Now

Roxane is changing the way we think about ourselves and others, especially around some of the most controversial social subjects of our time. She is well known as one of Twitter's leading lights, with well over half a million followers on that platform, and as an author whose works span fiction and nonfiction, from short story to novel to memoir to comic book.  She also edited Best American Short Stories 2018, and, as Author of World of Wakanda, was the first black woman to lead a Marvel comic. 

Her other books include:

• Ayiti
• Bad Feminist
• An Untamed State
• Hunger
• Not That Bad

Roxane is currently an Associate Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University, and previously taught at Purdue and Eastern Illinois University. She serves on A Better Chance's Board and - as readers of Bad Feminist will know - plays competitive Scrabble.

Learn More

You can follow Roxane on Twitter @rgay, on Instagram @roxanegay74, and on her website, www.roxanegay.com.